Cape Town lifts depressed South Africa economy

Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala (middle), flanked by among others the Kenya Ports Authority Managing Director Catherine Mturi Mabruk and Principal Secretary for Gender Mwanamaka Mturi in consultation with port workers at the port of Mombasa in Mombasa County on Monday,024th July,2017. Balala was inspecting the ongoing construction of the proposed cruise ship terminal at Berth no one at the port.[Maarufu Mohamed,Standard]

South Africa’s top tourist hub Cape Town expects a 13 per cent jump in visitors this year to 1.77 million, officials said on Thursday, a rare bright spot in an economy that slid into recession in March.

Cape Town had the country’s four most popular attractions, including Robben Island - apartheid’s most notorious jail where former president Nelson Mandela spent 18 years.

South Africa’ economy is in dire need of some positive news.

It fell into recession in the first quarter of the year and is seen in Reuter’s polls growing just 0.7 per cent for 2017 as a whole. Unemployment is at a 14-year high of 27.7 per cent. The country’s credit rating, meanwhile, has been downgraded to junk by two of the top three credit rating agencies.

But tourists have been coming, possibly encouraged by the weak rand, which has fallen more than 20 per cent against the dollar since a high last year.

Britain, Germany and the US were the three leading sources of tourist arrivals to the Western Cape province, Alan Winde, regional minister of economic opportunities in the province, said.

“Tourism can help South Africa to correct its current economic trajectory,” he told reporters.

Arrivals to Cape Town reached 1.56 million in 2016 from 1.38 million in 2014, with foreign spending rising by 3.6 billion rand to 18 billion rand ($1.4 billion) over the same period, Winde said.

According to South African Tourism, some 10 million foreigners overall arrived last year.

The Treasury said in February that tourism contributed three per cent to GDP in 2015.