At the 18th annual Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Awards held in New York last week, Cape Town was voted ‘Best City in Africa and the Middle East’. Nearly 28,000 travellers voted this year making it the the highest response rate from travellers ever. The survey asked readers to rate cities such as Sydney, New York and Rome and to score them on a number of criteria including ambience, friendliness, culture, attractions, restaurants, accommodation and shopping.
The Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Nomaindia Mfeketo, said that the people of Cape Town were the driving force behind this recognition: “Congratulations and thank you to all in the tourism industry for this achievement. This prestigious accolade is a testimony to the city’s welcoming and hospitable character, and a manifestation of how the City works for its people.”
Cape Town Routes Unlimited’s Chief Executive Officer, Nokhuthula Dube, said: “The Condé Nast Traveller accolades are particularly significant because we are seeing substantial visitor growth to South Africa and Cape Town from the US market. In the first quarter of 2005 alone, more than 28 000 US tourists came to the Western Cape. We are thrilled by this acknowledgment, particularly because Condé Nast readers are presumed to be largely well travelled and drawn to the magazine for their independent assessment of destinations, as summed up by the publication’s motto, ‘truth in travel’“.
Over the past year, Cape Town has received two other very high-profile awards. Cape Town has retained its position as the only non-European city to be named ‘Favourite Foreign City’ by the readers of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph in the UK, and in July Cape Town was voted Best Africa/Middle East destination for the fifth year running by readers of the US based Travel & Leisure Magazine.
Locally, South Africans overwhelmingly chose Cape Town as their ‘ideal travel destination’ in the annual Markinor/Sunday Times survey.
