New York City and Cape Town sign agreement to boost travel between the two destinations

NYC & Company, the City’s official destination marketing organization, today joined Cape Town Tourism to sign a first-ever city-to-city partnership to boost tourism between Cape Town and New York City. This is the first agreement of its kind NYC & Company has signed with a destination marketing organization on the African continent. NYC & Company President and CEO Fred Dixon and Cape Town Tourism’s CEO Enver Duminy were on hand to sign the tourism partnership agreement this afternoon in New York City. The two-year alliance includes a collaboration agreement between the two destination marketing organizations, the sharing of best practices in tourism marketing and the exchange of marketing assets to boost reciprocal travel.

“Today, we are proud to sign a first-ever partnership with Cape Town, one of the world’s most iconic and beautiful cities,” said Dixon. “New York City and Cape Town share a lot in common as capital cities of culture, cuisine and design, and we look forward to cultivating this productive tourism relationship in the year ahead.” 

“This announcement has been years in the making, but at the outset it was clear that New York is the ideal city for collaboration with Cape Town,” said Duminy. “We’re greatly encouraged by this tourism twinning agreement, after all, a city with a global reputation for world-class tourism is acknowledging that we have just as much value to offer the global traveler. We look forward to this partnership and to sharing the benefits with our communities.”

The city-to-city partnership includes a swap of marketing and advertising assets to be activated in early 2018 to influence seasonal travel. In New York City, advertisements will appear on bus stop shelters and LinkNYC kiosks to promote Cape Town, reaching an estimated 17.6 million in media impressions. In Cape Town, an equivalent value of New York City advertisements will be featured through digital and out-of-home media, with specifics to be determined.

As part of the agreement, New York City and Cape Town will share best practices in tourism management to increase the number of visitors between both markets in the years ahead. The two organizations will also collaborate on ways to boost travel between Cape Town and New York City through offers and incentives provided by third-party travel providers.

South Africa is the largest African origin market for visitors to New York City with nearly 50,000 visitors in 2015. South Africa accounts for a nearly 30 percent share of African visitors to New York City. The United States is currently Cape Town’s second largest international source market. In 2015, 30 percent of arrivals to Cape Town from the US originated at or traveled via New York City airports.

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Photographer: Julienne Schaer