South Africa’s Cape Town International Airport has been named the continent’s leading airport at the recent edition of the World Travel Awards.
The announcement was made at the 26th World Travel Awards (WTA) ceremony held in Mauritius over the weekend.
Cape Town International Airport, located in the southwest of South Africa, wins the gong for a third consecutive year.
According to the organisers, the win only enforces a dominance of South Africa in the category, given that Cape Town airport and O. R. Tambo International Airport in Gauteng have dominated the category since 1998.
Cape Town remains a firm destination of choice for global travellers and over the past few years, Cape Town International Airport has shown sustained growth in passenger numbers with an increase year-on-year in 2017. Growth in international passengers has been in double digits for the past few years.
The Ethiopian Airlines was voted Africa’s Leading Airline. In the Indian Ocean, Air Mauritius claimed the titles of Indian Ocean’s Leading Airline and Indian Ocean’s Leading Airline – Business Class.
Nominees in the aviation category included:
- Cairo International Airport, Egypt
- Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kenya
- Julius Nyerere International Airport, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
- Kigali International Airport, Rwanda
- King Shaka International Airport, Durban, South Africa
- Mohammed V International Airport, Casablanca, Morocco
- O.R. Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa
In other categories, South Africa’s Table Mountain was named Africa’s Leading Tourist Attraction. Kenya enjoyed a strong showing, with the Kenya Tourist Board named Africa’s Leading Tourist Board. The capital Nairobi won the new category, Africa’s Leading Business Travel Destination, and Kenyatta ICC picked up ‘Africa’s Leading Meetings & Conference Centre’.
In the Indian Ocean categories, the Maldives cemented its reputation as the definitive romantic nation by being named Indian Ocean’s Leading Honeymoon Destination, while Seychelles picked up Indian Ocean’s Leading Sustainable Tourism Destination.
Hospitality winners included Hilton Hotels & Resorts (Africa’s Leading Hotel Brand); Saxon Hotel, Villas & Spa (Africa’s Leading Boutique Hotel); Thanda Island, Tanzania (Africa’s Leading Luxury Island), Pangolin Chobe Hotel, Botswana (Africa’s Leading New Hotel); Legend Golf Resort & Spa, South Africa (Africa’s Leading Sports Resort), and Transcorp Hilton Abuja (Africa’s Leading Business Hotel).
The ceremony marked the third leg of the WTA Grand Tour 2019 – a search for the finest travel and tourism organisations in the world.
The 2019 regional ceremonies include Montego Bay (Jamaica), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Madeira (Portugal), La Paz (Bolivia), Phu Quoc (Vietnam), with the winners progressing to the Grand Final in Muscat (Oman).
The WTA was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry.
Today, the WTA brand is recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of quality, with winners setting the benchmark to which all others aspire.
Each year, WTA covers the globe with a series of regional gala ceremonies staged to recognise and celebrate individual and collective success within each key geographical region.
