W Cape tourism booms as more visitors spend more

THE Western Cape attracted 1.5 million foreign tourists who spent over R18 billion while domestic tourism numbers totalled 2.1 million who spent R2.5bn in the province last year.

This is according to the latest figures from South African Tourism, which were released to provinces this week.

Key figures from the report include that 1.5 million international tourists travelled to the province last year, a year-on-year increase of 18.5%; foreign tourist spend grew by 21.6%, increasing to R18.1bn; domestic tourism arrivals reached 2.1 million, up 16.9%, and domestic visitors spent R2.5bn, a 24.3% percent increase.

Following the release of these figures, Economic Opportunities MEC Alan Winde and Wesgro, Cape Town and the Western Cape’s tourism, trade and investment promotion agency, will provide an update next week on Project Khulisa’s progress to grow the tourism sector.

Winde said last year was a phenomenal

year for Western Cape tourism, with substantial increases recorded across the board.

He said this was the result of the decision made to put tourism in the “front and centre” through Project Khulisa’s growth strategy.

“When we put Project Khulisa together, we believed tourism held huge potential to unlock accelerated growth and job creation in our province. We put dedicated teams and a dedicated programme of action in place to realise this potential.

“Next week we’ll provide a full analysis of our tourism performance to date, and report back on our achievements in terms of creating growth and jobs in this sector.”

Judy Lain, chief marketing officer at Wesgro, said the latest South African Tourism data underlined the strength of the tourism sector as an economic driver for the Western Cape. “Wesgro will continue driving their leisure and convention bureau plans to keep the momentum going. Tourism can help create jobs during tough economic times.”

Enver Duminy, chief executive of Cape Town Tourism, said: “Cape Town consistently picks up major international awards.

Just today it was announced Cape Town is the best city in Africa and the Middle East, according to the Travel and Leisure World’s Best Awards for 2017, placing 8th on the World’s Top 15 Cities list.”