The City of Cape Town is set to expand on its marketing campaign targeting Chinese travellers.
This follows two phases of testing the Chinese tourism market, through a multi-sectoral trade mission to the country that coincided with the Shanghai Global Food Trade Show as well as destination campaign ads, which saw millions of views within this key Asian market.
According to recent data from the UN’s World Tourism Organisation Chinese travellers, in 2024, were the biggest outbound-spending category by country, spending approximately US$250 billion, far ahead of second-ranked US foreign travellers who collectively spent about US$177,8 billion. Last year, the whole of South Africa saw only 41 651 Chinese tourists come to its shores, a fraction of the approximately 100 million outbound Chinese tourists in 2024.
Speaking after the trade mission in Shanghai, Mayco member for Economic Growth James Vos said boosting Cape Town’s profile in China’s outbound travel market would be a game changer for the Mother City’s tourism industry and wider economy. The mission, facilitated by Wesgro, included South African Tourism, potential investors and attendance at the Shanghai Global Food Trade Show.
Inredible city
“Cape Town is an incredible city with a wide variety of attractions and experiences for travellers of all interests and backgrounds. That’s why I’m encouraged to see that our destination campaign ads, which we essentially test ran with minimal budget on WeChat, China’s dominant instant messaging and social media app, received over 20 million impressions in just one year (September 2024 to October 2025).
The next marketing stage will build on this foundation and move from a single platform to a broader digital presence. “We will now move to expand our reach to other major social platforms in China,” Vos said, “where we will leverage our growing library of Chinese language content, including articles, brochures, and destination videos. This is in line with a survey by marketing experts at the China Trading Desk, who found that Chinese outbound travellers are tech-savvy and reliant on social media platforms for inspiration, trustworthy tips and guidance on finding destinations that are immersive, authentic and celebrate local communities.”
The City is also set to launch another campaign on social media channels in India. This comes after City destination ads between February and July this year resulted in 130 million impressions and a reach of 68 million in the country.
Out of Home
This was alongside an Out Of Home digital billboard initiative in prominent high-traffic business and leisure areas of Mumbai. “With the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS) implemented by the Home Affairs Department, regions such as Cape Town stand to gain masses of first-time and repeat travellers from countries such as China and India, where the TTOS is available,” said Vos. “Forecasts predict that outbound travel from the two countries will hit a combined 240 million people by 2028. When considering that domestic and international visitors directly supported more than 106 000 jobs in 2024, if Cape Town could take a bigger chunk out of these countries’ tourism markets, we could potentially sustain thousands more Capetonians. We are working hard to make this real.”
