The SA tourism and hospitality sectors have bounced back strongly from the Covid-19 pandemic, with the Western Cape showing strong growth and Cape Town benefiting from new direct flights from the US.
Stats SA figures showed that SA received more than 7.5-million international travellers in the year to November, with tourist arrivals from the Americas growing 44% compared to the year before, while the Western Cape’s October tourism report for 2023 indicated a 57% increase in international passenger traffic.
This trend was maintained over the festive season. The Western Cape government’s trade, investment and tourism promotion agency, Wesgro, recording record numbers of tourists in December, including a 22% increase in the number of visitors to Table Mountain National Park and Cape Town International Airport’s international terminal experiencing 17% year-on-year growth.
Beautiful beaches and mountains, great weather, a weak rand and more international flights have favoured the Cape, but when it comes to tourism the basics matter most. That explains why Durban, and to a lesser extent Johannesburg, have not experienced the same influx of visitors. Durban has many of the same attributes as Cape Town, but polluted beaches that were closed to swimmers nullified that advantage this season. Johannesburg’s water supply issues and deteriorating service provision put people off travelling there too.
Nedbank’s capital expenditure project listing for 2023 provides some clues as to what is going on — 60% of investment in basic infrastructure nationally was in Cape Town, mainly “unsexy” projects such as sewerage system upgrades and road maintenance.
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