Cape Town and the Western Cape are open for business, and ready to welcome visitors to our beautiful city and province. We need tourism now more than ever, as we aim to keep our economy growing and creating jobs during this challenging drought.
This is critical. International press coverage of the drought, and on the prospects of “Day Zero”, has caused anxiety amongst foreign travellers. We have received concerned calls from the tourism trade, as travellers’ question whether they should visit Cape Town now,
and even book for it in the future.

One of the key concerns noted by potential tourists who are considering Cape Town, and which is also echoed by some citizens, is that they would make the situation water worse if they visited our region. We believe that this is not only incorrect, but that the opposite is true. Not visiting Cape Town and the Western Cape now would only make this challenging situation worse.

Western Cape Minister of Economic Opportunities, Alan Winde said: “We’ve worked hard to build our tourism destination into the award winning sector it is today: Cape Town has won the Telegraph Best City award for five consecutive years and is routinely voted
as a top tourist destination in other readers’ choice polls. Our airport is the best in Africa. These polls are voted for by our visitors, and reflect the excellent experiences they have had here. We work tirelessly to uphold this reputation and ensure that all visitors to our shores are able to leave with only positive stories to recount. We urge visitors to make sure Cape Town is on their immediate bucket list, but to use water responsibly while they are visiting us. Saving water in Cape Town means saving jobs in Cape Town.”