South African hotels beat their European, Asian and Middle Eastern counterparts last year by increasing their occupancy rates, a Deloitte survey has found.

The Hotel Benchmark Survey found South Africa's hotel occupancy rates had increased to 69 percent last year. This represented growth of 4.4 percent in occupancy rates compared to a negative 1.1 percent in the Middle East, a negative 0.4 percent in Asia and 2.3 percent growth in Europe.

"We have regularly been questioned in recent years about the appropriateness of rates charged in South Africa," Rob O'Hanlon, the Deloitte SA partner for Travel, Tourism and Leisure said in a statement on Monday.

"Given that the rates are already low by global standards, it is evident at a macro level that South African hotel accommodation is competitively priced. This evidence ties in with the impressive performances that our clients are recording over the current season," O'Hanlon said.

The Hotel Benchmark Survey contains the largest independent source of hotel performance data outside of North America and tracks the performance of over 6500 hotels and 1.2 million rooms every month.

Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa) members had been involved in an ongoing debate about ensuring the balance between achieving an acceptable return on investment and keeping South Africa competitively priced as a long haul destination, Fedhasa Cape chairperson, Nils Heckscher said in a statement.

"It is fantastic to see that for 2005 we seem to have got the balance right."

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ECONOMY UPDATE Business expectations remain positive Manufacturing output up 6.2% Retail sales increase Pension fund assets exceed R1-trillion Business confidence at record high Net reserves climb to $18.7bn Govt to spend R372bn on infrastructure Jan house price growth at 14.9% Interest rates unchanged Strong new vehicle sales Manufacturing hit by strong rand SA hotels boost occupancy levels Economic growth creating jobs Producer inflation rises Inflation dampens rate cut hopes