Cape Town - In the run-up to the busy festive season, Cape Town has won a valued accolade from international travel authority, Lonely Planet.
Lonely Planet's annual Best in Travel campaign, is a highly anticipated collection of the world’s hottest trends, destinations and experiences for the year ahead and highlights the top ten countries, cities, regions and best value destinations that Lonely Planet’s experts recommend travellers experience in the coming year.
Cape Town has been chosen as one of the Top 10 cities in the world for travellers in 2017 - the latest in a series of accolades that have helped to cement the city’s reputation as a global giant among destinations.
Cape Town features second on the list of top cities for 2017, and is joined by Los Angeles in the USA, Mérida in Mexico and Seoul in South Korea. Bordeaux in France takes the top spot and is named the number one city in the world for 2017.
“This announcement is a welcome one, and it comes with a question: if you have not yet visited Cape Town to see what the fuss is about, why not start planning your trip immediately?
“Accolades such as these combined with international investor confidence in terms of hotel developments all go to show that in a competitive market Cape Town has what it takes to reach and maintain top-tier status.” – Cape Town Tourism chairperson, Enver Mally.
According to Lonely Planet, Cape Town earned its place on the list thanks to its “laid-back folk [who] have been working hard to add cultural and culinary cred to the Mother City’s famous natural charms, cementing its reputation as an African city with a global outlook.”
The book highlights, “As travel surprises go, you can’t beat this cosmopolitan slice of holiday heaven in the dramatic centre of Africa’s southern tip… Local gastronomy is as impressive as Table Mountain’s flat-topped mass, with historic wine estates in every direction, hip markets selling the fruits of the Cape’s fertile terrain, and inventive restaurants winning global plaudits.
“The art and design scene will be given a boost in September by the opening of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), the world’s largest museum of contemporary African art and a post-industrial architectural marvel occupying a century-old grain silo.”
Other accolades from 2016:
The Condé Nast Readers' Travel Awards 2016 chose the city as Best Overseas City for Restaurants and Bars, and placed Cape Town favourably as a runner up in the category of Favourite Overseas City.
The 2015-16 Telegraph Travel Awards chose Cape Town as Best City (for the fourth year running).
In Condé Nast’s Reader’s Choice Awards, Cape Town took the honour as the number one food city in the world for 2016.
Cape Town has been named as Luxury City Destination of the Year for the second consecutive year in the Luxury Travel Guide Africa & Middle East Awards 2016.
Listed in the top 5 global travel destinations as “surprisingly gay-friendly” in the New York Times/SCRUFF survey on gay travel, 2016.
Adapted from a press release for IOL