Cape Town to combat tourism seasonality with golf festival

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According to Reg Ferreira, the tournament organiser for the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (FEDHASA) Cape, FEDHASA in partnership with the City of Cape Town, along with Cape Town Tourism, Wesgro and Accelerate Cape Town have been selected as part of Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille’s Local Organising Committee (LOC) to address tourism seasonality in the Western Cape.

Inaugural Cape Town Golf Festival

FEDHASA Cape, the watchdog and lobbying body for the hospitality industry has been tasked with arranging the inaugural Cape Town Golf Festival this August to help attract more visitors to the Mother City during winter.

City of Cape Town Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille said: “We have to do all we can and find innovative ways of dealing with seasonality so that we can see the same high number all year round as we usually see during the peak summer months. Cape Town’s beauty does not fade when the weather changes and, as stakeholders, we have to pull together to find the packages to attract tourists all year round. The tourism sector is a key contributor to economic growth and creating jobs for our people so we must work harder to grow the industry even further.”

Ferreira says the industry needs to start being more proactive and creative when it comes to generating business during winter and the idea to host a series of events during the quiet season was initiated.

“The idea is to grow the Cape Town Golf Festival to the same magnitude as the Cape Town Cycle Tour and the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon to drive more visitors to our city during the winter season. This won’t happen overnight, but we are working hard behind the scenes to ensure we get there,” he says.

The festival will be held on four courses including, Durbanville, Clovelly, Milnerton and Royal Cape from 20-26 August. The package comprises bed and breakfast accommodation at the Commodore Hotel at the V&A Waterfront, transport, as well as golf apparel which includes a golf shirt, a cap, balls, and gloves, along with free wine-tasting at participating wine farms. Ferreira says event participants will be capped at 120 and only golfers from outside of Cape Town are allowed to enter. Prizes to the value of R200,000 are also up for grabs.

“This festival is a fantastic opportunity to put the Mother City on the map during winter when the visitor numbers are not as ideal. And what better way to do this than through golf,” Ferreira says.

Other projects

Others projects to curb seasonality will include the Halal Tourism Festival, driven by Cape Town Tourism, which will look at educating the industry on halal compliance in a bid to attract arrivals from this emerging market to our region. In conjunction with these two initiatives, Wesgro is mandated to focus on airlift, as a strategy to curb seasonality.