Cape Town is set to expand its marketing campaign by targeting Chinese travellers. The City of Cape Town will follow two phases of the country that coincides with the Shanghai Global Food Trade Show as well as destination campaign ads, that saw millions of views within the key Asian Market.
As per the recent data collected from the World Tourism Organisation of UN, the Chinese travellers in 2024, were the biggest outbound, spending category by country, spending approx. US $250 billion far ahead of second-ranked US foreign travellers who collectively spent about US $177.8 billion.
Last year, the whole South Africa welcomed 41,651 Chinese tourists to its shores, within the fraction of approx. 100 million outbound Chinese tourists in 2024. Speaking after the trade mission in Shanghai, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Economic Growth and Tourism – Alderman James Vos said that by boosting the profile of Cape Town in China’s outbound travel market would be a game changer for the tourism industry and wider economy of the Mother City.
The mission was facilitated by the promotional agency for tourism and trade of Cape Town and Western Cape, Wesgro. The agency included South African Tourism with potential investors and attendance at the Shanghai Global Food Trade Show.
Cape Town is an incredible city and place that provides a wide variety of attractions and experiences for travellers of all interests and backgrounds. That is why James Vos was encouraged to see that the destination campaign ads were tested with minimal budget on WeChat. It is the dominant instant messaging and social media app of China that received over 20 million impressions in just one year from Sept 2024 to Oct 2025.
According to James Vos, the next marketing stage will be built on this foundation and will move from a single platform to a broader digital presence. He confirmed that they will move to expand the reach to other major social platforms in China. There they will leverage the growing library of Chinese language content, including articles, brochures and destination videos.
The strategy is in line with a survey, conducted 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.
Considering this, the City of Cape Town is also ready to launch another campaign on social media channels in India. This idea was generated after the city destination ads between February and July 2025 resulted in 130 million impressions and a reach of 68 million in the country.