Cape Town Tourism launches data workshops as half of tourism data goes unused

In response, CTT has announced a new series of Destination Intelligence (DI) workshops, providing tourism and hospitality operators with practical tools to turn booking, visitor and customer data into decisions that shape marketing, operations and business planning.

Left to right: Vusi Vokwana (Kasi Catalyst founder and CEO), Yasmin Abrahams (DirectAxis CEO), Khanyisa (comedian and MC), Simmi Areff (executive producer of What Now with Trevor Noah), Henry Mathys (strategic programme manager: Office of the CEO at the V&A Waterfront)

The workshops, details of which will be shared with members in the coming weeks, follow a CTT member engagement session where DirectAxis CEO Yasmin Abrahams challenged tourism operators to stop chasing more data and start making better use of the information they already have. CTT is using feedback from that session to finalise the workshop content ahead of rollout.

"Our Destination Intelligence data shapes every decision we make about how we market and manage Cape Town, and we know many of our members hold equally valuable insights without realising it," says Cape Town Tourism CEO Enver Duminy. "The challenge isn't collecting more data. It's having the skills and confidence to turn existing information into better business decisions. That's the gap we're helping our members close."

James Vos, the City of Cape Town's Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth and Tourism, says: “Data is one of the most powerful tools available to any modern economy because it allows us to understand where we are, anticipate where we need to go and make the right decisions for the future. Without reliable insights, we cannot effectively plan for future growth, respond to changing visitor needs or unlock new opportunities for businesses.

"At the City, we use data every day to guide our planning, make informed decisions and ensure we get the basics right, because a successful destination is built on strong foundations. Destination Intelligence enables our tourism sector to turn information into action, helping businesses innovate, improve their competitiveness and contribute to a stronger, more resilient tourism economy that creates jobs and opportunities for Capetonians.”

Destination Intelligence in action

CTT points to organisations already putting Destination Intelligence into practice as evidence of what's possible. At the V&A Waterfront, airport arrivals, visitor footfall, spending patterns and research are brought together in a single intelligence platform to inform decisions across the precinct, while supporting a target to impact 5,000 SMEs and create 30,000 jobs by 2030.

Henry Mathys, strategic programme manager: Office of the CEO at the V&A Waterfront, explained that the value of the platform lies in connecting data across the visitor journey to guide both day-to-day operations and long-term planning, including the precinct's net-zero carbon target by 2035.

In the Langa–Gugulethu–Nyanga corridor, the advisory platform Kasi Catalyst is uncovering valuable commercial insights from informal economic activity, including stokvels, burial societies and spaza shop trade credit, demonstrating that meaningful business intelligence extends well beyond traditional data sources.

Kasi Catalyst founder and CEO Vusi Vokwana shared that township economies generate significant commercial activity every day, yet much of that information remains invisible because businesses aren't looking for it in the right places.

"You don't need more data to get started. You need to start reading what you already have," says Duminy. "The workshops are the next step, providing businesses with practical support to turn information into action and make data work for them."

Before the workshop rollout, members can access CTT's Destination Intelligence repository, a central hub for tourism insights and destination data, as a starting resource.