Cape Town - As research data from various sources points to a strong recovery and growth prospects for tourism, the tourism industry in the Western Cape in particular is predicting a busy festive season.
Tourism was one of the most impacted sectors during the peak of the lockdown between 2020 and 2022.
However, data from FNB points to a strong recovery and growth prospects look promising due to the much-needed growing trend of local tourism.
FNB Merchant Services chief executive Thokozani Dlamini said the bank had seen an increase of 55% in turnover on its merchant services platform for the overall tourism industry coupled with a 17% year-on-year increase in transaction volumes.
He said the increase in travel spend was driven largely by the increase in airline travel with total spending up from R4 billion to R8 billion in 2022.
At the same time, data released by Statistics SA earlier this month showed the hotel sector’s income levels making further progress post-lockdown recovery.
On a year-on-year growth rate basis, total hotel sector income was substantial, with a 118.6% increase in September, which was a renewed acceleration on the already strong growth of 58.5% in August.
In Cape Town the tourism industry is gearing up for a busy summer, with increased numbers of foreign tourists expected compared with the past two years.
Sun International’s chief operations officer Graham Wood said while travellers want adventure they also crave luxury.
He said the US was the biggest source market, followed by the UK, the Middle East, Europe (particularly Germany) and Africa. Domestic travel also remains high.
Mayco member for economic growth James Vos said the port of Cape Town was expecting 75 ships in the coming months.
Vos said: “The return of cruise liners is wonderful news, bringing thousands of visitors to our city, spending R100 million per port visit benefiting multiple industries.”
Vos said he was excited to confirm that Cape Town was preparing for a bumper holiday season with increased flights and cruise ships heading to the City.
“We are now landing more aeroplanes per day than even before Covid-19.
“Between now and March 2023, we have 1.68 million two-way seats available and will land 191 international flights per week, generating approximately R8 billion in tourism spend.”
He said the basis of the City’s tourism strategy was first, to get more flights landing in Cape Town, second, to dock more cruise liners from all over the globe and finally to host many more events and conferences.
“This will bring many spin-offs from passenger spending to ship maintenance and provision of supplies.
“I am excited to share that we have an incredible line-up and packed programme with many of our conference venues fully booked until the end of next year.”
