Cape Town has devised a tourism plan to attract visitors to the city during off peak seasons. According to Reg Ferreira, the tournament organiser for the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (FEDHASA) Cape, the organisation in partnership with the City of Cape Town, Cape Town Tourism, Wesgro and Accelerate Cape Town have been selected as part of Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille’s Local Organising Committee (LOC) to address tourism seasonality in the Western Cape.
The project has been in the pipeline since last year.
Among the events to be held include a Cape Town Golf Festival in August which has already generated interest from the international market.
Others projects to curb seasonality will include the Halal Tourism Festival that is aimed at educating and drawing in more tourists from the Muslim market. .
“This project has taken months of research and we are ready to test it. The idea is to grow the Cape Town Golf Festival to the same magnitude as the Cape Town Cycle Tour and the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon to drive more visitors to our city during the winter season.
“We do not expect results immediately as good things take time, but we are confident that Cape Town will be turned into a place where people can holiday the entire year,” said Ferreira.
The golf festival, to take place on August 20-26, will be held on four courses including, Durbanville, Clovelly, Milnerton and Royal Cape. The package comprises bed and breakfast accommodation at the Commodore Hotel at the V&A Waterfront, transport, as well as golf apparel which includes a golfshirt, a cap, balls and gloves, along with free wine-tasting at participating wine farms.
City of Cape Town Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille said in a statement the city had to find innovative ways of dealing with seasonality to see high number all year round. She said: “Cape Town’s beauty does not fade when the weather changes and as stakeholders we have to pull together to find the packages to attract tourists all year round. The tourism sector is a key contributor to economic growth and creating jobs for our people so we must work harder to grow the industry even further”.