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People stay home during recession

15 Jul 2010

The number of purchase decision makers (PDMs) who have flown somewhere in the past 12 months has decreased from 15% in 2007 to 13% in 2010, and the percentage who have stayed in paid-for accommodation over the same time period has decreased considerably from an average of 12% in 2007 to 6% in 2010 across South Africa;s urban landscape. This is according to the NAB and Caxton/CTP's recently launched urban retail and readership survey, Roots 2010.

"It looks like the recession might have been particularly tough on the travel industry and more so for hoteliers, B&B's and paid for accommodation. Decision makers have obviously decided to keep an eye on the budget and stick around the home front," says John Bowles, joint MD of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau (NAB).

Entertaining at home has shown some big increases for certain suburbs that would normally head out on the highway. For instance, Sandtonites have grown from 58% entertaining at home once a month or more often in 2007 to 65% in 2010.

Air travel down, economy airlines up

When breaking down the numbers in terms of air travel, the most flown suburbs of the country are as often, Somerset West (41%), Sandton (38%), Rosebank/ Killarney (37%), Bedfordview/Edenvale (35%) and interestingly Amanzimtoti (35%).

On average (for all those flying) across all the measured urban areas in 2007, 57% of PDMs flew SAA. This was compared to Kulula.com (28%), British Airways (17%), 1Time (9%) and Nationwide (9%).

In 2010, 49% of PDMs flew SAA. This was followed by Kulula.com (25%), Mango (16%), 1Time (13%) and British Airways (12%). There has clearly been a shift to the low cost airlines since 2007.

"This all changes by area though - an important consideration for marketers to be aware of. For example on the West Rand of Johannesburg, more people have flown with Kulula (55%) than SAA (30%) or any other airline.

Cape Town tends to use BA, 1 time and Mango more than average and SAA is particularly strong in JHB northern suburbs. If one bears this in mind, airline marketers should understand these regional and geographic preferences for or against their airlines and take the necessary measures to act on them ," says Bowles.

Conducted by TNS Research Surveys, the data is available free of charge to retailers, marketers, media planners and strategists, and on Telmar systems. For more information, contact NAB at +27 (0) 11 889 0610 or go to www.nab.co.za.