Cape Town is world’s top tourism destination

The world’s best known (and most feared) customer-driven traveller advisory site, TripAdvisor, has given Cape Town a new reason to celebrate its tourism status - by naming it the Number One Destination of the Top 25 Destinations in the World in the TripAdvisor 2011, Travellers’ Choice Awards (http://www.tripadvisor.com/TCDestinations).

 Chosen by a poll of actual travellers and TripAdvisor users, the annual award recognises the people’s choice of destinations from across the planet. After being placed at 25th in 2010, Cape Town has trumped traditional travel cities like Paris, France (placed fourth), London, United Kingdom (eighth) and Rome, Italy (seventh) to take the top spot.

Cape Town: ‘Glistening at the southern toe of the African continent’
 
With over 20 million members and a Facebook following of 96 058, TripAdvisor described Cape Town as “glistening at the southern toe of the African continent.”

Says Cape Town Tourism, CEO, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold; “We are positioning Cape Town as a challenger brand and one of the world’s new and exciting cities. Cape Town tells an authentic story and captures the hearts and imaginations of a world bombarded with choice and homogeneity. The Mother City is iconic, complex and multi-faceted. As much as there is beauty, there is diversity and personality. There is still room for the unexpected and the spontaneous. This award suggests that this is what today’s traveller is searching for. We are honoured to have been chosen and endorsed as the top choice by the very people who are most passionate about travel. We look forward to welcoming more Cape Town fans.”
 
Challenger tourism brands were high on TripAdvisor’s Top Destination list, with Sydney, Australia (second), Machu Picchu, Peru (third) and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (fifth) all making it into the top five spots for which travellers voted.