All indications are that Cape Town and the Western Cape is experiencing a good 2007/2008 summer tourism season. “Cape Town and the Western Cape saw a record growth in tourism numbers in 2006. It is becoming evident that our destination is maintaining this growth momentum, when one takes into account the short term performance indicators for air travel and selected iconic attractions for the 2007/2008 summer season,” says Calvyn Gilfellan, Acting Chief Executive of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the official tourism destination marketing organisation for Cape Town and the Western Cape.

According to Airports Company South Africa statistics for October to December 2007, there has been an 11.07% increase in domestic passengers at Cape Town International Airport, when compared with the same period in 2006 (up from 826 911 to 918 418). International and Southern African passengers at Cape Town International combined, showed a growth of 3.46% (up from 214 264 to 221 674).

According to Table Mountain National Park statistics, 5.9% more people visited Boulders Beach at Simon’s Town (up from 580 907 to 695 197), while the Cape Point visitor figure for this period grew by 2.25% (up from 825 848 to 844 423). According to the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway’s figures for the three months, there has been a growth of 1.58%, compared to 2006.

According to the V&A Waterfront’s results for October to December 2007, visitation to South Africa’s biggest tourist attraction has increased slightly by 0.52% (up from 5 933 532 to 5 964 283), while visitation to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, according to its figures, showed a decline of 3.01% (down from 208 691 to 202 412).

“This general upward trend has been confirmed through our conversations with representatives from the Western Cape’s different tourism regions. Besides Cape Town, the Cape Garden Route & Klein Karoo, the Cape Winelands, Cape Overberg and the Cape West Coast have all experienced a busy summer season,” says Gilfellan.

“It is important to note that these figures are only for the first half of the summer season (October to December 2007). The full picture will emerge after the Easter holidays at the end of March this year, when the tourism summer season officially ends.

“The true value of these increases will only be measurable once we have the complete set of statistics from SA Tourism, which includes numbers, spend, trends, reasons for visiting and tourist origin,” he says.