From AFP

Clutching shopping bags, quaffing wine, and lounging on pristine beaches: South Africa’s weak rand is drawing few complaints from foreign tourists who these days get more bang for their tourist bucks.

The teetering rand, a victim of ongoing emerging market volatility, is tipped to remain on the back foot after hitting a fresh five-year low of around 10.87 against the US dollar.

The plunge comes as tourists flock to Cape Town — named as the world’s top place to visit in 2014 by The New York Times — for the peak southern hemisphere summer season armed with hard currency.

“From a visitor perspective, it all bodes well for international visitors coming to Cape Town,” said Cape Town Tourism CEO Enver Duminy.

Foreigners spent an estimated $1.2 billion (12.7 billion rand) last year in the city and the industry is already pointing to a rosier season.

Official figures for December are still being tallied but feedback from hotels, tour operators and restaurants is that things look “a lot better” than the previous summer.

“If you look at our key source markets — UK, US, Germany, Netherlands — the exchange rate is in the favour of those travellers,” said Duminy.

“Which is great news for us which means that we become a lot more affordable for a lot more people wanting to leave Europe or the US.”

Written by Justine Gerardy| Read more at AFP