270 000 visitors flock to tourist attractions across the Western Cape in October

The Western Cape’s tourism recovery is gaining momentum, with strong signs that a bumper summer season can be expected.

In October 2022 alone, foot fall at the 17 participating attractions in the Western Cape recorded a total of 269,016 visitors.

This is a 128% year-on-year growth in the number of visitors and a recovery rate of 65% when compared to October 2019.

The findings are included in Wesgro’s monthly tourism report for October 2022, which provides valuable insights into tourism trends in the Western Cape.

Other key findings include:

• Two-way passengers through Cape Town International Airport’s (CTIA) international terminal reached a recovery rate of 83% in October 2022 compared to October 2019. International two-way passengers through CTIA reached 1.41 million between January and October 2022.  
• The CTIA domestic terminal recovery was at 73% in October 2022, improving from previous months. 4.88 million domestic two-way passengers passed through CTIA between January and October 2022.
• Passengers through George Airport almost fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels reaching 90%. George Airport recorded 618,073 two-way passengers between January and October 2022.
• Hotel occupancy for the Western Cape stood at 65.6% in October 2022, representing a recovery rate of 95% when compared to October 2019.
• The Average Daily Rate (ADR) for the Western Cape grew to R1 833.44 and RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room) reached R1 202.42. Both ADR and REVPAR exceeded October 2019 levels, recovering to 115% and 109% respectively.
• The top 5 highest year-on-year growth rates in October 2022 were recorded for Robben Island (181%), Table Mountain National Park: Boulders (159%), Table Mountain National Park: Cape of Good Hope (144%), Cango Caves (133%) and Table Mountain Aerial Cableway (132%).
• 8 out of the 17 participating attractions in the province fully recovered and exceeded their October 2019 visitor numbers.

This is more good news for the Western Cape, following the announcement yesterday that 85 000 jobs were created in the province in the third quarter, bringing the total number of jobs created year-on-year to 203 000.  

This means that the Western Cape’s expanded unemployment rate decreased by 1.8 percentage points quarter-on-quarter and by 0.8 percentage points year-on-year.

It is now up to us to make sure that our destination is ready to welcome our visitors and that they have a memorable stay in the province, so that they keep on coming back. This will be a key focus for the Western Cape Government, as we head into our summer tourism season.