Visitor access to Cape Town is surging on all fronts. The city closed its record 2024/25 cruise season with 83 ship calls and a 16% passenger/crew increase; airlines are following suit, with Norse Atlantic extending its London–Cape Town season and scaling to up to six weekly flights at peak. Expect the city’s dismal Airports ranking to improve in short order, especially as Cape Town International begins a multi-year runway and terminal expansion in 2026.
On the ground, the city is packaging new urban infill and burnishing a #14 ranking for Nature & Parks. A mixed-use project in Green Point started public consultation in 2025, steps from the Sea Point Promenade and DHL Stadium, prime placemaking between the CBD and the Waterfront. The Table Bay Hotel’s full refit relaunches as InterContinental Table Bay in December 2025, anchoring a wider push on the V&A Waterfront, the oldest working harbor in the Southern Hemisphere. International brands from Dolce & Gabbana to the LVMH stable and Gucci will inhabit a new, dedicated luxury wing that’s three times as large as previously – a reflection of growing wealth in South Africa’s second city. On the longer timeline is a proposed $1-billion Granger Bay land reclamation plan now moving through approvals.