Cape Town rated one of the world's 10 most loved cities
Yesterday, CNN listed Cape Town as one of the world's ten most loved cities. Other cities included in the list are: Barcelona, Montreal, New York, Paris, Petra, SanFrancisco, Santiago, Tokyo and Shangai (see here).
According to CNN International's travel website, CNNgo, Cape Town was chosen because of its "...sweet harbor. Nice architecture and weather. Good wine country, lovely waterfront shopping and a welcome cosmopolitan feel. Beaches with penguins. And -- wonder of wonders -- Table Mountain."
Cape Town's latest international tourism excellence accolade follows a number of other awards in the last two years:
- Tripadvisor Travel Choice TripAdvisor 2011 Top Destination in the World
- National Geographic Top 10 Beach Cities
- Foreign Direct Investment Top 20 expat destinations
- Huffington Post top 10 most popular study abroad cities, and, top 10 LGBT honeymoon destinations
Minister Winde said: "We are absolutely delighted that Cape Town has been chosen as one of the best loved cities in the world. It is great to see that the world loves our city as much as we do. It is particularly encouraging that we have been listed by CNN, one of the most watched global news networks. This will further increase our exposure to international markets."
Minister Winde further added: "In the last year, we experienced a 14 per cent increase in international tourism arrivals at Cape Town International and we intend on raising this figure even higher. Tourism currently contributes over 10 per cent to the region's GDP. We hope to grow this figure to 15 per cent by 2015."
Statement issued by Alan Winde, Western Cape Minister for Finance, Economic Development & Tourism, June 8 2012
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