Survey indicates optimism for Cape Town tourism season

Tourism businesses surveyed by Cape Town Tourism revealed that 90% of them are expecting a similar or better business performance than the same period in 2013. This is after a successful season last year, when 80% of tourism businesses surveyed reported a much better or better business performance than expected, for November and December 2013.

Cape Town Tourism's findings are aligned with those of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBSA), whose FNB Index found that performance is forecast to remain above normal levels at 109.8 (100 is normal), despite concerns over critical issues, such as the new visa regulations for South Africa and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The index showed that Quarter 3 (July to September 2014) had been robust with a performance score of 105.3.

In general, this forecast for the 2014/15 holiday season seems attributable to the weak rand and a high demand for travel in the domestic and international leisure markets.

Cape Town CEO, Enver Duminy, said: "We believe that the season will be a good one, but there are several factors that make it very difficult to predict with any certainty. We have had a lot of enquiries and it is clear that visitors have already started to arrive as we are seeing them in our Visitor Information Centres and on the streets."

Low-cost flight options

A newly launched South African airline, Flysafair, launched its service in October 2014, opening up more low-cost flight options for domestic travellers wanting to come to Cape Town.

British Airways will operate seven additional services, for the period 1-11 January 2015, from London Heathrow to Cape Town, with Edelweiss announcing earlier this year that it is to increase its seasonal non-stop service from Cape Town to Zurich to three weekly flights.

Qatar Airways has also just launched direct flights that will be operating five times a week between Doha and Cape Town. This is an important development for Cape Town as the destination continues to strengthen its ties with emerging source market, United Arab Emirates.

Flight routes and source markets are closely linked. Ease of access is a major factor in driving traffic to Cape Town. The Western Cape government continues to lobby for more direct flights to Cape Town from more diverse source markets.

For more, go to www.capetown.travel