THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
The prestigious travel publication Travel + Leisure has ranked Cape Town as the top city in Africa and the Middle East for 2017.
Travel + Leisure’s poll, an annual list of the finest destinations to travel to based on food, culture, shopping and more, is based on the feedback of travellers, and, for the 16th time, Cape Town has maintained the top spot as best city to travel to around the continent.
Travel + Leisure states, “it’s true that there’s likely no other city on earth where you can go from hiking a mountain to spotting giraffes to eating at a world-class restaurant, all in the span of a single day.”
Fez and Marrakesh in Morocco fared fifth and fourth in the poll respectively, with Beirut, Lebanon, taking the third spot and Jerusalem in Israel finishing second behind Cape Town.
In the overall poll of the World’s Best Cities for 2017, Cape Town took eighth spot.
Executive Mayor, City of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille, comments: “We are ecstatic about the award affirming our status as a consistent destination of choice for travellers from all over the world. The City of Cape Town will continue to do all we can to promote Cape Town as the ideal place to live, work, play and invest in. Our tourism offering must be constantly refreshed so that we can keep people coming back for more. We will be getting on with the work along with our partners in the tourism and business tourism sectors to ensure that we put together innovative packages to keep the planes landing in Cape Town packed to capacity. Let us continue getting on with building a world class city so that we can grow our tourism economy and create even more jobs for the people of our beautiful city.”
Enver Duminy, CEO, Cape Town Tourism, says: “We applaud the efforts of every tourism professional and every local who has worked tirelessly to make Cape Town a welcoming destination, renowned the world over as providing a fantastic travel experience. Let’s continue to add value to excellence, ensuring an ongoing boost to the economy and sustainability in employment in the sector for more Capetonians.”
Earlier this year, Cape Town was named the number one city in Africa for business tourism events by the International Congress and Convention Association, highlighting the diversity of what’s on offer in the city, from business to luxury travel, as well as affordable options for the leisure traveller.
Debby Darup
Read the full Travel + Leisure’s poll here
