Cape Town Tourism Launches Destination Intelligence Workshops to Help Businesses Unlock Data-Driven Growth
Cape Town Tourism Launches Destination Intelligence Workshops to Help Businesses Unlock Data-Driven Growth. Cape Town Tourism (CTT) is introducing a new series of Destination Intelligence workshops aimed at helping tourism and hospitality businesses make better use of the data they already collect, following concerns that a significant amount of business information remains underutilised.
According to CTT, more than half of the data collected by South African businesses is never analysed, while the average company uses only about a third of the information it holds. The organisation says this represents a missed opportunity for businesses seeking to improve decision-making and remain competitive.
The workshops, which will be rolled out in the coming weeks, are designed to equip tourism and hospitality operators with practical skills to transform booking, visitor and customer data into insights that can support marketing, operations and long-term business planning.
The initiative follows a Cape Town Tourism member engagement session where DirectAxis Chief Executive Officer Yasmin Abrahams encouraged tourism operators to focus on making better use of existing data rather than collecting more information. Feedback from that session is being used to finalise the workshop programme.
Cape Town Tourism Chief Executive Officer Enver Duminy said the organisation already relies on Destination Intelligence data to guide decisions about promoting and managing Cape Town as a destination.
“Our Destination Intelligence data shapes every decision we make about how we market and manage Cape Town, and we know many of our members hold equally valuable insights without realising it,” he said.
Duminy added that the workshops are intended to help members build the skills and confidence needed to convert existing information into practical business decisions.
City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth and Tourism James Vos said data plays an essential role in planning for future growth, understanding visitor behaviour and identifying new business opportunities.
He said Destination Intelligence enables tourism businesses to make informed decisions, strengthen their competitiveness and contribute to a more resilient tourism economy.
Cape Town Tourism also highlighted examples of organisations already using Destination Intelligence to guide strategic decisions. At the V&A Waterfront, information such as airport arrivals, visitor footfall, spending patterns and research is combined into a single intelligence platform to support operational planning and long-term objectives.
Meanwhile, advisory platform Kasi Catalyst is analysing economic activity in the Langa, Gugulethu and Nyanga corridor to identify commercial insights from informal businesses, including stokvels, burial societies and spaza shop trade credit.
Ahead of the workshop rollout, Cape Town Tourism members can access the organisation’s Destination Intelligence repository, which serves as a central resource for tourism insights and destination data. The workshops are intended to build on these resources by helping businesses translate information into practical actions that support growth and decision-making.
