For the second year in a row, Cape Town has been named Africa’s Leading City Destination 2022 at the World Travel Awards.
This was announced Saturday night at the Africa & Indian Ocean Gala Ceremony held in Nairobi, Kenya, attended by leading travel industry decision-makers and stakeholders from across Africa.
These awards, which serve to acknowledge, reward, and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the global travel and tourism industry, also presented this accolade to Cape Town last year, along with the prestigious title of World’s Leading Festival and Event Destination for 2021.
Adding to this accolade, Cape Town Tourism’s first-of-its-kind, immersive game-style platform, Find Your Freedom, scooped up four awards at the 10th annual Supersonic New Generation Awards held at the end of last month. These included Bronze Awards for Most Viral Campaign, Most Innovative Gamification Campaign, Best Use of Technical Innovation and Best Revenue Generating Marketing campaign or Event.
Enver Duminy, CEO of Cape Town Tourism says that since international travel to Cape Town opened up after the pandemic, the campaigns and hard work behind the scenes has really paid off.
“With our now award-winning Find Your Freedom campaign and other ongoing initiatives, we have been hard at work to restore confidence in Cape Town, which suffered greatly from the global travel bans since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Duminy says. “The past year has seen encouraging growth in both international and local travel and hospitality in Cape Town. Being awarded Africa’s Leading City Destination 2022, means yet again that the Mother City is being recognised as a truly world class destination, and we could not be prouder”.
As the main international gateway into Cape Town, winning the Best Airport in Africa at the prestigious 2022 Skytrax World Airport Awards this year is another award that the city is very proud of.
“We are very pleased with and humbled by this accolade. This award is in recognition of the great work being done by the ACSA team in collaboration with all our stakeholders and partners to provide passengers and airport users with a world class experience,” says Mark Maclean, Regional General Manager, Cape Town International Airport Cluster. “We trust that it will provide visitors to our shores with a sense of comfort and assurance that they will receive a warm welcome and have a good memorable experience at our airport,” he says.
These awards come on top of numerous others presented to the city over the past year, including:
- Third Greatest City on Earth by the Telegraph (2022)
- Most Promising Muslim-friendly City Destination of The Year (Non-OIC) by the Halal Travel Awards (2022)
- Travel & Leisure World’s Best Award for No.1 City in Africa and the Middle East (2021)
- World Travel Awards for Africa’s Leading City Destination (2021)
- Africa’s Leading Tourist Attraction: Table Mountain Aerial Cableway (2021)
The apple of Cape Town’s eye, Table Mountain, was also recognised once again at these prestigious World Travel Awards, being voted as Africa’s Leading Tourism Attraction for the fourth year in a row.
“The World Travel Awards is the gold standard in the travel world and acknowledges service excellence and responsible operators each year,” says Wahida Parker, Managing Director for the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company (TMACC).
“We are beyond excited at the news that we retained our title. This award continues to recognise the iconic beauty that has made Table Mountain one of the best tourist attractions in the world. As a Natural Wonder of the World, the mountain has seen more than 29 million visitors reach the top of its summit by the aerial cableway over the decades. We are very pleased with this distinction,” she says.
Table Mountain has meanwhile been nominated in the next stage of the annual World Travel Awards categories, where the focus shifts from regional to global. Table Mountain and the Cableway have been nominated in two categories.
Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth for the City of Cape Town says, “These awards are both humbling and an affirmation of the splendour and people of our great metro. It’s a continued celebration of our city on a global stage and want to thank my team and our industry partners who continue to work hard in keeping our Mother City top of mind for travellers. It is through tourism that the opportunities and innovation of Cape Town are revealed to the world. These awards bring significant global attention and investor value to the Mother City, which we are very grateful for.”
To mark Tourism Month last month and to acknowledge the role that the people of Cape Town play in keeping the city as a favourite destination, for both domestic and international travellers, Cape Town Tourism ran their first “Freedom to Wish” campaign. This initiative invited Capetonians to nominate themselves or a loved one for a dream experience in the metro.
Over 1 800 Capetonians nominated themselves or loved ones to win a tourism adventure of a lifetime, with some of the more memorable wishes being fulfilled including a mother with stage four cancer enjoying a family cruise and a choir from Khayelitsha taken to the top of Table Mountain where they treated other tourists to their beautiful singing.
This year is the 29th edition of the annual World Travel Awards, globally recognised as the most prestigious honours programme in travel and tourism. Voted for by travel professionals, media, and consumers worldwide, this honour truly recognises Cape Town Tourism’s commitment to excellence.
