Cape Town - Western Cape Department of Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC Mireille Wenger has lauded the performance of the province’s tourism industry over the December festive season.
Wenger at the weekend released a statement, applauding the tourism sector for breaking records on several fronts during the peak tourism season.
She announced that the industry had recorded more than 400 000 visitors to Western Cape attractions.
Top tourism attractions in the Western Cape include the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, Table Mountain National Park: Cape of Good Hope, Table Mountain National Park: Boulders, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden and Robben Island.
Wenger said: “Across the Western Cape, and especially in Cape Town, our expectations of a record-breaking summer season have been realised. This is excellent news for our provincial economy and for the hundreds of thousands of jobs supported by tourism in the province.”
“Last week we confirmed that the award-winning Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) smashed all previous monthly records, processing an astounding 317 000 two-way international passengers. This is the highest monthly total of passengers in history, surpassing the previous high of 290 000 passengers processed in January 2020,” she said.
Commenting on the successful tourism initiatives Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said that the bumper season was made possible by the thousands of hard-working hospitality staff, backed by the multiple law-enforcement bodies and disaster management officials who ensured visitors to our province as well as residents, were safe.
He said: “Following what has been a record-breaking tourism season for our province, we must all harness this momentum towards further growing our economy in 2024. We are very proud of all that worked to make this come to life. I look forward to us all maintaining this positive economic momentum into upcoming tourism seasons, like the upcoming school-term holidays. Through this, we can create even more jobs.”
Meanwhile, other tourism season highlights recorded in the monthly tourism report, compiled by the Western Cape Government’s (WCG) trade, investment, and tourism promotion agency, Wesgro boasts the growth of the CTIA terminal, which saw a 17% year-on-year growth in December 2023.
The 48% growth of the international terminal, with 2.8 million two-way international passengers for the full year 2023, and the 21% year-on-year growth for the domestic terminal recorded for December.