Oman sets sights on eco-tourism
MUSCAT - The Omani government has set its sights on
milking the adventure travel and eco-tourism market, a senior tourism advisor
in the sultanate says.
"Oman has all the attributes of a successful eco-tourism destination,"
Heba Abdul Aziz, advisor to the commerce and industry ministry, told the Oman
Observer newspaper.
By John Fraser
The strong rand may have made life extremely tough for SA's exporters, but
it means that thousands of South Africans are now upgrading their home entertainment
systems from video to DVD.
Panasonic South Africa CE, Martin Maddox, said yesterday consumer electronics products had become much cheaper because the rand now bought much more overseas.
The result was that many more South Africans at the bottom of the wealth pyramid were now able to afford electronic gadgets such as DVD players.
"The market has been growing strongly in the past few months, and we expect this to continue.
"We expect the rand to largely hold its position against other currencies, interest rates may have reached the bottom but are not expected to rise much this year, and inflation is likely to stay low," he said.
"These factors have opened up a new market which never existed before a whole tier of lessaffluent South Africans have entered the market," he added.
"For Christmas 2002, you probably had to pay R1499 for a cheaper DVD player, but last Christmas, you could pick one up for R399 ," Brennan Menday, another Panasonic executive said.
He said a fall had also taken place in the prices of home theatre systems with the cheapest models costing R3000 a year ago to R1299 today.
"This has changed the dynamics of the market. Before, no person on a lower income would consider moving to DVD as a means of home entertainment, but now it is a proposition."
However, he warned that the cost of DVD discs themselves had not fallen in line with price cuts for the players.
"If you are paying R2000 for a machine, it may seem reasonable to pay R200 for a disc.
"But when the machine is costing just R400, it seems a bit ridiculous to pay R200 for just one DVD movie," he said.
"Prices of the discs have been coming down, but when you look at current pricing, this helps to explain why there are so many pirated DVDs being sold.
"The more the price of the players comes down, the bigger the market, and the greater the demand will be for cheap software," said Maddox.
Panasonic SA was hit hard when the rand recovered last year, as it had ordered in a lot of equipment at weak rand exchange rates. However, with a stronger and more stable currency, Maddox is predicting a great 2004 for the company.
Business Day
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