BUSINESS NEWS - Recent data on arrivals recorded in April 2022, released by Statistics South Africa, confirm a strong recovery for leading Western Cape source markets, when compared to the same period in 2019, according to Western Cape Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, Mireille Wenger.
In April 2022, visitors from the United Kingdom arriving at Cape Town International Airport recovered to an almost perfect 98% of pre-pandemic levels.
Germany and the Netherlands have also recovered strongly according to April’s data, recording 86% and 82% recovery rates, respectively, when compared to April 2019, according to Wenger.
“This is more good news for our tourism and hospitality sector, which is recording a sustained tourism recovery. But we all agree that we don’t just want to get back to 2019 levels, we want to far exceed them.
"That is why we are boosting our destination marketing, tackling barriers to visitor access, and ensuring that we connect Cape Town to more cities around the world, through our award-winning Cape Town Air Access programme. We also continue to focus on our domestic tourism market, by encouraging South Africans to enjoy the diversity of experiences our province has to offer.”
Monika Iuel, chief destination marketing officer at Wesgro, welcomed the trend. “It is extremely promising to see the return of loyal visitors, and welcome new explorers to the destination from our key source markets. We’ve been targeting German, Dutch and UK travellers through our respective ‘Neverending Tourists’ international marketing campaigns, which have performed, and continue to perform, exceptionally well in market."
United Airlines increased its service in February, Air Belgium is planning to launch flights to Cape Town from September, and Virgin Atlantic has commited to return to the Mother City starting November. "We are confident that we are on the right track to surpassing pre-pandemic visitor figures. We remain dedicated to working alongside our stakeholders and partners to not only recover, but exceed pre-pandemic visitor numbers.”
Wesgro CEO, Wrenelle Stander, the recovery is more rapid than previously projected. "As a result we are optimistic that the coming summer season will be a strong one. We therefore call on businesses right along the tourism value chain to use the upcoming months to prepare their operations for the upcoming high season, to ensure that Cape Town and the Western Cape deliver exceptional holidays and business events for all visitors to our destination."
Wenger said the tourism and hospitality sector in particular will be key to achieving the Western Cape Government goal of growing the economy and creating jobs. "That is why we will continue to do whatever we can to get as many visitors back to the Western Cape, and as quickly as possible.”
'We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news'
