The City of Cape Town is set to launch an ambitious city-wide social media campaign in China to grow visitors from this mega global source market.

“Our plan is to target various cities across China via WeChat, the biggest instant messaging and social media platform in the country.

“Pre-pandemic, Chinese travellers were the highest spending globally. However, over the past decade, the arrival of Chinese travellers to South Africa has fluctuated. With this campaign, we are aiming to connect with Chinese tourists like never before,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, James Vos. 

Data shows that 151 000 Chinese tourists arrived in South Africa in 2013. The following year, the figure fell to 83 000. By 2019, the number rose to 93 000. Following the country’s reopening of its borders post-Covid, just over 34 000 Chinese visitors made their way to South Africa between January and November 2023.

“China is a potentially-massive market for Cape Town, so this initial campaign is a huge moment for our destination. Our messaging aims to drive awareness of Cape Town as a city of choice to visit, live, work, study, play and invest in. 

“Building awareness of our nature, history, education, culture and food offerings combined with our world class infrastructure and investment opportunities will inspire this lucrative market to choose Cape Town for their next adventure,” highlighted Vos.

The activation in China follows a successful campaign run in Brazil, the USA and Europe.

“In the wake of these campaigns, Cape Town enjoyed an excellent visitor period boasting a record number of travellers from all over the country and world. This resulted in significant boosts to jobs for Capetonians and the local economy. Now we are aiming even higher by further tapping into even more key source markets,” said Vos.