While the tourist peak season is not yet over, Cape Town has seen strong tourism recovery figures, with more than 31 000 passengers passing through the airport daily.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said Cape Town has had a successful festive tourism season. Hundreds of thousands flocked to beaches and tourist attractions.
“... Cape Town has had a booming festive tourism season. It is still booming now, with hundreds of thousands enjoying our pristine beaches and tourist attractions. While the tourist peak season is not yet over, we can already see a strong recovery in Cape Town, with over 31 000 passengers passing through the airport daily. This brings job-creating economic growth to our shores,” Hill-Lewis said.
“My thanks goes to all the teams who helped deliver a successful festive period. Together we have achieved the City’s largest ever safety deployment of over 4 000 personnel to keep Cape Town safer for locals and visitors alike, alongside mountain patrols and a road safety presence. Our beaches have been 100% open and clean for visitors, without a single closure. We have also not had a single closure of any of our recreational vleis,” said Hill-Lewis.
The Safety and Security Directorate deployed personnel to address various enforcement priorities, including to specific beaches and at special Beach Joint Operational Centres (JOC).
“In our daily general enforcement efforts, hundreds of arrests were made and contraband confiscated. On New Year’s Day, our LEAP officers confiscated four firearms in less than 20 hours.
“We also witnessed a massive firefighting response to the wildfires in the South Peninsula, as well as numerous structural fires over the festive season,” said mayco member for safety and security JP Smith.
Mayco member for community services and health, Patricia van der Ross said to prevent minors going missing on beaches, 104 450 children were tagged by the City’s Identikidz project, with 281 children reunited with their caregivers as at Monday.
“The City deployed 340 beach lifeguards on duty between 10am and 6pm daily.
“There have been nine fatal drownings along the coastline since the beginning of December, with all these tragic incidents occurring at beaches that are not designated swimming areas, or outside lifeguard duty hours.
... Safety at our recreational spaces is a shared responsibility ... The festive season is winding down, but the summer season is far from over,” said Van der Ross.
Mayco member for economic growth James Vos said early indications show a big tourism return for Cape Town.
“For the 2023/2024 festive season, about 215 international flights have landed every week since the start of summer. We also have 50 cruise ships confirmed for this season, promising substantial economic benefits. Encouragingly, many conference venues are already booked until the end of 2024.
This will significantly benefit hotels and attractions, ,” said Vos.
Cape Times