WHO’S COMING · CAPE TOWN
Cape Town’s international visitor economy set every record in 2025: 3.3 million international airport passengers, 1.44 million foreign overnight visitors staying 9.5 nights on average — while December alone brought 28.5% of all South Africa’s international arrivals.
Cape Town’s top source markets are the UK, US, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Australia — a high-yield, long-haul portfolio. The festive season of 2025 was a sell-out: international arrivals up 11%, regional African arrivals up 13%, and every signature attraction setting or matching records.
The structural edge is air access: a decade of Cape Town Air Access lobbying means the city now converts route announcements directly into arrivals. LATAM’s São Paulo link (July 2026) opens South America; Air Tanzania’s triangular route adds East Africa; the Gulf carriers keep adding frequency.
The honest counterweight: while foreigners set records, domestic tourism is shrinking under household economic pressure — trips held at 1.42 million but stays shortened from 5.2 to 4.4 nights and daily spend fell to R882. Cape Town is becoming an international-priced city that many South Africans now day-trip through rather than stay in.
The city’s response is deliberate: domestic campaigns, regional partnerships with Zimbabwe and Namibia, and events programmed into the shoulder seasons. The international boom is real; the dependency it builds is the risk the 2025 report itself flags.
The TIO read: Cape Town now sells the longest, richest stays in the country — 9.5 nights at international prices. The growth engine is airlift and it keeps delivering. The watch item is the domestic hollowing-out; a city this good at attracting the world should not lose its own.
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