South Africa’s current volatile political and economic situation – and subsequent credit ratings downgrade – is not expected to have a significant impact on Western Cape tourism numbers, but officials are mitigating any possible effects and risks.

Speaking to Tourism Update on the sidelines of a workshop outlining Cape Town and the Western Cape’s economic plan of action following the recent credit rating downgrades, Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris, said he would be surprised if tourist numbers were affected in any way.

“Of course if the rand depreciates because of investor confidence, that can make our tourism offering better value, so we are seeing opportunity here,” he said.

Harris said Wesgro would intensify brand-building initiatives in coming months, showcasing what the city and province had to offer, and also double down on Project Khulisa, the Western Cape government’s economic strategy. Growing tourism is a key objective of this project.

Wesgro had also drafted an aligned communications plan across the Western Cape that would see engagement with municipalities about how to counter negative perceptions about investing and visiting the region. “The goal is that everyone be on the same page and that we share the same messages.”

Harris said Wesgro had significantly increased the number of tourism missions for the next year with a total of 17 on the cards to regions including Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the US.

“This is a big pick-up in the number of promotion missions that we do abroad,” he said.

Cape Town Director of Trade and Investment, Lance Greyling said: “We are not just increasing our tourism missions but also our trade and investment promotion missions in 2017 as we step up a notch in selling the region as a tourist and investment destination. More than 70 of these missions will be taken during the course of the next few months.” He was speaking on behalf of Mayor Patricia de Lille.