Cape Town International arrivals during the peak tourism period are up this year, showing early indications of a stellar summer season.
Alan Winde, MEC of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, said while the official numbers had yet to be released and it was still too early to measure the performance of the complete season, initial signs signalled a great performance for the Western Cape’s hospitality industry.
International arrivals between January and March totalled 230 722. This is up from 223 047 over the same time period last year.
Total arrivals for the first quarter stood at 1, 107 319 an increase from 1, 092 339 last year.
Tourism figures for 2013 were also encouraging.
“Between January to September 2013, the Western Cape received 1,048,450 tourist arrivals and reached a Total Foreign Direct Spend of R12.7 billion across the same period. We’re looking forward to when South African Tourism releases the full year figures next month,” said MEC Winde.
MEC Winde said the sector was important for job creation. The tourism industry employs 150 000 people.
“The tourism sector had one of its best seasons in December when we saw all major attractions reporting an increase and air arrivals reaching pre-recession levels. It appears this trend is continuing which is excellent news for the tourism industry, one of the province’s biggest revenue generators,” said MEC Winde.
For media queries, kindly contact:
Bronwynne Jooste
Tel: 021 483 3550
Cell: 082 454 4365
E-mail: bronwynne.jooste@westerncape.gov.za
