Provincial tourism authorities say the festive and summer season has lived up to its expectations, as preliminary figures reveal over 400 000 people explored the attractions the Western Cape has on offer.

It was particularly Cape Town that shined, with the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, Table Mountain National Park: Cape of Good Hope, Table Mountain National Park: Boulders, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden and Robben Island recording an increase in visitors.

Boulders registered an impressive year-on-year growth of 21.9% in December 2023, with Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden seeing an increase of 5.5% and Robben Island by 2.8%.

Western Cape regional attractions, including the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden, Cape Agulhas Lighthouse, Arniston Hotel & Spa, !Khwa ttu, Shipwreck Museum and Panthera Africa recorded a foot count of nearly 20,000 visitors cumulatively.

The MEC of Finance and Economic Opportunities Mireille Wenger says these numbers come off the back of incredible figures released by Cape Town International Airport for December:

“Last week we confirmed that the award-winning Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) smashed all previous monthly records, processing an astounding 317 000 two-way international passengers. This is highest monthly total of passengers in history, surpassing the previous high of 290 000 passengers processed in January 2020.”

According to a Wesgro report Cape Town International Airport’s International terminal saw a 17% year-on-year growth in December 2023, and a 48% growth for the full year, in relation to 2022.

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Meanwhile, the latest data also shows that George Airport’s passenger numbers grew a notable 31% year-on-year for December, with over 83 000 passengers travelling through the airport, pointing to the positive recovery of domestic travel to the Garden Route.

Premier Alan Winde has welcomed the recovery in tourism:

“Following what has been a record-breaking tourism season for our province, we must all harness this momentum towards further growing our economy in 2024. This bumper season was made possible by the thousands of hard-working hospitality staff, backed by the multiple law enforcement bodies and disaster management officials who ensured visitors to our province as well as residents, were safe. We are very proud of you. I look forward to us all maintaining this positive economic momentum into upcoming tourism seasons, like the upcoming school-term holidays. Through this, we can create even more jobs.”