V&A Waterfront unseated as most-visited attraction in SA

Source: Traveller24, 13/07/2016

Town – If you`ve walked through central Cape Town on the first
Thursday of any given month, you`ll soon understand why the CBD has
clinched the most-visited attraction title in South Africa for
2015.


Yet another title among a string of international acclaim, recognizing
its iconic beauty and attraction such as being named the very best
city in Africa by Travel + Leisure, the Telegraph Travel 's Best City
award for the fourth year running and Condé Nast declared it the
World's Best Food City.


South African Tourism visitor figures for 2015 shows that Cape Town's
CBD received 883 000 visitors overall, about 109 000 more visitors
when compared to 2014's 774 000 visitors, which was much lower than
the visitor numbers in 2013 at 817 000.


Edging the V&A Waterfront out of the most-visited seat, the figures
show it had about 840 000 visitors in 2015, about 78 000 less than the
918 000 visitors it received in 2014 and slightly higher than the 822
000 visitors it received in 2013.


While tourism did take a bit of a knock in 2015, following fears
related to the Ebola crisis in West Africa at the time, as well as new
requirements for travelling minors in South Africa, implemented by the
department of home affairs which affected the industry negatively -
January 2016 saw a remarkable recovery. The first three months showed
a strong rebound with an estimated 18.7% growth in arrivals in the
first quarter, when compared to the first quarter of 2015.


Wesgro CEO Tim Harris says, "For a long time the V&A has been the most
visited attraction in SA, but SAT's new numbers show that it has been
overtaken by the central city.


"I think this is a very exciting development that underlines how the
right infrastructure and policing decisions, and partnerships with the
private sector, have restored confidence in the CBD. "


According to Harris the city has "leveraged its significant asset base
in order to open new investment doors". Harris says the Central City
Improvement District (CCID), in which government and business got
together to provide additional cleaning and security in the City
Centre, has turned it into "what is probably the most functional and
liveable central city on the continent".


"The fact that you can walk from meeting to meeting in the City on
clean, well maintained streets provides a significant boost to
investor confidence and ease-of-doing-business," says Harris.


Key to the tourism industry has been Wesgro`s focus in increasing
direct route access to Cape Town - yet another indicator of confidence
in the city, as Wegro's Cape Town Air Access has since helped
establish 6 significant direct routes since its inception in 2015.
These include Ethiopian Airlines direct return flight from Addis
Ababa, Turkish Airlines is set to add a direct, all-year-round flight
from December, KLM will also increase its frequencies to a year-round
daily flight from Amsterdam and Lufthansa will also expand operations
with a non-stop seasonal route from to Frankfurt, starting 2 December
2016.


Talking to British Airways Country Manager for Southern and East
Africa Edward Frost, he told Traveller24 the news of the CBD
overtaking the Waterfront as the most visited attraction made complete
sense from a global perspective as travellers are looking for "more
bespoke, unique experiences when it comes to visiting cities of the
world".


Initiatives such as the Cape Town Big 7, flourishing bike, food and
walking tours on offer around the CBD as well as it burgeoning coffee
culture and home to the World's number one coffee shop, Truth, Cape
Town does not disappoint.


British Airways also recently announced its seasonal flights route
increase for the end of 2016 as well as new direct flights between
Cape Town and Gatwick, set to commence from 24 November.


But the Cape Town CBD is not the only Western Cape tourism attraction
making waves, with the likes of Table Mountain, Cape Point, the
Winelands, Robben Island and the Garden Route all edging in ahead of
the iconic South African safari experience in Kruger.


According to South African Tourism figures for the 2015 period, the
Western Cape is home to no less than 7 out of the top 20 most visited
attractions in the country.


Take a look at the full list here:
1. Cape Town City Centre
2. V&A Waterfront
3. Table Mountain Cableway
4. Cape Point
5. The Winelands
6. Robben Island
7. The Garden Route
8. Kruger Park
9. Apartheid Museum
10. Durban beachfront