Tourism contributed R800 million to the City of Cape Town’s economy in December last year.
This is a visible improvement from the same period in 2020.
Cape Town Tourism (CTT) says despite the positive uptake in numbers, the sector will take some time to recover, but adds that it remains optimistic.
On Wednesday 19 January CTT released its destination performance figures for the festive season at the Radisson Hotel in the V & A Waterfront.
The report indicates that Cape Town saw an increase in visitors with the Cape Town International Airport reporting a 66% recovery for domestic arrivals and 29% for international compared to December 2019.
According to Cape Town International Airport’s (CTIA) data, the Mother City welcomed 869 119 air passengers between October and December last year, representing a 58% recovery of 2019 volumes in the same period. This despite travel bans on the country as a result of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
James Vos, Mayco member for economic growth, says 2021 was yet another challenging year for the hospitality and tourism industries. But he says thanks to the success of collaborative campaign efforts to attract local tourists, this past December holiday was much more positive for the local industry.
“Judging by the demand that we saw, I believe there will continue to be an upward trajectory for travel to Cape Town and South Africa. But we need to make good on this. By funding and working together with industry bodies such as CTT, we can drive further re-growth and development of this industry, particularly of the small businesses that make up the bulk of it.”
Enver Duminy, Chief Executive Officer of CTT, says they are delighted to see recovery in the visitor economy with domestic and international tourists injecting some much-needed capital into the city.
“We do understand that recovery will take a little longer than we had hoped, but we are optimistic that this trend towards recovery continues in February, as we enter our ‘second’ peak season. While the numbers look better, we need sustained tourism to really impact our local small business sector and start turning the devastating blows dealt by Omicron-linked travel bans around.”
Duminy explains that all of Cape Town’s famed tourist attractions reported positive recovery when compared to 2019 figures. Cape Point at 33%, Chapman’s Peak Drive at 77%, Groot Constantia at 60%, Kirstenbosch at 49%, Robben Island at 46%, Table Mountain at 57% and Two Oceans Aquarium at 76%.
He says the V&A Waterfront reported a year-on-year percentage increase of 31 and attributed it to increased footfall and eased restrictions.
According to Duminy, CTT’s dipstick survey of its members found 57% indicated that their December 2021 performance was better than December 2020. 64% reported an increase in domestic visitors. 18% reported an increase in visitors from the UK, 25% saw an increase in visitors from the USA, and 25% from Germany.
??Vos says CTT’s accommodation members tracked higher bookings in November than in October. He says the room night demand for December among CTT members was 51%, up from 40% in 2020.
Maxwell Magodla, General Manager at the Bantry Bay Suite Hotel, says the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has been devastating to their business.
