Cape Town, NYC renews tourism marketing partnership

Opening the event, Alderman Vos noted the economic benefits that tourism brings to Cape Town. "Directly and indirectly employing almost 150,000 people, tourism contributes almost R15bn to the local economy. Reducing unemployment is key to our vision for Cape Town. Partnerships like these increase the visibility of Cape Town as a global destination and ensure that we remain the go-to city on the African continent and globally for business, trade, and tourism.

"We will continue to build on these successes by working with industries and strategic partners to invest in projects and programmes that will drive demand and make business sense," added Alderman Vos.

Cape Town, New York locks in first ever city-to-city tourism partnership

24 Aug 2017

Matsuda Healy of NYC & Company said: "Originally formed in 2017, this partnership between Cape Town Tourism and NYC & Company began three years ago and presents an ongoing opportunity for Cape Town Tourism and NYC & Company for both organisations to exchange our media spaces – like bus shelters and LinkNYC kiosks in New York City and Cape Town Tourism’s mobile information centres, billboards, and MyCiti buses – in addition to the sharing of best practices in tourism marketing and collaborating on ways to boost travel between the two cities. NYC & Company is proud to renew this valuable partnership during what we have been calling a ‘Monumental Year’ for NYC."

"The potential for what this agreement between our organisations could achieve though was quickly recognised and received an extra boost by the announcement that United Airlines will be launching a direct flight service between Cape Town and New York City beginning later this year," said Matsuda Healy.

Boosting the tourism economy

Duminy highlighted the direct economic benefits of the NYC & Company and Cape Town Tourism partnership saying: "The first direct flight between Cape Town and New York is scheduled to arrive in Cape Town on 16 December and is expected to bring in 24,000 inbound passengers - growing travellers from the USA by 20%.

Cape Town-New York partnership bolsters tourism co-marketing campaign

7 Aug 2019

"Looking solely at the direct route, in its first year of operation, it’s expected to create some 900 jobs and see a R421m boost in tourism spend by 2021."

The event was an opportunity for both Cape Town Tourism and NYC & Company to highlight the areas of collaboration during this next phase of the partnership.

"Looking to how we are planning on marketing our respective destinations, it quickly became apparent that both parties are looking to ensure that tourism activities are done sustainably. It’s quite simple: the backbone to Cape Town’s popularity as a global tourist destination is the natural splendour we are blessed with, so If we do not develop our tourism industry along sustainable parameters, there will come a day when there is no tourism industry," said Duminy.