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were the wine farms surrounding the town as well as the historical Afrikaans Language Monument on Paarl Mountain.
In Wellington the popular spots remained the wine cellars while the town's dried fruit and leather products were also selling like hotcake among tourists from countries such as Germany.
Statistics at the local tourism bureau show that more or less the same amount of overseas tourists visited the town in December, with less locals.
Food and wine at the fine restaurants in Franschhoek seemed to be the great attraction for tourists from countries such as England, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
According to a spokesperson from Valleé Tourisme in Franschhoek, they definitely had more visitors last year in comparison with the previous festive season, with their numbers increasing every year.
"We had 3716 visitors moving through our information bureau last December, in comparison with 3131 in 2001. I think that Franschhoek attracts especially French tourists, because of its French origin.
"Then also the mountains surrounding the town lends to it a certain feeling of tranquility," she said.
In the mean time Western Cape tourism minister Johan Gelderblom expressed satisfaction with the progress in spreading visitors throughout the Province and in reaching tourism targets set for 2002.
"The snap survey showed that all regions exceeded their expectations by far, with a 15 percent increase in foreign visitors over last year.
"An interesting tendency is that domestic visitors appeared to shorten their December holiday with a few days.
"Domestic visitors are estimated at more that 1,3 million, bringing estimated expenditure to R865 million.
"Foreign visitors are estimated at 290 000. Working at an average daily spend of R1300 per foreign tourist for an average of ten days, the figure for foreign expenditure in the province adds up to R3,9 billion." |
THE town of Paarl seems to be among the top of the list of destinations for foreign visitors over the festive season, with 1935 tourists from countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom visiting the town last December.