South African tourist accommodation revenue up 8.9% in February
An analysis of the February 2026 data show that hotels dominate with a 59.7% share.
Black News 
The revenue from South African tourist accommodation rose by 8.9% year-on-year in February. This followed a 2.7% year-on-year increase in January. In 2025 income from tourism accommodation rose by 9.9% to R41.1 billion.
This excludes income from meals, banqueting and beverages, and tobacco sales. Additionally, income from casino gambling, laundry and telephone services, rentals and fees received for transport services, offices, shops, and parking. This income is roughly the same amount as the income from accommodation.
Statistics South Africa also does not cover rentals from short-term rentals provided by booking services such as AirBnB or booking.com. There are more than 90 000 active AirBnB listings in South Africa with about a third of them located in Cape Town.
The survey covers the following tax registered private and public enterprises that are mainly engaged in providing short-stay commercial accommodation. They are divided by Statistics South Africa into four categories. These are hotels, motels, botels and inns; then caravan parks and camping sites; also guest-houses and guest-farms; and finally ‘other’ accommodation.
Hotels dominate
An analysis of the February 2026 data show that hotels dominate with a 59.7% share. “Other” accommodation follows with 34.4%, while guest houses have a 4.7% share. Caravan parks only have a 1.1% share.
The relative revenue is also reflected in the occupancy rate with hotels at 35.9%, “other” accommodation at 24.9%, guest houses at 24.9% and caravan parks at 21.9%.
The peak tourism month is December. Consequently, occupancy rates are the highest in the year. In December 2025, the respective occupancy rate were hotels at 56.6%, “other” accommodation at 36.2%, guest houses at 24.5% and caravan parks at 24.5%.
Prospects
Tourism accommodation should show a strong growth in March and April. This is because domestic airport arrivals had a great month.
In March domestic arrivals grew by 14.8% month-on-month and 9.9% year-on-year.
