The Mother City saw an increase in visitors with Cape Town International Airport reporting a recovery of 66% for domestic arrivals and 29% for international when compared to December 2019.
Across the board, tourism figures looked brighter for December 2021, despite ongoing travel bans and the emergence of Omicron.
This is according to Cape Town Tourism’s latest travel figures released on Wednesday.
All of Cape Town’s famed attractions reported positive recovery when compared to 2019 – Cape Point at 33%, Chapman’s Peak Drive at 77%, Groot Constantia at 60%, Kirstenbosch at 49%, Robben Island at 46%, Table Mountain at 57% and Two Oceans Aquarium at 76%.
The V&A Waterfront reported a year-on-year increase of 31% and attributed this to increased footfall and eased restrictions. They also reported a strong influx of domestic travellers that helped drive the improved figures.
Cape Town Tourism’s dipstick survey of its members found 57% indicated that their December 2021 performance was better than December 2020 and 64% reported an increase in domestic visitors. The survey saw 18% of members report report an increase in visitors from the UK, 25% saw an increase in visitors from the USA, and 25% from Germany.
One member, in the accommodation sector, said: “We received a lot of local travellers this past December 2021. We are just thankful to them all for supporting our industry.”
Cape Town Tourism chief executive Enver Duminy said they were delighted to see recovery in the visitor economy, with domestic and international tourists injecting some sorely needed capital into the city.
“We do understand that recovery will take a little longer than we had hoped but we are optimistic that this trend towards recovery continues in February, as we enter our ’second’ peak season. While the numbers look better, we need sustained tourism to really impact our local small business sector and start turning the devastating blows dealt by Omicron-linked travel bans around.”