Joint initiative targets longer stays, increased spend and stronger Southern African positioning.
A strategic partnership has been established between Cape City, Zimbabwe, and Namibia to strengthen Southern Africa’s world tourism place and unlock larger worth from worldwide journey.
First explored at World Journey Market Africa 2025, the settlement formalises collaboration between the three locations to boost regional coordination, unify advertising and marketing efforts, and facilitate extra seamless cross-border journey for long-haul guests.
At its core, the partnership goals to shift from quantity to worth — selling longer stays, growing per-trip expenditure, and distributing tourism advantages extra evenly throughout the area.
The initiative will roll out joint digital campaigns and multi-country itineraries, supported by shared insights on digital advertising and marketing, storytelling, and what drives bookings, serving to all companions attain the proper audiences and switch curiosity into journey.
“Cape City has at all times been a gateway, however the alternative now could be to be a gateway with intent,” says Mayoral Committee Member for Financial Progress, James Vos.
“By strengthening regional ties, we’re fostering a extra inclusive mannequin of tourism progress, one which encourages increased customer spending, helps cross-border companies, and ensures that the advantages of tourism are shared extra broadly throughout Southern Africa. That is how we construct a sector that’s not simply bigger, however extra resilient and balanced.”
Enver Duminy, CEO of Cape City Tourism, says:
“This partnership displays a deliberate shift in how we take into consideration progress. World travellers are not searching for single-stop experiences; they need depth, variety, and seamless journey. By collaborating with Zimbabwe and Namibia, we’re creating richer, multi-faceted journeys and positioning Southern Africa as a linked, high-end vacation spot able to competing extra successfully on the worldwide stage.”
Moreover, the settlement locations larger emphasis on main occasions as catalysts for journey.
Sporting, cultural, and enterprise occasions will function anchor factors to advertise multi-country itineraries, encouraging guests to increase their journeys earlier than and after key occasions and unlocking broader regional impression.
“This partnership marks a milestone in regional integration,” says Mr Sebulon Chicalu, CEO of the Namibia Tourism Board.
“Our collective funding helps the financial resilience of our whole area by eradicating friction in regional journey and inspiring high-value guests to remain longer and discover additional. Namibia is able to welcome the world by means of this new gateway, making certain that each customer experiences the immense variety and high-end worth that now we have to supply,” says Chicalu.
For Zimbabwe, the partnership displays a broader shift in how the area positions itself internationally.
“This collaboration alerts a brand new period for the way Southern Africa reveals up on the worldwide stage. By aligning our efforts, we’re making it simpler for travellers to expertise extra of the area in a single journey and unlock larger financial impression throughout our locations. It’s a sensible, future-focused strategy that strengthens our collective competitiveness and ensures tourism progress is shared extra broadly,” says Dr George Manyaya, Chief Govt of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.
Marketing campaign improvement will start within the coming months, with exercise anticipated to launch forward of the height worldwide journey planning interval in November.
Finally, the partnership signifies a extra coordinated regional strategy, uniting advertising and marketing, shared capabilities, and event-driven alternatives to create a tourism ecosystem that’s extra aggressive, resilient, and ready for long-term, inclusive progress
