HOSPITALITY
The State of
Hospitality
Cape Town Tackles the Challenge
BY TRACY BARTLETT
O
ver the past decade Cape Town has firmly established itself as a leading international destination, earning a plethora of prestigious awards and accolades and attracting keen local and foreign investor interest, with tourism now the city’ s second largest industry supporting over 300 000 jobs in the Western Cape.
And, until a year ago, the Mother City’ s stellar upward trajectory seemed unassailable, with tourist numbers increasing annually and extensive development continuing despite growing uncertainty around the stability of the national economy.
However, even Cape Town is no match for mother nature and, in its third year, the intensifying drought and increasingly severe water restrictions have finally begun to dent the city’ s armour with visitors starting to cancel trips to South Africa’ s tourism capital.
But Glyn Taylor, Joint CEO of the Century City Conference Centre & Hotel( CCCC & H) believes that there are many compelling reasons for remaining optimistic, with the main challenge being to communicate to the world at large that visitors do not aggravate the situation but that they are, in fact, a crucial part of the solution.
“ According to the latest Aviation Barometer published by Airports Company South Africa, tourism numbers were still strong in the fourth quarter of 2017 with international arrivals at Cape Town International arrivals increasing by 13.85 % and so it ' s critical that we adapt as quickly as we can to limit the damage going forward.”
Gary Koetser, Taylor’ s counterpart, adds that another encouraging indication of the city’ s resilience and its potential to weather the storm is the fact that development in the hospitality sector has barely paused for breath during the last three years with many ground-breaking projects already completed
42 APRIL / MAY 2018 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine