Cape Town - Hoteliers in in Cape Town are gearing up for a bumper holiday season.
Pepperclub Hotel general manager Efi Ella said that during the pandemic they had to reinvent themselves and recreate content to try to attract more locals.
“Even though the current intake of tourists staying at the hotel are foreign, the local market is a very important source market for us and the hotel has seen a surge in travel over the last few months.”
In St George’s Mall, Old Bank Hotel group sales manager Teena Douglas said there was an overwhelming feeling of excitement before the upcoming holiday season. She said she hoped next year there would be even more travel into Cape Town, including throughout winter.
Mayco member for economic growth, James Vos, said the City was working around the clock to help the tourism sector bounce back “stronger than before”.
At the same time Wesgro’s Cape Town Air Access update said the recovery in the aviation industry of flights to southern Africa “continues on an upward trajectory for Cape Town International Airport, with a bumper festive season predicted”.
Meanwhile, releasing the 2021 domestic tourism survey, Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said the findings reflected a general pattern of increase in domestic tourism from 2020 to 2021.
The survey, which focused on day and overnight trips, found the number of day trips increased from 12.4 million in 2020 to 16 million in 2021, while overnight trips increased from 7.5 million in 2020 to 10.9 million in 2021.
Maluleke said: “A significant increase in day trips from 2020 to 2021 was observed in the months, April to August.”
The survey showed that most day trips were within the province in which individuals reside, except for Gauteng.
Maluleke said the provinces of destination with the lowest incidence of day travellers from other provinces were the Western and Eastern Cape, where almost all the travellers were from within the provinces.