The City of Cape Town welcomed the world’s top travel professionals, buyers, exhibitors and media at Cape Town International Airport this week as they arrived for the three-day Africa Travel Week (ATW), which kicked off today (Monday, April 11).

Headline shows over the three days include World Travel Market (WTM) Africa, the International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) Africa, and the Africa Tourism Investment Summit (ATIS).

‘The benefits of hosting an event like Africa Travel Week are immense, not only for Cape Town, but for the region and the continent as a whole. Africa Travel Week provides a wonderful platform for SMMEs in the travel industry looking to access international travel buyers,” said Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.

He pointed out that tourism was a major economic driver for Cape Town, generating employment, income and investment.

“The city remains an important and visible part of the global travel landscape and one of the most beloved tourist destinations in the world. As the City, we are committed to continuing to support and help grow the local tourism industry.”

Cape Town has been host city of Africa Travel Week since its inception in 2014 and this year, the City will once again participate as an exhibitor and have key officials and partners engaging on various speaker platforms.

  “With this event’s reach, I am confident we will see Cape Town’s tourism industry reach new heights in the year ahead. The industry is clearly looking up and I am confident that the local and global markets will recover to even greater levels,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, James Vos.

He said in 2019, the last time ATW was held, a “phenomenal US$451 million” in revenue had been generated.

“Already we have witnessed a great deal of recovery from the national lockdown. I’m happy to share that Cape Town International Airport is now welcoming around 25 000 passengers daily, 3 000 of them international,” Vos added.