FROM THE CHAIRPERSON The past year has been a struggle for us and especially the tourism industry in Cape Town. The theme for this year’s AGM, “It Starts With Us,” was based on a simple learning objective: You can create tomorrow with action today. Cape Town Tourism’s core purpose as a member organisation is to support you by starting initiatives and programmes that will have a lasting impact on travel to Cape Town. We have dealt with having to recover after the now infamous “Day Zero”, increased negativity in the media due to safety incidents against tourists and member businesses, and despite our country’s anaemic economy, we have shown remarkable resilience. But these challenges have not prevented our progress. Overall tourism performance was mixed with arrivals growing slightly while accommodation occupancy and attraction numbers were down year-on-year. Cape Town International Airport welcomed 5.4 million passengers, the third consecutive year that arrivals have exceeded 5 million passengers. This is a 2% increase year-on-year for total arrivals. Domestic arrivals remained unchanged year-on-year, international arrivals increased by 8% while regional arrivals decreased by 4%. Julie-May Ellingson Chairperson We also delivered some amazing campaigns and programmes to ensure that we keep Cape Town top-of-mind for travel-trade and media, but also looking after them when they are here. A few of the most notable moments include our participation and funding of the Nowhere Better Campaign in partnership with the City of Cape Town, Wesgro, Provincial Government, and the private sector; our role in the Cape Town Air Access initiative and funding towards the direct flight between Cape Town and New York; the launch of our first #CapeTownWinterSong digital campaign in partnership with Mango and the City of Cape Town and the media launch of our first curated-route in Khayelitsha and our SME marketing incubator partnership with Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). All of our achievements would not have been possible without the continued belief and support from the City of Cape Town, our Board of Directors, our Members and Partners, and the tireless dedication of the Cape Town Tourism team. Thank you for the privilege of working with you to build a dynamic organisation. THE CAPE TOWN TOURISM BOARD (ALPHABETICAL) : Alushca Ritchie, Ayanda Mazibuko, Brett Hendricks, Deidre Davids, Grant Newton, Julie-May Ellingson - Chairperson, Leigh Thomas, Wahida Parker PAGE 1 FROM THE CEO Cape Town Tourism is addressing tourism challenges on all fronts to ensure that Cape Town continues to build on its reputation to attract visitors all year round. Four initiatives being driven simultaneously are actively generating a positive response from visitors, communities, government and the tourism sector alike. We ran our innovative and successful Tourism Safety Ambassador Programme for the second consecutive year. Unemployed youth and final year university students from disadvantaged communities in the Cape Flats and Bo-Kaap learn valuable life and tourism skills while assisting to keep our visitors safe. We believe that our efforts go a long way in reducing possible safety risks posed to visitors while trying to ensure that they enjoy every part of our city from eKasi to the CBD. Water-scarcity is no longer an idea or concept that lives in text-books or National Geographic documentaries, it’s a reality, and being resilient to this and other natural disasters is becoming a necessity rather than a nice-to-have. The Secretary General of the UNWTO singled us out for our efforts in reducing water usage – how we learned to collaborate during a crisis has become a ENVER DUMINY best-practice case study. There have been multiple campaigns and communication CEO, Cape Town Tourism efforts, so collectively, these have ensured that the messaging is brought across to visitors and that water usage is reduced accordingly. Cape Town has a rich Muslim history and heritage, with the Cape Malay Muslims making up around a quarter of the population. Cape Town Tourism works closely with CrescentRating, the world’s leading authority on Halal Travel, to accredit and train the industry first-hand, and have Muslim employees and trained staff to focus on this segment. Cape Town Tourism recently embarked on a new mentorship journey. In partnership with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, a Love Cape Town Marketing Incubator has been created. It’s aimed at SMEs within Cape Town Tourism’s sizeable membership base and provides mentorship and training via a one-day course with some of the top minds in the business. If we’re to continue our growth trajectory as a destination, we must be bold, agile and achieve ground-breaking results. Our strategies are yielding fruit, and we have some fantastic creative minds working with us to amaze and