Summer season boosts Western Cape province and creates 167 000 jobs
The recent summer season has helped to boost tourism and the economy in Western Cape and that is the announcement from the city’s official. Dubbed the “cooking” summer holiday season in South Africa’s Western Cape province in its entirety, the season spurred a surge in hiring. The coastal region created 167 000 jobs in the
Summer season boosts Western Cape province and creates 167 000 jobs
The recent summer season has helped to boost tourism and the economy in Western Cape and that is the announcement from the city’s official.
Dubbed the “cooking” summer holiday season in South Africa’s Western Cape province in its entirety, the season spurred a surge in hiring.
The coastal region created 167 000 jobs in the three months through December, thus registering a 7% increase from the previous quarter which was more than any of the other eight provinces, according to data published by Statistics South Africa.
The domestic tourism industry was the main driver of employment, followed by the financial and services industries, Premier Alan Winde said in an interview with Bloomberg.
“This December we had 191 direct international flights coming into Cape Town a week,” he said.
“We did a million tourists through our airport in the summer season.”
Statistics agency data and research indicate that the number of tourists visiting South Africa in December, traditionally the most popular holiday month, increased by 158% from a year earlier.
This is an improvement considering the effects of the devastating coronavirus restrictions which hit the tourism sector.
The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s biggest opposition party, runs the Western Cape.
Meanwhile, Entertainment SA reported that Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship event helped boost the council’s coffers.
Hill-Lewis said the sports car racing event brought benefits as it injected a staggering R2 billion.
“It was truly a goosebumps moment for Cape Town as we saw the Formula E hosted in our city and our continent for the very first time. Cape Town really put on a show and did not disappoint and our city was beamed to cities across the globe with incredible images of Cape Town seen for the very first time,” he said.
“So these types of global sporting events really do put our city front and centre on the global travel agenda and that is why they are so important and why we are so pleased to be attracting more and more of them to our city over time.”
