The City of Cape Town is set to expand on its marketing campaign targeting Chinese travellers following the first two phases that resulted in millions of views within the key Asian market.
According to recent data from the UN’s World Tourism Organisation, Chinese travellers were in 2024 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.
After visiting on a trade mission in Shanghai, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Economic Growth – Alderman James Vos, said that 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 trade mission was facilitated by Wesgro and included meetings with South African Tourism, potential investors, and attendance at the Shanghai Global Food Trade Show.
James Vos further stated that Cape Town is an incredible city with a wide variety of attractions and experiences for travellers of all interests and backgrounds. However, last year, the whole of South Africa saw only 41,651 Chinese tourists come to the shores, a fraction of the approximately 100 million outbound Chinese tourists in 2024.
“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),” said Vos.
According to him, the next marketing stage will be built on this foundation and will move from a single platform to a broader digital presence. They will now move to expand the reach to other major social platforms in China, where they will leverage the growing library of Chinese language content, including articles, brochures, and destination videos.
This is in line with a survey by marketing experts, 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 of Cape Town 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. This was alongside an Out Of Home digital billboard initiative in prominent high-traffic business and leisure areas of Mumbai.
Alderman James Vos further stated that 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.
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 over 106,000 jobs in 2024, if Cape Town could take a bigger chunk out of these countries’ tourism markets, they could potentially sustain thousands of more Capetonians. As they are working hard to make this real.