Western Cape tourism boom

A “cooking” summer holiday season in the Western Cape, which includes the tourist mecca of Cape Town, has spurred an increase in hiring, its top official said.  

About 99%, or 167,000 of the 169,000 job gains in South Africa in the three months through December, were in the coastal province.

The domestic tourism industry was the main driver of employment, followed by the financial and services industries, Premier Alan Winde said in an interview on Wednesday. 

“This December we had 191 direct international flights coming into Cape Town a week,” he said. “We did a million tourists through our airport in the summer season.”

Statistics agency data show the number of tourists visiting South Africa in December, traditionally the most popular holiday month, increased by 158% from a year earlier. The previous two summer seasons were affected by coronavirus restrictions.  

The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s biggest opposition party, runs the Western Cape. Its outright majority in several of the region’s districts, clean municipal audit outcomes and ability to shield parts of the province from severe national power outages has bolstered regional business confidence and created an environment more conducive to job creation, Winde said.