Johannesburg — IT IS not all doom and gloom for the South African hospitality industry and there are tentative signs of recovery, says Joop Demes, CEO of Pam Golding Hospitality, a specialised hospitality division within the Pam Golding Property group.

He said this week the country's prospects were considerably brighter when viewed against somewhat sobering global trends. "SA's hospitality industry is proving very resilient amid the global economic downturn. The fact is that as a country we are far less dependent on the overseas market as most of our business is generated from SA's own domestic market and its neighbouring countries," said Demes.

"This is much the same as the German hotel market, which relies far more on a domestic as opposed to a foreign market, and as a result is trading relatively well."

Pam Golding Hospitality helps facilitate international and local hotel groups to acquire and develop hotel properties, giving Demes a bird's-eye view of the industry.

"Across the country are some remarkable and encouraging green shoots in the industry," said Demes. "According to Smith Travel Research's (STR's) global hotel benchmark survey, in June this year the South African hotel industry as a whole achieved a 4% increase in revpar (revenue per available room) compared to June 2008. To place this in perspective, this means that the effective room revenue, or turnover for an average hotel across the country, has actually increased, despite the fact that the number of rooms in SA is increasing due to the opening of new hotels."

The latest data from STR show that Cape Town's city centre, foreshore and waterfront showed a 20,3% year-on-year growth in revpar in June . Demes said that contrary to negative comments recently published regarding the performance of hotels in Cape Town, the well-branded hotels in the city remained in good shape.

But Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the official marketing agency for the city and the Western Cape, said yesterday it was too early to see a recovery. "Hotels such as the Table Bay Hotel , Mount Nelson and One&Only are seeing occupancies drop by as much as 30%. The market may be bottoming out, but I don't see a recovery before October or November."

"Technology plays a big part in that saving. The advent of plasma TVtelevision has allowed us to save 40cm in every room because we don't need a cabinet to it on," he McLachlan said.