British Airways and Lufthansa this week resumed direct flights to Cape Town from London and Munich respectively, bringing hope to a battered Cape tourism industry that has been hard hit by Covid-19 restrictions and severe lockdown regulations.
Britain and Germany are two of South Africa’s biggest tourism source markets, accounting for a third of all overseas arrivals prior to the pandemic.
Business Insider reports that flights are filling up fast, with passenger load factors already above 90%.
Air France resumed its direct flights between Paris and Cape Town last Friday.
In the first eight months of 2019, South Africa welcomed more than 1.6 million overseas travellers. During the same period in 2021, fewer than 160 000 international travellers visited South Africa, revealing a pandemic-induced decline of 90%, according to Statistics South Africa.
Last summer, top attractions in the Western Cape reflected a 60% drop in visitors compared to 2019. Hotel occupancy rates in the city dropped to just 32%, compared to 68% the previous year. Revenue generated by the V&A Waterfront, one of Africa’s most-visited destinations prior to the pandemic, halved, along with domestic passenger volumes recorded at Cape Town International Airport.
[Image: janan lagerwall on Unsplash]