South Africa: 2nd most Affordable Holiday Destination
in the World - 28 June 2005
 South
Africa is one of the most affordable holiday destinations
in the world. This emerged from the latest annual American
Express Foreign Exchange Holiday Cost of Living Index,
which compares prices in the world's top 12 holiday
resort areas.
Even with the current strength of the rand, South Africa
offered significant value for British holidaymakers,
finishing second overall to Thailand.
South Africa was ranked the cheapest on five of the
14 shopping items surveyed - comparing prices of items
such as drinks, meals, camera film, sunscreen, postcards
and car hire - making it the country with the highest
number of cheapest items.
SA was the cheapest country for a lager (65p), a bottle
of Coca-Cola (46p), suncream factor 15 (£1.16), 24-shot
camera film (74p), and a three-course dinner for two
including wine (£26.03).
Italy, previously thought to be one of Europe's more
expensive resort areas, proved cheapest of the six euro
zone countries surveyed and the only one where costs
fell compared with 2004.
Using information researched by national tourist boards
for each of the 12 countries surveyed, American Express
found that prices varied by around £90 for the same
items.
The cheapest, with a combined shopping bill for all
14 items of just £65.70 (R795), was Thailand, 6% down
on 2004. South Africa was next cheapest with a shopping
bill of £67.68 (R820).
 The
study also showed that the cost of holidaying in both
Australia and America had dropped by about 20% in the
past 12 months, assisted by a strong exchange rate for
sterling. Prices in Australia dropped by around 20%,
while in the US costs were down by 9% in addition to
the previous year's drop of 24%.
Italy's shopping basket total dropped by 9% to £73.96
(R895), while costs rose in Spain, Portugal, Greece,
France and Ireland - most noticeably in Spain and Ireland,
where the bill grew by around 26% each over 2004.
The survey also looked at the cost of hiring a car
for three days as part of the holiday experience, asking
car-hire firm Hertz to quote rates for all 12 countries.
At just under £37 for three days' hire, Spain proved
the cheapest, while Norway cost £139.62 - almost four
times as much.
"As was the case last year, the 2005 cost of living
chart demonstrates clearly that one currency does not
mean one price," said American Express' Brandon
Welsh.
"The costs vary significantly for every item that
we surveyed - by £2.03 for a bottle of Coke bought in
a café and £1.41 for a large bottle of supermarket mineral
water, for example," Welsh said. "Overall,
the cost in Italy was virtually half that in Ireland
for the same 13 items."
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