delight visitors. PAGE 2 GLOBAL ACCOLADES FOR CAPE TOWN 2018/19 One of World’s World’s Best City Friendliest Cities - 2018 Telegraph Travel Awards survey Top Ten Spot In Global Bucket List of Places To Visit - Big 7 Travel BEST CITY IN AFRICA & WORLD’s Leading Festival & MIDDLE EAST Events Destination - Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards - World Travel Awards Africa’s Leading City Africa’s Leading City Break Destination Destination -World Travel Awards - World Travel Awards Cape Town’s locals are full of life and warmth and instantly welcome visitors to the city. It’s a safe city for travellers (once you explore with some common sense!) with “ a diverse mix of locals and an exciting energy. Our readers scored it highly on first impressions, putting it firmly as one of the friendliest cities in the world. - Big 7 Travel ” PAGE 3 Key industry indicators (1 July 2018 - 30 June 2019) CAPE TOWN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT ARRIVALS Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) welcomed 5,4 million passengers, the third consecutive year that arrivals have exceeded 5 million passengers. This is despite the challenges our city has faced. These include political instability, depressed economy, safety and security issues, visa requirements and the drought. As a long haul destination, we continue to strive towards increasing arrivals. 4 110 738 4 MILLION TOTAL ARRIVALS YOY GHANGE 5 429 721 2% 3 MILLION 2 MILLION 1 213 488 1 MILLION 102 024 0 DOMESTIC INTERNATIONAL REGIONAL ARRIVALS ARRIVALS ARRIVALS YOY GROWTH 0% 8% 4% Source: Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), July 2018 - June 2019 Top international Source Market arrivals to Cape Town include the United Kingdom, Germany and the U.S.A. The international source markets that saw the greatest YOY growth include India, China and Spain. 120 000 100% 100 000 80% 80 000 60% TOTAL YOY GROWTH 60 000 40% 40 000 20% 20 000 0% 0 -20% ITALY U.S.A INDIA CHINA BRAZIL FRANCE CANADA SWEDEN BELGIUM NAMIBIA GERMANY AUSTRALIA SWITZERLAND NETHERLANDS UNITED KINGDOM PAGE 4 KEY INDUSTRY INDICATORS (1 July 2018 - 30 June 2019) ACCOMMODATION SECTOR In terms of the accommodation sector’s performance, monthly occupancy rates recorded a decline for all months with the exception of November 2018. Despite the decline, room rates have consistently increased over the period of March – June 2019. Supply has continued to increase in both the formal and informal sector; most notably more than 17 000 accommodation options are listed for Cape Town. The best performance for occupancy was recorded in February 2019, which is unsurprising as this is a peak month for international leisure tourism and business tourism to Cape Town. July is again at the lowest point of the trough for low season months. R2500 100% AVERAGE ROOM RATE 0% R2000 80% REVPAR 4% R1500 60% OCCUPANCY RATE R1000 40% 8% R500 20% R0 0% JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN Source: Horwath HTL Accommodation Performance Survey, July 2018 – June 2019 TOURIST ATTRACTIONS Chapman’s Peak Drive and Robben Island were the only attractions that reported YOY growth. December was the peak month for attractions, but performance decreased by 5% YOY. In addition to the destination challenges, attractions reported that weather and the changes to the school holidays affected their performance. The decline in the domestic market is largely as a result of the constrained local economy. 100 000 000 10 000 000 1 127 075 915 071 1 074 657 1 149 400 1 000 000 412 535 323 535 492 950 100 000 10 000 1 000 100 10 1 Cape Point Peak Drive Chapman’s Groot Constantia Gardens Kirstenbosch Botanical Robben Island Museum Aerial Cableway Mountain Table Two Oceans Aquarium V&A Waterfront YOY GROWTH -2% 6% -9% 0% 7% -1% -1% -5% Source: Cape Town Tourism, Monthly Attraction Data, July 2018 – June 2019 PAGE 5 Note: Since the beginning of 2019, the V&A released their figures to reflect YOY changes only and no longer report on actuals CORPORATE SERVICES HIGHLIGHTS (1 July 2018 - 30 June 2019) BUDGET: B-BBEE: The total expenditure incurred for the year amounts to We have managed to remain complaint for a R 54,07 million, which is R 2.96 million or 5% lower seventh consecutive year. The list of the BEE levels than the R 57,04 million budgeted. of suppliers, published internally to guide preferred procurement, was stringently followed in order to TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: obtain a better score for procurement. During the 2018/19 fiscal 72 training interventions were held for our team members. WORK-BASED LEARNING PROGRAMME: We hosted 8 students from various institutions. LIQUIDITY: We achieved a positive current liquidity ratio of 2.81:1, STAFF ENGAGEMENT: which was slightly lower in comparison to the prior We held a memorable annual Achiever Awards year of 3.10:1.