Cape Town nominated as world's leading festival, events destination

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The nomination follows the announcement in Durban last week, where Cape Town was named Africa's Leading Festival and Event Destination at the Africa and Indian Ocean edition of the awards. Cape Town is nominated alongside other leading global event cities including London, Montreal, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Dubai, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Danang (Vietnam) and Guayaquil (Ecuador)

Festivals and events hosted in the city include, among others:

• The Cape Town International Film Market and Festival;

• The HSBC Rugby Sevens, which generates revenue of about R700 million for the City;

• The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, which was crowned the Participation Event of the Year (2018); the Volvo Ocean Race, which contributed about R500 million and 35 000 bed nights to the city’s economy in 2017;

• The Cape Town International Jazz Festival, which creates more than 2 000 temporary jobs and attracts in excess of 37 000 music lovers over the 2 show days; and

• The Cape Town Cycle Tour.

Eight of the events supported by the city contribute more than R3bn to the local economy and create more than 20,000 temporary jobs. While some of the jobs related to major events are temporary, they afford people the opportunity to gain experience and acquire skills for permanent employment.

The city is also growing in popularity as a premier business and tech events destination and was recently ranked the number one city in Africa for business tourism events by the International Congress and Convention Association.

Economic growth, job creation

Mayco member for Social Services, Alderman JP Smith said: "The 180 events that we have supported and 1,277 permits approved by the city have allowed us to achieve this award. Such results are not achieved through a once-off effort but are a culmination of years of developing events capacity and running a competent events department.

"The city will continue to work tirelessly to strengthen its position as a premium events destination and I would like to congratulate everyone who worked around the clock to ensure that visitors and event organisers get the best possible services. We will do all we can to improve services, keep on developing a favourable environment for the events industry and open up investment opportunities as a catalyst for economic growth and job creation."

Events provide enormous benefit to the local economy and play a pivotal role in generating visitor expenditure. It is important for the city that this translates into economic inclusion of all communities in Cape Town.