We take a look at Cape Town and how improved air accessibility has helped the city and region.
Cape Town has been gaining traction with growing tourist arrivals in recent times.
A growing number of airlines are introducing direct flights to the city, rated one of the world’s most beautiful.
TOURISM DRAWCARD
Cape Town has always been a prime tourist destination.
The city is home to several renowned attractions including Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cape Point, Chapman’s Peak, wine estates, grand hotels and fine dining options.
A number of key participating attractions across the Western Cape recorded a total of 1,703,804 visitors between January and February 2024.
This represents a 20% growth in the number of visitors when compared to January – February 2023. (Source: Wesgro)
CAPE TOWN AIR ACCESSIBILITY
For years, the city was mainly accessible to international visitors connecting through Johannesburg’s airport hub.
However, the establishment of the Cape Town Air Access initiative has changed this.
Cape Town Air Access has had great success in further opening up the city and the province.
This has been achieved by facilitating airline connectivity to Cape Town International Airport.
The spin-off is increased tourism flows, generating higher income for the local economy.
And, ultimately, this leads to job creation.
BOOSTING LOCAL ECONOMY
The award-winning Cape Town Air Access team – powered by Wesgro has expanded the city’s air accessibility, ensuring the Western Cape remains a prime destination for travellers worldwide.
Since 2015, Cape Town and the Western Cape have been connected directly to ten new African destinations, bringing the total cross-border African destinations served out of Cape Town to 15, with 11 operating airlines.
It is also easier than ever to fly directly into Cape Town, with 215 international flights a week coming into the award-winning Cape Town International Airport.
The team also facilitated the launch of flights to the United States of America (New York, Washington and Atlanta) and the United Kingdom (London Gatwick).
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CONNECTING AFRICA
Furthermore, the Western Cape is a key connection point to the rest of Africa.
The city’s air access team has worked to open up routes between Cape Town and Rwanda (Kigali), Zimbabwe (Harare and Victoria Falls), Mozambique (Maputo), Zambia (Lusaka) and Kenya (Nairobi).
Air arrivals from the rest of Africa to Cape Town during the period January to February 2024 reflected a full recovery from 7 out of the top 10 African source markets to Cape Town compared with Jan – Feb 2019.
These markets included Zimbabwe (135%), Mozambique (18100%), Kenya (202%), Nigeria (112%), Tanzania (176%), Ghana (304%) and Botswana (1129%). (Source: StatsSA)
Cape Town’s Air Access team highlighted some of these achievements with route development expert Jon Howell, CEO at AviaDev.
