Wed 6 Mar 2013
Petrol price increase will impact on domestic tourism!
Posted by Chris von Ulmenstein under Cape Town, Chris von Ulmenstein, Restaurant news, Tourism news, Whale Cottage Portfolio
The petrol price increase by 81 cents a litre today will have a severe impact on domestic tourism in the Western Cape, Capetonians thinking twice about leaving the city to spend a weekend or even a day in the Winelands, Hermanus, or up the West Coast. The new petrol price of R12,73 per litre is the highest ever.
The new petrol price will add between R50 and R60 to the cost of a tank of petrol, which can now touch on R700 per tank of petrol! Not only will it affect Tourism badly, but the cost of food and beverages, which are input costs to the hospitality industry, will increase, necessitating restaurants, hotels, and guest houses to increase their prices. Due to competitive pressure, however, this will have to be yet another increase the industry will have to absorb, to remain price competitive, especially as the winter season, with its extreme Cape Seasonality, starts in a short four weeks!
It is disappointing that no representative of Cape Town Tourism, Wesgro, SA Tourism, or the City of Cape Town’s Tourism, Events, and Marketing department have reacted to the petrol price increase, and the negative impact it will have on tourism!
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
March 6th, 2013 at 8:54 am
You are so right Chris - and what about air fares.
We have just traveled to Cape Town to fetch some English tourists and this is probably our last road trip unless we win the lottery. What a great time we had! Lets hold tight and hope for a good year in Tourism.
March 6th, 2013 at 10:31 am
but apparently the petrol price in Namibia is a fraction of the price in SA much like the price of electricity is a fraction in Zim.
how can this be and why does it continue?
March 6th, 2013 at 11:27 am
Good question Ryan.
Definetly the ‘wealth tax’ built into the petrol price is part of the problem!
Chris
March 6th, 2013 at 4:35 pm
@Ryan: the Namibian petrol price is exactly the same as SA. Please see this link and select the ZAR as currency for the comparison: http://www.mytravelcost.com/petrol-prices/
As for electricity, another myth. According to the US Dept of Energy, average household tarrifs for SA and Zim, as of January 2013 were:
South Africa: US8.5c/kilowatt hour
Zimbabwe: US9,86c/kilowatt hour
@Chris: having perused the formula used to derive the petrol price at the pump, maybe I missed something. What wealth tax?
March 6th, 2013 at 6:46 pm
Thanks for your feedback to Ryan.
I probably was a bit liberal with that word usage, but I think that the government fuel levy can be seen to be such.
Chris
March 7th, 2013 at 9:21 am
Hello Anon
I would like to see more than some US researched energy stats.
Like, apparently, SA is supposed to have a very steady inflation rate.
However, with eskom increasing at 15+% a year, I’ll tell you core food items increase 10-15% ayear as well. Throw in the petrol increases yearly, etc,etc…
I’m sure you get my point, stats on paper are one thing I just do not have much faith in.
Particularly as one of my Namibian staff members keeps telling me how much cheaper petrol is in Namib?
March 7th, 2013 at 3:04 pm
Ryan
I too do tire of meticulously collected stats from reputable agencies, particularly when confirmatory evidence from anecdotal sources is at hand.
For example, I’m so exasperated at the prices of everything I’m tempted to believe your 15% Eskom increase, even though I know the real increase NERSA granted is 8% per year.
I mean, apparently everyone knows the entire world financial industry, IMF, OECD etc, is in cahoots with the SA Reserve Bank in misleading us about the “very steady inflation rate”.