SOUTHERN CAPE NEWS - The Garden Route is well represented on the Western Cape shortlist for the World Travel Awards nominations for Africa. With dozens of tourism sites and facilities making the 2018 shortlist, the Garden Route follows hot on the heels of Cape Town.
Plettenberg Bay has been nominated as leading beach destination, while Fancourt in George and Pezula in Knysna have made the shortlist in both the leading resort and leading sports resort categories. Pezula is also in the running as the most romantic resort.
The shortlist includes several hotels and accommodation establishments across the Cape Town CBD and the Winelands, Cape Town International Airport, the Cape Town Cruise Terminal and the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Table Mountain and the V&A Waterfront are both in the running for the leading tourist attraction in Africa, in a category that also includes Mount Kilimanjaro and the Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya. Cape Town is shortlisted in the leading city category, as well as in the leading festival and events destination, and the meetings and conferences destination.
Drought
Minister of Economic Opportunities Alan Winde said that the industry faced the drought and worked phenomenally hard to save water as well as important jobs in the last year.
"The fact that the Western Cape features in so many of the categories is testament to the hard work of the people in the industry and the excellent experiences and value that we offer to travellers. I am pleased to see that both our airport and our cruise terminal have made the shortlist as this is often the very first experience people have of our city."
He said the fact that accommodation establishments from various towns feature in the listings reflects the excellent tourism experiences offered across the province.
The World Tourism Awards are based on a public vote, and members of the public, as well as representatives in the tourism industry, are able to cast votes for the African categories until 19 August. Votes can be cast by registering on the World Tourism Awards website www.worldtravelawards.com/vote.
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