Western Cape tourism officials are anticipating a summer season characterised by increased occupancies in smaller towns, noting growing travel trade interest in multi-region itineraries and longer average stays.
Wesgro CEO Wrenelle Stander said, while Cape Town remains the essential hook in global marketing campaigns, the “real work” is in how travellers are then directed outward into regions such as the Winelands, Overberg, West Coast, Cape Karoo, Garden Route and Klein Karoo.
“As we build momentum towards peak season, our team actively promotes the regions and their signature visitor experiences across new and established markets. Internationally, we drive this through highly targeted destination marketing and strong travel trade partnerships that position regional itineraries as integral to Western Cape travel planning,” Stander told Tourism Update.
This year, Wesgro partnered with communities in 39 leisure events across the province (including townships) and launched four digital visitor experience playbooks.
“We’re seeing this approach work with increased occupancy in smaller towns, stronger regional event attendance and interest in multi-region itineraries – all signalling that demand is spreading more evenly across the province – exactly what a resilient visitor economy requires,” said Stander, pointing out that the province’s average length of stay of 11.3 days illustrates that travellers are heading out to other regions.
Flight capacity continues growing
International seat capacity to Cape Town for the IATA winter season (end-October to end-March) is up by 11% year-on-year, driven by intensive lobbying by Wesgro’s Cape Town Air Access project.
This is working in harmony with Wesgro’s broader mission to unlock access to new markets and buyers with focus on China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, India, Brazil and the Middle East while maintaining focus on established markets such as the EU, UK, US and Africa.
“While route development requires time, we are seeing encouraging interest and our continued relationship building and lobbying efforts are laying a solid foundation for future direct services from our priority markets. Strong strategic focus has been placed on creating direct air access between Cape Town and Asia,” said Stander.
In addition to collaborating with SA Tourism in roadshows in India and China, Wesgro partnered with the SA20 cricket league to promote the region to the Indian market and has planned an international tourism campaign – focused on travellers in Mumbai – that will launch in January 2026.
Stander described the securing of a direct LATAM flight from São Paulo to Cape Town, launching in July 2026, as a major victory.
“Over the years, our team has engaged consistently with LATAM’s network development team, sharing market intelligence, preparing a robust business case and demonstrating the strong growth in South American demand,” said Stander.
Brazil was one of South Africa’s fastest-growing source markets between January and October this year, recording a 27% increase in arrivals to over 51 000.
