Tourists enjoy extended holiday season

Clifton Beach is a big drawcard for foreign tourists. Photo: Matthew Jordaan

Clifton Beach is a big drawcard for foreign tourists. Photo: Matthew Jordaan

Published May 6, 2011

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Cape Town has seen an influx of tourists recently as domestic travellers and foreigners alike have taken advantage of the series of public holidays that extended the province’s tourism season.

That’s according to tourism officials and tour operators, who say the added numbers have been a welcome boost to the end-of-peak season.

“We had a phenomenal couple of weeks,” said Annemie Liebenberg, the V&A Waterfront’s tourism manager.

“We saw a lot of national visitors and a lot of people who extended their stay.”

Liebenberg said there was a 28 percent increase in guests at the Waterfront compared to the same period last year.

The cruise liner MSC Sinfonia also arrived in Cape Town on Monday at maximum capacity, for the last time this season. There were about 2 200 guests aboard, said MSC spokesman Krystle van Vooren. “We had a two-for-one special that went very quickly because of the extended break.

“Everything from April 26 was completely booked.”

Last year, cruise liner passengers spent on average R1 060 a day in South Africa’s ports, according to South Africa Cruise Tourism.

MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism Alan Winde said to bring in more foreign cruise ships, the city would have to build a permanent cruise liner terminal. He said there were discussions about whether to set up a temporary structure for cruise liners.

Demand at this stage was not enough to see any permanent structures built yet, however, he said.

Cape Town Tourism chief executive Mariette Du Toit-Helmbold said the Two Oceans Marathon over the Easter weekend meant many visitors extended their stay for the remainder of the week.

“This year saw the biggest number of entries in the history of the marathon, with a record of close to 23 000 runners participating,” Du Toit-Helmbold said.

“Many of the marathon runners extended their stay in Cape Town by a number of days, making full use of the unusual culmination of public holidays.”

They planned to invest heavily in domestic tourism to ensure more South Africans made Cape Town their number one holiday destination.

Meanwhile, guest houses and hotels reported that the number of foreign tourists was on a par with figures for last year.

They said there had been an increase in domestic guests, however.

“We had more South African guests over the last few weeks because of the holiday,” said Maggie Fluthmann, manager of the Sweet Ocean View Guest House in Sea Point.

“About a fifth of the clientele was South African and we hardly ever have South Africans,” Fluthmann said.

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- Cape Times

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