In the past two days newspapers have been quoting from a Cape Town Routes Unlimited media release about the status of the festive season, creating a confusing picture as to whether the season has been a good or bad one.

What is surprising is that the festive season is not yet over, and already Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) is trying to draw comparisons between this season and that of last year, before it has come to an end, with many visitors only returning to start work on Monday 12 January.

The Cape Times report quotes CTRU as stating:”…they (Tourism Managers) had experienced a festive season that was “similar or better” than those in previous years”    However, the article does not state which Managers CTRU refers to.   Further reference is made to tourism having improved on the West Coast, the Winelands, and Central Karoo, with a decline in the Garden Route, Klein Karroo and Robertson and Montagu, two towns which were affected by floods in November.   The basis of the trend information is not specified.   Surprisingly, no mention is made of Cape Town’s festive season success, which has been exceptional and continues until the end of this week.

The Cape Times artcle also states that the Airports Company serviced more passengers in December 2008 compared to a year ago.   This trend was also experienced by the V & A Waterfront, and in Kirstenbosch, while the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company had its worst performance in 10 years in December, due to the weather.

Business Report quotes FEDHASA CEO Brett Dungan as saying that “tourists were spending less, but Cape Town and Durban were still busy”.  One wonders where he sourced his information, and how it is quantified, as the FEDHASA Cape office is still closed, and the FEDHASA offices in KwaZulu-Natal having stated that the area had experienced a very poor season a week ago, according to media reports.

The future looks good, with February predicted to be an excellent tourism month.   Whale Cottage Camps Bay, for example, already has an occupancy of 90 % for February, more than three weeks before the start of the month.  This used to be the case in November too, but the booking pattern was extremely last minute in November 2008, yet resulted in the same occupancy rate as in the year before.

Rented cars were hard to find over the festive season.  One of the most popular companies, Value Car Hire, had no stock over the New Year, with availability from this week onwards for the first time.

The decrease in the price of petrol yesterday, by more than R 1,30 a litre, is an excellent note on which to start 2009, which many say will be a challenging one, due to the global credit crunch.