Cape Town Tourism has reported positive results for tourism to the city for the first part of the summer season, with record numbers of visitors at major attractions across the city.
The Table Mountain Cableway reported a record season with 119 000 ticket sales for December – its highest monthly visitation for the last 83 years. Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens also experienced its best season ever with a record 81 771 visitors – a 5% increase from December 2011.
Cape Point saw a slight increase year on year, with close to 95 000 visitors this past December. The V&A Waterfront saw an increase of 9,84%, in December compared with the previous year. Visitor numbers were slightly down at Robben Island, which received 41 250 visits during December, a decrease of 1 000 visitors from December 2011.
“The top contributors to international arrivals were Germany, the UK and the USA. Feedback from members of the industry also reflect a growing number of visitors from new markets like India and China,” said Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold, CEO of Cape Town Tourism.
She said one of the major challenges the city faced during the holiday period was that Cape Town’s infrastructure was stretched, with limited parking and increased traffic on the roads, particularly around major tourist attractions and beaches.
Du Toit-Helmbold said, despite the encouraging numbers, Cape Town International Airport reported a decrease in total passenger numbers for December, compared with the same period in 2011.
“The figures from Cape Town International Airport suggest that even more of our visitors to Cape Town travelled by car these holidays. This suggests budget-consciousness and it is likely that many holiday-makers stayed outside the formal hotel sector,” she said.
Du Toit Helmbold said the city was also expecting a spike in international visitors in February. “A forecasting survey of Cape Town Tourism members, conducted in conjunction with Horwath HTL, indicates an average expected occupancy rate of 81% for accommodation establishments across the metropole for February 2013.”
She added that the on-going trend of bookings with shorter lead times continued to dominate, so current projected occupancy levels for February were still expected to increase.
“Even though this upward trend is encouraging, the demand for Cape Town year-round must improve in order to support and sustain the increased accommodation capacity in Cape Town post-2010,” she concluded.
