Foreign tourists spend more than R18bn in Western Cape

Cape Town - The Western Cape attracted 1.5 million foreign tourists, who spent in excess of R18bn in the province, in 2016.

This is a year-on-year (y/y) increase of 18.5% in terms of number of foreign visitors, while the spend of foreign tourists grew by 21.6%, according to the latest figures from SA Tourism (SAT).

Domestic tourism arrivals reached 2.1 million, up 16.9% year-on-year and domestic tourists spent R2.5bn in 2016, a 24.3% increase from the previous year.

According to Alan Winde, Western Cape Minister of Economic Opportunities, 2016 was a phenomenal year for tourism in the province, with substantial increases recorded across the board.

In his view, this is a result of - among others - the decision made to put tourism front and centre through the Project Khulisa growth strategy.
"When we put Project Khulisa together, we believed that tourism held huge potential to unlock accelerated growth and job creation in our province. We put dedicated teams and a dedicated programme of action in place to realise this potential," said Winde.

Judy Lain, chief marketing officer of Wesgro - Cape Town and the Western Cape’s tourism, trade and investment promotion agency - said the latest tourism data underlines the strength of the sector as an economic driver for the province.

"Looking forward, Wesgro will continue driving its leisure and Convention Bureau plans to keep the momentum going. Tourism can help create jobs during tough economic times, so we must all double-down on our efforts to grow these numbers even further,” said Lain.

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