Data analytics firm in the hotel industry, TREVPAR, says the hospitality industry has lost hundreds of millions of rands in revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic over the last few months. This as the number of coronavirus cases continues to peak in the country.
South Africa is currently among the top five countries with the most coronavirus cases worldwide, having now recorded over 350 000 cases.
Founder of TREVPAR, Derek Martin, says the sector has seen a huge drop in revenue since the beginning of the year.
“As being a data company, we’ve been looking at big data for the last five years into SA. A lot of people have mentioned that January and February were the highest room revenues into SA in the last five years. Looking at just those numbers in the example, SA over across a thousand hotels in February, a R2.1 billion revenue in room turnover. That’s got nothing to do with conferencing, food, drinks, events, just room revenue. R2.1 billion in one month. When I look back and I look into June and July we are looking at less than R250 million.”
In the video below, is a discussion on COVID-19’s impact on EC tourism:
The South African hunting industry is also in tatters as COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc. Hunters have told SABC News that the closed borders and travel restrictions have led to job cuts in the sector. There are more than 12 000 game farms in the country and may have to shut down.
