Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has today published its preliminary tourist accommodation statistical release for May 2020, and the numbers are rather shocking but maybe unsurprising given the global pandemic and the local lockdown.

“Income from accommodation decreased by 98,5% year-on-year in May 2020, the result of a 98,0% decrease in the number of stay unit nights sold and a 24,2% decrease in the average income per stay unit night sold,” reads a release from the government body.

The study doesn’t just look at hotels, which are the first thing many think of when it comes to tourism. Caravan parks and camping sites, guest-houses and guests farms, and “other accommodation” were all included.

You can see how each of these categories were affected in the header image above. Caravan parks and camping sites seems the hardest hit with a 100 percent decrease in income from tourist accommodation.

That being said we can’t imagine there is much difference between 100 percent, and the 98.2 percent experienced by hotels.

Together with these figures Stats SA has released several graphs such as the one below for income from accommodation.

After November 2019 things went into free fall all the way to zero. While the South African lockdown only began in late March 2020, international travel was greatly impacted months prior. We have to imagine that, even before lockdown, locals with plans to travel either cancelled or delayed their outings only for the lockdown to come and make it mandatory.

The full statistical release from Stats SA is available as a PDF. The key finding summary is available separately as a web page, and the past publications archive is here.