Partnership helps Cape Town set record for foreign tourists

A record number of foreign visitors landed at Cape Town International Airport in December, surpassing pre-pandemic numbers thanks in part to a public-private partnership (PPP) that has increased direct flights to the city.

The influx is growing the local tourist industry, which contributes about 3% to SA’s GDP and is key to employing less-skilled workers.

More than 317,000 travellers from overseas arrived at the airport in December, above the previous high of 290,000 in January 2020, when Covid-19 had not yet reached SA.

The available number of inbound air seats into Cape Town from abroad between November and March 2024 comes to about a million, said Paul van den Brink, project lead of Air Access, the PPP.

That was 25% more than the previous summer.

However, preliminary data from local airlines and the Federated

Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (Fedhasa), suggests domestic tourism and flights, while better than last year, have not bounced back to pre-pandemic levels.

Cape Town Air Access is a PPP that began in 2015 and markets the city in a highly competitive global industry in which world cities compete and pitch for airline business.

It is run under the auspices of Wesgro, the official tourism, trade & investment promotion agency for the province.

“More and more people want to fly direct,” said Van den Brink.

Each year, at the global Routes World conference, the team presents the business case for Cape Town, promoting what the city and region has to offer, he said.

In 2019, Cape Town offered no direct flights from North or South America but now has 15 direct flights from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and multiple flights from Washington and New York.

It has added six more direct flights including from Zambia,

Mozambique and Eswatini since September 2022.

Experts said the project showed the importance of PPPs in tourism.

Southern Africa Tourism Services Association CEO David Frost said the Air Access project has significantly increased air links from key markets, notably the US luxury segment, which has been instrumental in driving the resurgence in SA tourism over the past two years.

“As the tourist industry excels in an otherwise struggling economy, it’s crucial that it receives government support. In contrast to Cape Town, the other major air hub, OR Tambo International Airport, has yet to restore its air capacity to prepandemic levels, impacting tourist arrivals in other parts of the country,” he said.

OR Tambo may have a harder time increasing traffic as all indications are that corporate travel has not returned to the same levels as before Covid-19

as businesses rely more on virtual meetings.

While Cape Town airport had a bumper number of tourist arrivals, when taking into account local and regional flights, the airport did not record more flights when compared with pre-pandemic levels.

In December 2023, SA’s overall passenger volumes, including all travellers at all airports, were at 87% when compared with December 2019, according to LIFT Airlines.

But local airlines said demand for flights exceeded that of December 2022. FlySafair spokesperson Maryke Pienaar said the airline had its “best December yet”, with domestic flights to Cape Town increasing 39% from December 2022.

Flights to Durban also increased year on year even as its beaches struggle with pollution, while flights to Eastern Cape rose at a faster rate than those to KwaZulu-Natal.

Jonathan Ayache, CEO of LIFT, said the domestic airline had a better-than-expected performance.

“One of the trends we’ve seen [since] Covid is that peak leisure periods have performed better relative to other periods, due to an uptick in leisure travel, while business travel is still recovering.”

In terms of local tourism over December, Fedhasa chair Rosemary Anderson said preliminary results from a survey of members show some accommodation providers reporting increased occupancy rates compared with December 2022, though not reaching 2019 levels.

The Christmas to New Year period posted the highest occupancy rates, she said, and some members noted an increase in the average length of stay.

“Cape Town outperformed the rest of the country largely due to proactive season preparedness such as safety and security measures.”