It has been a rough year for the tourism and events industries but despite the adversity brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Cape Town was still named the world’s leading festival and event destination in 2021.
Cape Town named best festival and event destination
The World Travel Awards, a leading organisation that rewards excellence in the global travel and tourism industry, unveiled its list of 2021 winners in a number of highly competitive categories.
The Maldives walked away with nine awards, including World’s Leading Destination, while Armenia was named the World’s Leading Heritage Destination.
Dubai was crowned as the world’s best business travel destination, owing to its cutting edge and futuristic conferencing infrastructure.
South Africa was also represented in five categories on the World Travel Awards, with the Saxon Hotel, Villa and Spa named the World’s Leading Boutique Hotel. Shambala Private Game Reserve was recognised as the World’s Leading Private Game Reserve, while the World’s Leading Luxury Private Villa went to Villa iZulu and Silvan Safari, on the other hand, was named the World’s Leading Luxury Lodge.
Nominated next to Barcelona (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Cannes (France), Danang (Vietnam), Dubai (UAE), Durban (South Africa), London (England), Moscow (Russia), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), Singapore and Sydney (Australia), the Mother City came out on top as the World’s Leading Festival and Event Destination.
Reacting to the news, City of Cape Town MMC for Economic Growth James Los welcomed the award as “a celebration of our city on a global stage.”
“It’s evidence that people everywhere have a special place in their hearts for our festivals and annual events calendar. The joy of Cape Town is its diversity. Our wealth of experiences reflects our rich melting pot of heritages and cultures,” he said.
Travel bans continue to curtail the tourism industry’s efforts to rebuild the sector. However, according to World Travel Awards founder Graham Cooke the resilience shown by the industry and globetrotters alike is a positive sign for the future of tourism.
“Our World winners represent the best in global travel and tourism and my congratulations to each of them. They are all playing starring roles in leading the global travel and tourism recovery,” he said.