Statement by City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, Alderman James Vos:
To kick-off Cape Town’s trade mission in the United Kingdom (UK), the City’s Economic Growth Directorate and Cape Town Tourism met with UK travel industry leaders, airline executives, investors, and members of the British media at the South Africa House in London to give them a taste of what our beautiful city has to offer. The aim is to encourage international investment into Cape Town, which is ripe with economic opportunities.
The meeting was the first leg of our Cape Town delegation’s trade mission to London which will also see us meet with the Greater London Authority, the local government team responsible for their economic regeneration strategies.
I was joined by team members of the Enterprise and Investment Department and Cape Town Tourism CEO, Enver Duminy.
To give our UK guests a taste of Cape Town and South Africa, they were served with items such as boerewors, samoosas, chakalaka on vetkoek and South African made wine. This was topped with a presentation I made on Cape Town’s tourism value proposition and economic opportunities that await them.
Later in the week, we are attending the World Travel Market where I will join a panel looking at how industry and governments should respond to the remote worker market. The final leg of the trade mission sees our group head to the City Nation Place Global conference which focuses on destination attraction development.
The UK is one of Cape Town’s biggest travel and trade source markets. The UK is currently the Mother City’s single biggest international air travel market, making up over 20% of passengers. This season, Cape Town will welcome 24 flights each week from London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports.
It is also the third-largest export market for the Cape. The UK is also one of the top sources of foreign direct investment in South Africa. Between 2010 and 2021, more than 200 UK companies invested in 274 foreign direct investment projects within our borders, reaching a total capital expenditure of R164,6 billion and creating 22 500 jobs.
This is, however, only a fraction of the potential economic opportunities to be realised for Cape Town. Our goal over the next few days is to secure more investments, travel, and trade from the UK market, thus driving more revenue into our local economy and creating more jobs for Capetonians.
