By Nashira Davids

Cape Town's oldest five-star hotels are struggling this summer season.

Occupancy rates are down by between 10% and 20% at lavish hotels such as the Mount Nelson, the Cape Grace and the Table Bay.

The drop, according to Cape Town Routes Unlimited CEO Calvyn Gilfellan, could be attributed largely to the fact that tourists are spoilt for choice.

He said in the past 18 months 12 new hotels had popped up in the city, many of which are five-star, including 15 on Orange and the Pepper Club.

"When we last checked, which was last week, the top five-star hotels were still not out of the doldrums. This is a product of supply and demand," he said.

"The supply of five-star rooms is more than it was before. Although we have the same amount of tourists you will see lower occupancy rates because there are more hotel beds to be filled."

Gilfellan said hotels like the Cape Grace, the Mount Nelson and the Table Bay Hotel are still doing okay.

"But by this time of year they used to have a 75% to 80% occupancy rate. Now they are 10%, 15% and even 20% down," he said.

"Our strategy is to get much bigger events into the city so we can fill all the hotel beds."

The recent wave of negative publicity created by the murder of newlywed tourist Anni Dewani has not had an effect on the industry.

Gilfellan said the success of the World Cup has managed to overshadow the Dewani tragedy.

"We haven't seen any real impact yet, we have seen a few cancellations of township tours, but not on a massive scale," he said.

The Western Cape tourism authorities are "cautiously optimistic" about this summer season, which started in November and ends about the end of March.

Last summer season, approximately three million international and domestic tourists visited the province. The Western Cape Tourism Reference Panel, which consists of tourism experts including restaurateurs and tour guides, was recently surveyed.

The majority, 52%, believe the province will exceed last year's figures, 25% said the province will do the same as last year and the rest said people will limit their travelling because of the recession.

B&B and guest house owners are also reporting a drop in business already.

"We have found that this is more economy-related. People are buying down, they are going for municipal camping sites or want to stay with family and use their money to go to restaurants and visit tourist attractions.

And a lot of people are doing last-minute bookings depending on whether they get bonuses, for example," said Gilfellan.

He said the sector is perhaps ready for a "shake-up when it comes to pricing structures".

Representatives of the Cape Grace, Mount Nelson and Table Bay hotel were unavailable for comment on Sunday.

Source: The Times