Over the past 20 years, the tourism sector's contribution to South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) has increased significantly with an average annual average real growth rate of 7.3 percent (Source Stats SA), creating jobs and generating valuable foreign currency.

Positive news in the hospitality sector in South Africa is recorded at the 5 Star hotel level, which despite experiencing substantial decline between 2009 and 2011, recorded a national average RevPAR (revenue per available room) annual increase of 15.6 percent during  2012. 

Joop Demes reports that South Africa’s top-ranked hotels are showing remarkable resilience, having come through a difficult trading cycle between the final quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of last year. Occupancy levels, which reached a high point in 2007, have picked up again, as has REVPAR (revenue per available room).