Bookings ahead for the accommodation industry look very promising, as the world appears to have gotten used to the credit crunch, and is rewarding itself with holidays as a result of what it has endured this year.
February is always a heavily booked month, and Whale Cottage Camps Bay is already 75 % booked ahead, a very different picture to that experienced for November, when only half the accommodation was booked prior to the start of the month and the rest was booked last minute during the month.
It would appear that the remainder of the summer season will be a booming one. Bookings from the UK market are as strong as in seasons before, and the 2 % cut in the UK VAT rate, and interest rate cuts, coupled with the favourable exchange rate, are stimulating confidence, and therefore tourism bookings. The UK and Europe are also experiencing a very cold and early winter.
The petrol price decrease, and the anticipated cut in the interest rate this week, is encouraging South Africans to travel locally this festive season. With the cost of a tank of petrol under R 400, bookings for the Garden Route and country towns and villages outside of Cape Town have seen a strong and very welcome increase.
