The City of Cape Town is stepping up efforts to attract more Chinese travellers, following new data from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation showing that Chinese tourists were the world’s top outbound spenders in 2024.

Mayoral committee member for Economic Growth, James Vos, says the city plans to expand its presence on major Chinese social media platforms, leveraging an increasing library of Chinese-language content, including articles, brochures, and destination videos, to raise Cape Town’s profile.

“China and India are among the biggest tourism markets, both in terms of visitor numbers and spending power. That is the audience we are targeting for Cape Town. This is why we are expanding our campaigns in these countries after reaching millions of impressions on our social media platforms.”

Despite the city’s appeal, last year only 41 651 Chinese tourists visited South Africa, a small fraction of the roughly 100 million Chinese travellers who went abroad in 2024.

Vos says early marketing efforts on WeChat, China’s leading social media and messaging platform, have shown strong potential.

“Our test campaigns, which ran on a minimal budget from September 2024 to October 2025, received over 20 million impressions in just one year.”

Cape Town offers a wide range of attractions and experiences for travellers of all backgrounds, and Vos says the city’s next step is to secure direct flights from these key source markets to make visiting even easier.

“Our goal is not just to attract tourists, but to make Cape Town an accessible and compelling destination for travellers from China and India.”