Cape Town’s record-breaking December: What’s driving the tourism growth?

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JEREMY MAGGS: Cape Town’s tourism industry is soaring, with over 500 000 arrivals recorded at Cape Town International this past December, that’s a 3% year-on-year increase. Regional travel showing an impressive 22.5% jump. Clearly, Cape Town is solidifying its reputation as a world-class destination, backed by better air access and global recognition.

So what’s driving the growth, and perhaps more importantly from a numbers perspective, what does it mean for the city’s tourism industry? Enver Duminy is chief executive officer of Cape Town Tourism. So Enver, first of all, a 22.5% jump in regional arrivals, what’s driving this and which markets then are contributing the most?

ENVER DUMINY: Good afternoon, Jeremy. So ja, those numbers are amazing, but we need to also be mindful that those numbers are off a very low base compared to international and domestic numbers. So we are only looking at about 11 000 from the region, however, that is of course we’re looking at the additional flighting capacity, where we have Air Botswana and so on.

So I think for us it’s encouraging to see that significant growth. However, we need to be mindful that it is off a very low base.

But of course, we still deem regional Africa also as part of an international number. So when you do add that on, it does make a bit of a difference to the growth.

We have seen significant growth over the last 12 months, I think in the airport numbers they indicated almost just over 10 million two-way passengers coming through Cape Town International Airport over the last calendar year.

JEREMY MAGGS: A 3.7% rise in international arrivals. How does this compare to pre-pandemic levels and is that a reasonable increase, in your opinion?

ENVER DUMINY: Well, it is a reasonable increase. I think for us, again, December is mostly the festive season, it’s mostly for locals. International tourists will come to Cape Town, those who want to escape the cold of Europe and the US.

But the traditional high season in Cape Town actually starts from, let’s say, just after Christmas, so let’s say from mid to the end of January, right through until about April.

So we should be seeing that growth significantly higher. I think for us as Cape Town Tourism, the most important thing is to see growth. But we also knew that at some point, based on our forecasting, we said that that growth rate would slow down by the end of 2024 because, again, most other destinations would’ve improved.

If you look at what has happened to Durban in 2023, with all their issues, and we are seeing them coming back again, domestic numbers of course would shift to them. Also, when we look at air access, that’s one of the things that has been part of the success of visitors to Cape Town, has been the growth in the number of frequencies of carriers and also additional carriers coming to market.

For example, Norse Atlantic Airways, which just came in at the end of 2024.

We’ve also seen KLM and Air France increasing their frequency, and airlines like Air France also extending their season to end in April, instead of traditionally in March.

So again, these are all good, but what we should bear in mind is that even though you may be getting the arrival numbers, it doesn’t always necessarily translate into accommodation numbers or attraction numbers. So what we have, if we look at our performance over December, we’ve got a bit of a mixed bag of results.

So air arrivals would be up, some attractions were actually down, some of our big six, and then also accommodation in the CBD, some areas were down. But what we did see was an increase in attraction numbers outside of the traditional CBD, as well as accommodation numbers outside of the central business district.

It’s showing that we’re beginning to have geographic spread. But again, the visitor is different. This is, of course, visiting friends and relatives, repeat visitors who may have stayed in the CBD, done the big six on their first visit but when they do come back, they’re of course going to experience the rest of Cape Town’s amazing offerings.

JEREMY MAGGS: And part of that cohort obviously would be local travellers, still the biggest segment, I read. I’m interested to know what’s being done to keep South Africans coming back to Cape Town, given that the charge is often laid against the city that you are too expensive.

ENVER DUMINY: Ja, Jeremy, I think that always becomes a challenging thing around market and demand.

One of the things that we try to, of course, make sure of is about affordability for locals.

It’s something that Cape Town Tourism continues to push, engaging with our members and the wider industry around what we call responsible and fair pricing to avoid price gouging and greed, which is sometimes short term, and to of course hold our members accountable for that.

But also, the other challenge is then of course, if you look at South Africans, we’re still under immense debt and pressure. We still haven’t grown our salaries above inflation, so that pressure still lies there, and of course the operating costs of running a business in South Africa is not cheap. So of course, when you start adding that up, however, that’s no excuse.

But what we do as Cape Town Tourism, we also promote affordable travel.

There are so many things to do in Cape Town that [are] for free, it doesn’t cost you; [and] things to do for under R50 and under R100 as families.

I think the thing is that our job is of course to highlight and showcase these affordable products because I think everybody wants to go and stay in the CBD, go and stay in Camps Bay where there’s a lot of demand and limited supply, and of course that will affect the pricing.

But we also know of attractions offering discounted experiences for locals, where you look at Sanparks [South African National Parks], where you have tier pricing, one for locals, one for [tourists]. But it’s an ongoing process where we engage with industry and make sure that we will keep pushing for fair and responsible pricing.

JEREMY MAGGS: I’m pleased that you mentioned that price gouging is a problem. How do you police against that?

ENVER DUMINY: Well, exceptionally difficult. I think what we can do is, again, as a membership organisation, along with other associations, continue to work with our members in getting them to understand there’s a longer-term plan around making sure that we remain competitive and cost effective as a destination.

But also working with them to relook at their pricing, working with suppliers in the sector, but also to make sure that people understand exactly how to price because I think what sometimes people do is they look at the competitor and they say, well, okay, I’ll price the same thing without understanding exactly the impact that it has.

But what we also do is to watch social media. We also get complaints from visitors and then we will look into that and, of course, address it with the member. So that’s what we try to do.

But I think the whole point around the code of fair and responsible pricing is something that we as an industry collectively agree to and make sure that our members comply with when they are raised with us through the public or through media.

JEREMY MAGGS: How much of a difference is the new Cape Winelands Airport going to make to these numbers in the medium term, do you think?

ENVER DUMINY: I think it’s going to be significant. Again, Acsa [Airports Company of South Africa], of course we know the Cape Town International Airport can handle a lot more volume. I think with the growth we’ve seen because of the Cape Town Air Access initiative in partnership with Wesgro, the city and the provincial government, we have seen more and more flights wanting to come to Cape Town.

And of course, at some stage we’re going to need a second airport.

I think the fact as well is that when you look at how the city has geographically been spread, unfortunately Cape Town, what we don’t do is we don’t build up, we build out. So therefore, when you look at also the time of travel, people getting to the airport, the expansion to the northern suburbs as well, that creates again, new nodes for economic development.

So an airport that’s closer to that area also allows us to be able to create new nodes of economic development in the northern suburbs.

JEREMY MAGGS: And just finally then back to those numbers as far as Cape Town International Airport is concerned, and a quick answer, if you don’t mind, what impact is this growth having on job creation? Can you quantify it?

ENVER DUMINY: Well, at this stage, no. So we always wait for the final numbers to come in, and then of course we’ll get the clever people to do the calculation. But currently we have about 91 000 people, jobs within the tourism sector at the moment and of course, our ambition is to grow that significantly every time we see a growth in these numbers.

JEREMY MAGGS: Thank you very much indeed. Enver Duminy, chief executive officer of Cape Town Tourism.

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