Mossel Bay rides the recession’s storm
13. Jan, 2009
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Garden Route – Most of Mossel Bay’s accommodation businesses and attractions performed well over the 2008-9 summer holidays – despite grim forecasts for the world’s tourism economy.
“For some reason the season seemed to start early for us this year, although almost all our members said that guests were staying for shorter periods than usual,” said Mossel Bay Tourism’s Marcia Holm.
“The ATKV Hartenbos (the country’s biggest self-catering resort) was full by the 5th of December, and it seems that there were no beds available anywhere in town between Christmas and New Year.
“Generally, self catering places did well, but some guest houses in the outlying areas returned lower occupancies.
“The attractions all seemed to enjoy a good season and the Dias Museum Complex – which is the end-point of the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe’s Museum-to-Museum Tour – reported increased foot-flow over the whole of 2008, which they ascribe directly to the presence of the train.
“Their summer season numbers are also up on last year, although the final figures are not yet available.”
Anthony Doherty of the Garden Route Game Lodge – which offers both accommodation and attractions – said that, “December’s numbers were slightly up on December last year, but most trade happened over a shorter period around Christmas.
“At the same time though, input costs have gone up considerably – so margins are not as good as last year.”
The Point Hotel’s Louis Harris said that, “Our figures for December showed a slight increase in occupancy and turnover.
“Our results were above what we were expecting before the season began and we are therefore satisfied with what we did. However, we’re concerned with what this coming year will hold for us because international tour operators and their South African agents are putting pressure on our rates as a result of the recession.
“We have learnt from past experience that the European markets are very sensitive when a recession threatens the economy and we have therefore been very cautious in our approach – especially with regard to rates increases,” he said.
Ms. Holm said that Mossel Bay Tourism’s new web site at www.visitmosselbay.co.za had shown increased traffic, with 4,048 visits and 15,648 page views between 8 December 2008 and 8 December 2009.
“On average, visitors spent 4 minutes and 26 seconds on the site and viewed at least 3.5 pages,” she said. “Our bounce rate – which measures the number of visitors who come onto the site and leave without going to a second page – was about 37%.
“These are very satisfactory dwell times, and show that the site is providing the answers that people are seeking.
“Internationally, more and more people are doing their travel research and bookings on line, and we will continue to concentrate on the site as the most cost-effective tool in our marketing arsenal.”
Mossel Bay Tourism’s chairman, Neels Zietsman, said, “Although the town’s economy made it through this season relatively unscathed, we have to be aware that we might still be facing tough times ahead.
“Now is the time to stand together and to increase – rather than decrease – our marketing efforts, and this is exactly what we plan to do in the coming months.
“Particularly, we’ll continue to throw the spotlight on Mossel Bay’s many unique attractions – because, as we saw from the increase in visitor numbers to the Dias Museum during 2008, it’s the attractions that bring people here,” he said.
My name is Muzi Mohale a full-time travel blogger, your host at Travelwires.com responsible for all editorial on this blog. I blog about the travel and tourism industry in Africa. Apart from blogging about tourism, I also run 
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