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This International Tourism Day, it is exciting to announce that the Western Cape is poised to have another bumper summer tourism season. International passenger volumes at the Cape Town International Airport have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, outperforming 2019 levels by 9% for the April to August period in this year. This equates to 967 014 international passengers moving through the airport in this period.

This was revealed by the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) during a meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism last week.

In addition, ACSA revealed that they are expecting peak season numbers to be even better, with an 18% growth over 2019 international passenger numbers forecasted for the November 2023 to March 2024 summer season.

This is outstanding news for the residents of the Western Cape, because more tourists translate directly to more jobs.

The growth in passenger numbers is due in no small part to the great work done by Wesgro, the Western Cape Government’s tourism and investment promotion entity, and Cape Town Air Access, in securing 6 new airline routes, to 6 new destinations across 3 continents, for the CTIA since September 2022.

This has resulted in a 25% increase in inbound seat capacity to Cape Town, with more than 1 million inbound seats available for the summer season in 2023/24.

The new destinations include:
• Atlanta, USA
• Washington DC, USA
• Maputo, Mozambique
• Lusaka, Zambia
• Manzini, Eswatini
• Sao Paulo, Brazil

The upcoming summer season promises to be one of the best on record for the Western Cape, and the DA-led Western Cape Government will continue to do everything possible to support our tourism growth, and the growth of employment in this province.

Issued by Cayla Murray, MPP - DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism