City set to become gateway to Africa
Tourism has surged over the past two years, says enterprise director
CAPE Town is fast positioning itself as a tourism hub for the rest of South Africa and Africa, which will further boost the city’s economy. This is according to Lance Greyling, the City of Cape Town’s director of enterprise and investment.
Greyling was part of a panel that discussed the unlocking of Africa’s tourism potential on the opening day of the World Travel Market conference, under way at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
He said the Cape Town Air Access project, a public-private partnership, had brought more flights to the city, resulting in an increase in tourism.
The project, which was started three years ago, fell under Wesgro, the tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town, “but it’s a real collaboration between Wesgro, the City of Cape Town, Cape Town Tourism, the provincial government and the private sector”.
“We have actually, over the past two years, been able to bring in more than 700 000 extra seats (tourists) into Cape Town.” That increase amounted to about 14 more direct flights to Cape Town. The project was fast positioning the city as a tourism gateway, not only to South Africa, but to Africa as well.
An additional runway was being built at Cape Town International Airport, which was also being realigned to accommodate larger aircraft. “We really believe that Cape Town is fast becoming the destination of choice, and that certainly is going to help boost the tourist numbers.
“Just this year we have seen a 7% increase in international arrivals as well, and this has been a particularly tough year... as we had to battle against the water crisis, which obviously has had a bit of a negative impact internationally. But we’ve still been able to grow our international arrivals, even in those circumstances.”
Greyling said his office had forecast that over the next five years, about 55% of new hotel rooms constructed in South Africa would be built in Cape Town.
“There are a number of big projects on the books, but there is also more room for expansion.
“We will continue to drive this airlift, or air access project, so that we can get more tourists... so that we can actually get more investment in the tourism space.”
He said a project in the pipeline concerned encouraging more tourists to visit economically depressed areas.
“We believe that another aspect of inclusive growth is about trying to find innovative ways of taking tourists to where the poorer areas are, so that you can actually stimulate entrepreneurship programmes.”