Cape Town, New York sign city partnership agreement

In a first for the African continent, the City of New York and the City of Cape Town signed a historic city-to-city partnership agreement on Wednesday to boost tourism and business between the two iconic destinations.

NYC & Company President and CEO Fred Dixon and Cape Town Tourism’s CEO Enver Duminy officially confirmed the agreement at a signing ceremony in New York City on Wednesday.

Travel between Cape Town and New York is expected to increase because of this new alliance. The partnership will see the two cities collaborate in a number ways, including sharing best practices in tourism marketing and using their respective marketing platforms to promote reciprocal travel between the cities.

“Today, we are proud to sign a first-ever partnership with Cape Town, one of the world’s most iconic and beautiful cities,” said Dixon. “New York City and Cape Town share a lot in common as capital cities of culture, cuisine and design, and we look forward to cultivating this productive tourism relationship in the year ahead.

“This announcement has been years in the making, but at the outset it was clear that New York is the ideal city for collaboration with Cape Town,” said Duminy. “We’re greatly encouraged by this tourism twinning agreement, after all, a city with a global reputation for world-class tourism is acknowledging that we have just as much value to offer the global traveller. We look forward to this partnership and to sharing the benefits with our communities.”

The partnership is expected to see the City of Cape Town promoted on bus stop shelters and LinkNYC kiosks, which reaches millions of local and global visitors to New York. In Cape Town, similar marketing campaigns will promote the Big Apple to South Africans. Travellers can also look forward to special offers and incentives from third-party providers of flights and accommodation.

South Africa accounts for a nearly 30 percent share of African visitors to New York City. The United States is currently Cape Town’s second largest international source market. In 2015, 30 percent of arrivals to Cape Town from the US originated at or travelled via New York City airports.