Cape Town, Hermanus, Stellenbosch and Knysna were all crowned with the titles of ‘Most Loved Destinations in the World’ with three of these Western Cape gems ranking in the top 50 out of 100 places globally.
Cape Town stood at #54, Hermanus at #41, Stellenbosch at #23 and Knysna at #19 according to the Tourism Sentiment Index (TSI).
The TSI is a travel data intelligence solution created by destination marketing agency Destination – who compiled the list.
Now, as much as you may agree with the choices, you might be wondering how these top tier destinations were determined.
An intensive data study that analysed more than 1.6 billion online conversations and content pieces publicly available about 21 330 global destinations took place to unearth the ‘Most Loved Destinations.’
Overjoyed with the news, Western Cape Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, David Manier expressed as per Wesgro:
“For four Western Cape towns and the Mother City to be identified in the top 100 most loved places in the world – following a global consumer sentiment analysis – is an outstanding achievement. The last two years will go down in history as the most challenging years thus far for the global tourism sector, and the rankings demonstrate that Cape Town and the Western Cape is a world-class destination and a firm favourite on the global travel bucket list.”
This announcement puts a huge pep in our step as Western Cape warriors – especially in light of tourism.
As Wesgro announced, domestic travellers tripled between November and December of 2021 – at a 66% recovery rate. Internationally, this number was at a peak in November last year at a 41% recovery rate, which unfortunately decreased in the later seasons of the year due to the Omicron variant scare.
Nonetheless, the number of tourists grew by 28% compared to 2020.
Favourite attractions included Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, Cape of Good Hope, Boulders Beach, and Robben Island. Kirstenbosch Gardens were also able to recover about half of its 2019 figures in both November and December compared to 2019.
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