For the fifth consecutive year, British tourists have voted Cape Town as the world’s best city to visit.
The prestigious UK Telegraph Travel Awards asks tourists to vote for their top destination, and once again the Mother City came out tops, with Vancouver and Tokyo in second and third place respectively. Yes, despite two-minute showers and a severe drought crippling the province, it would seem the effects haven’t yet trickled into the tourism sector.
Our city has snagged first place and this is something to be proud of. Here is what Telegraph Travel had to say about the five-time winner:
The world’s greatest city? It’s a coastal gem in the shadow of an iconic mountain, where fine wine flows and penguins roam. It could only be Cape Town.
After a poll of 90 000 readers in the 2017 Telegraph Travel Awards, the South African city was victorious, beating Vancouver and Tokyo to the top prize. Remarkably, it’s the fifth consecutive year you’ve named Cape Town your number one – and with all eyes on South Africa in 2018, the centenary year of Nelson Mandela’s birth, few would bet against it repeating the trick in 12 months time.
The rest of the upper end of the ranking has a familiar look. Vancouver has played second fiddle to Cape Town for the last five editions of the awards, while Venice, Sydney and New York are perennial members of the top 10. Tokyo, however, knocked La Serenissima off the podium for the first time since 2012. The Japanese capital finished fifth last year, and seventh two years ago – can it challenge Cape Town’s dominance in 2018?
Photography AP / Fotalia