Cape Town has deepened its marketing campaigns in China with significant expansion of reach on the country’s major social media platforms.
This follows the success of the first two phases of the programme, which ran destination campaign advertisements on the instant messaging and social media app, WeChat, from September 2024 to October 2025. The campaign received 20 million impressions.
“The next marketing stage will build on this foundation and move from a single platform to a broader digital presence,” said James Vos, Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth on return from a trade mission in Shanghai.
Vos said Cape Town will post its growing library of Chinese language content – including articles, brochures and destination videos – on a variety of social media platforms.
“This is in line with a survey by marketing experts, China Trading Desk, which found that Chinese outbound travellers are tech-savvy and reliant on social media platforms for inspiration, trustworthy tips and guidance on finding destinations that are immersive, authentic and celebrate local communities.”
South Africa attracted only 41 651 of China’s approximately 100 million outbound travellers in 2024.
The city will launch another campaign on social media channels in India after destination advertisements running between February and July this year achieved 130 million impressions.
Vos said the marketing campaigns are a strong complement to the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme launched for groups from China and India at the start of 2025.
“Cape Town stands to gain masses of first-time and repeat travellers from China and India,” said Vos.
