{"id":841,"date":"2008-12-29T10:12:05","date_gmt":"2008-12-29T08:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=841"},"modified":"2008-12-29T10:14:14","modified_gmt":"2008-12-29T08:14:14","slug":"durban-under-the-tourism-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/durban-under-the-tourism-weather\/","title":{"rendered":"Durban under the tourism weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hotels in Durban are experiencing a poor festive season, with bookings down by 10 – 15 %, despite special offers, reports the Sunday Tribune<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The newspaper quotes Gerhard Patzer, the local Chairman of FEDHASA and GM of the Hilton Hotel in Durban, as follows: “For the hotel trade, it’s definitely been the worst Christmas in five years.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s clear that people are cagey about holiday spending – obviously trying to save money and paying off cars and debts, instead of going on holidays.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Everyone is trying to negotiate better deals, also booking for much shorter periods – two or three days, instead of a whole week” said Alan Vels, the past FEDHASA chairman.<\/p>\n

The article also quotes Mike Sutcliffe, the manager of the Durban municipality, as saying:”…compared with Cape Town, Durban’s hotel trade had done “pretty well” under the circumstances”.\u00a0\u00a0 This would seem to imply that Sutcliffe is saying that Cape Town is not doing well this festive season, which is far removed from reality, as Cape Town is buzzing.<\/p>\n

Just\u00a0two weeks ago the same newspaper\u00a0proclaimed that\u00a0the “year-end stampede to Durban and KwaZulu-Natal coast is well underway and it could be a record season”!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The article speculated that 2,5 million visitors could be expected in the region, compared to the usual 2 million.\u00a0\u00a0 It also stated that beachfront hotels were 90 % booked at that time already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hotels in Durban are experiencing a poor festive season, with bookings down by 10 – 15 %, despite special offers, reports the Sunday Tribune. The newspaper quotes Gerhard Patzer, the local Chairman of FEDHASA and GM of the Hilton Hotel in Durban, as follows: “For the hotel trade, it’s definitely been the worst Christmas in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,22],"tags":[32366,332,682,24,680,681,5],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t