Four brand new hotels will be built at the V&A Waterfront in response to the growth in tourism to Cape Town and the hosting of the FIFA 2010 soccer World Cup in South Africa. Two of the hotels will be three-star hotels, aimed at the domestic market.

Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool announced the R1,5 billion development at a press conference in the city on Thursday.

Waterfront CEO Derrick van der Merwe said: "This facility is critical to our tourism and investment in the Western Cape, so we should be interested in its plans. Cabinet is excited that in this financial year alone, the Waterfront is seeing development to the value of R1,5-billion.

"We are also pleased that at least four new hotels are being planned in response to our growth in tourism and in anticipation of FIFA World Cup 2010, two of which will be more affordable hotels for domestic tourists."

Rasool said: "We resolved to work much more closely with the Waterfront management to ensure synergy in our shared goals so that the implementation of the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Asgisa) supports and benefits from the developments at the Waterfront."

Finance and Tourism MEC Lynne Brown said 1,5 million tourists visited Cape Town last year, up from 750 000 five years ago. "At present, tourism contributes about nine percent to the provincial economy," she said.

"Given the growth, we have to ensure sustainability and improve that growth to about 15%. It is possible. At present, the largest number of tourists come from Britain, Germany and America. We have to look at the domestic market."

Source: Cape Argus April 13

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