Often communities question the wisdom and more importantly the economic value of hosting major sporting events. Well, the proof of the pudding is said to be in the eating … or in this case the measuring. RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) is the Hotel Industry’s Key Performance Indicator in addition to being recognised as barometer of the health for the Tourism Industry as a whole.

In the month of June across South Africa RevPAR was up 6% due to the influx of visitors as a direct result of the FIFA Confederations Cup and the Lions Rugby Tour. Alone this result can easily be considered a bold one but consider that this 6% growth occurred at a time when Year To Date global RevPAR is 7.2% down and the number becomes genuinely astonishing !

The South African Tourism Industry, as with it’s many competitors around the globe, continues to suffer from a combination of the global economic downturn and a strong local currency so these two sporting events supplied a welcome revenue boost in addition to providing the country the opportunity for a “dry run” for the 2010 FIFA World Cup during which it is estimated South Africa will host approximately 450,000 visitors making 2010 a substantial one for South African Tourism, indeed by extension for the entire South African community.

Naturally major cities such as Cape Town and Johannesburg benefited the most from the recent sporting events, with their RevPAR leaping 14.2% and 10.6% respectively, breaking long months of a steady decline in hotel occupancies, but many visitors clearly stayed on to enjoy the many other elements offered by South African Tourism.

So, at the end of the day, Sporting Tours mean significant cash flowing into your economy from outside your borders, they mean jobs in local communities and a damn fine day out for those lucky enough to have acquired an event ticket. So, yes, that pudding tastes just fine I think.

*nb* RevPAR calculation is Total Room Revenue achieved divided by Total Number of Hotel Rooms that could have been sold.

R_P