Mayor Hill-Lewis hails record safety effort behind festive tourism success
10 January 2024
‘We are so thrilled that Cape Town has had a booming festive tourism season, and it is still booming now, with hundreds of thousands enjoying our pristine beaches and tourist attractions. While the tourist peak season is not yet over, we can already see a strong tourism recovery in Cape Town, with over 31 000 passengers passing through the airport daily. This brings job-creating economic growth to our shores, which is ultimately why we focus on this so much - we want to get more Capetonians into work.
‘My thanks goes to all the teams who helped deliver a successful festive period. Together we have achieved the City’s largest ever safety deployment of over 4 000 personnel to keep Cape Town safer for locals and visitors alike, alongside mountain patrols and a road safety presence. Our beaches have also been 100% open and clean for visitors, without a single closure. Importantly, we have also not had a single closure of any of our recreational vleis,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.
The Safety and Security Directorate deployed personnel to address various enforcement priorities, including to specific beaches and at special Beach Joint Operational Centres (JOCs).
‘Our Festive Season Policing Plan has included vehicle checkpoints on major routes to beaches, the use of tech such as CCTV and drones, and a big volunteer effort from Law Enforcement, Fire & Rescue Service, and Disaster Risk Management volunteers. In our daily general enforcement efforts, hundreds of arrests were made and contraband confiscated. On New Year’s Day, our LEAP officers confiscated four firearms in less than 20 hours. We also witnessed a massive firefighting response to the wildfires in the South Peninsula, as well as numerous structural fires over the festive season,’ said Alderman Smith.
Cllr Van der Ross said there had been no fatal drownings at designated swimming areas within lifeguard duty hours this festive season. To prevent minors going missing on beaches, 104 450 children have been tagged by the City’s Identikidz project, with 281 children reunited with their caregivers as at 8 January 2024.
‘The City’s drowning prevention campaign has so far successfully prevented fatal drownings at our designated swimming areas at recreational beaches. As part of this effort, the City deployed 340 beach lifeguards on duty between 10:00 and 18:00 daily.
‘Unfortunately, there have been nine fatal drownings along the coastline since the beginning of December, with all these tragic incidents occurring at beaches that are not designated swimming areas, or outside of lifeguard duty hours. I want to remind the public that safety at our recreational spaces is a shared responsibility, and for everyone to please play their part. The festive season is winding down, but the summer season is far from over,’ said Cllr Van der Ross.
Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, said early indications show a big tourism return for Cape Town.
‘For the 2023/2024 festive season, about 215 international flights have landed every week since the start of summer. We also have 50 cruise ships confirmed for this season, promising substantial economic benefits. Encouragingly, many conference venues are already booked until the end of 2024. This will significantly benefit hotels and attractions, indicating a positive year ahead for the tourism sector. We are driving this success through various destination marketing campaigns and city-to-city connectivity initiatives,’ said Alderman Vos.
Issued by Media Office, City of Cape Town, 10 January 2024
