Drought unlikely to affect Cape Town tourism in December

The acute water shortages in the Western Cape – and in the City of Cape Town, in particular – are unlikely to negatively affect the region’s tourism in the traditionally busy year-end period, says Grant Thornton Tourism director Martin Jansen van Vuuren, who acknowledges the severity of the water shortage, but believes context is crucial. 
 
“December is undoubtedly the busiest time of the year for the Western Cape – especially for Cape Town – and it would appear that tourists descend on the area in their droves, but once we take a closer look at the numbers, we can gain a better perspective of their impact.” 
 
He explains that Cape Town receives about 1.5-million foreign tourists a year. About 10% of these – around 150 000 – visit the city in December. For a city with a population of around four-million, a 4% increase owing to foreign tourists is not really a significant increase.
 
He adds that foreign tourists stay in the city for 5 to 14 days, on average, with arrivals not only concentrated around Christmas and New Year but reasonably spaced out over the entire month. 
 
Meanwhile, domestic tourism has buoyed the tourism sector over the past few years, and in keeping with this, there are a greater number of local visitors that flock to the Western Cape over the festive season. 
 
“During December, about 250 000 domestic tourists travel to Cape Town, but our data shows that around 290 000 Capetonians leave the city – often to go elsewhere in the Western Cape, such as to the Garden Route or to the Overberg. This means that the impact of domestic tourists on the city is not as big as we may believe,” Jansen van Vuuren says. 
 
Those who live in Cape Town may well believe differently, given additional traffic in the main tourism areas. 
 
“We have to be reminded that December is also the time when locals – who may spend most of their time in the suburbs otherwise – descend on the tourism areas in greater numbers, either to show visiting friends and family around, or to enjoy the festive season attractions themselves. This leads to congestion in these areas and it also gives the impression that the city is busier than it may actually be.”