Western Cape premier encouraged by domestic tourists visiting province

Western Cape premier, Alan Winde, says it is encouraging to see domestic tourists visiting the province.

Winde was speaking during a visit to the Cape Town Waterfront.

He said the red list exclusion caused immense damage to the hospitality industry, but he can see things slowly starting to pick up.

Winde says, “We also seen encouraging travel from within our country. We are welcoming ‘Gautengers’ here into the Western Cape at the moment and as you can see in the waterfront a large number of people. But across our province, we are seeing it up in the Garden Route, on the west coast. So it is good to see that hospitality sector which is a key component of our economy is now at least able to put some bread on the table.”

Meanwhile, the Cape Town Waterfront says visitor numbers are definitely picking up.

The pandemic reduced visitor numbers from around 80 000 people daily in the peak summer season to around 3000 daily.

Waterfront spokesperson, Donald Kau, says COVID-19 has been rough on them.

Kau says, “I left this place looking like a ghost town and luckily for us it has been up until the 3rd wave passed and the lock downs have come down, we’ve started seeing visitor numbers slowly creep up.”

“Obviously, we would have started to see an increase in international visitors around November, but because of Omicron that pushed that back a little bit. But just for evidence, this past weekend, the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we had to best visitor numbers and the best trading volumes in the mall for this year altogether.”

VIDEO: An influx of local tourists in the Western Cape: