Cape Town has a strange problem in 2026.
On one hand, it remains one of the world's most visually spectacular cities: mountains dropping into the ocean, beaches beneath granite cliffs, vineyards less than an hour from the city centre, world-class restaurants, and a tourism industry attracting growing numbers of international visitors.
On the other, South Africa is making international headlines for a far less attractive reason.
A renewed wave of xenophobic and anti-immigrant activism has brought demonstrations, attacks on foreign nationals and uncomfortable questions about how outsiders are being treated in the country.
For somebody sitting in London, Lagos, Berlin, New York or Nairobi considering a holiday in Cape Town, the obvious question is:
Should any of this change your travel plans?
The answer requires considerably more nuance than either the tourism brochures or alarming headlines might suggest.
First, the Headlines Are Real
South Africa has a long and troubled history of xenophobic violence, particularly targeting migrants from other African countries.
That problem has not disappeared.
Human Rights Watch reported in May 2026 that vigilante groups had carried out attacks against African and Asian foreign nationals, while anti-immigration demonstrations had taken place in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban.
The organisation described incidents involving foreign-owned businesses and migrants and called on South African authorities to provide greater protection and accountability.
More recently, the issue has acquired an international diplomatic dimension. In September, Nigeria's parliament suspended official legislative visits to South Africa, citing continuing anti-migrant violence affecting Nigerians and other African nationals.
So this isn't simply negative publicity manufactured overseas.
There is a genuine problem.
But understanding who is being targeted, where incidents are occurring and the circumstances surrounding them is essential before translating that problem into conclusions about tourism.
Xenophobia and International Tourism Are Not the Same Story
Much of the current anti-immigrant activism concerns migrants living and working in South Africa, particularly other African nationals.
That is not the same thing as a campaign directed at international holidaymakers.
It would therefore be misleading to take an incident involving migrants in a township or an anti-immigration demonstration and automatically conclude that foreign tourists visiting the V&A Waterfront, Camps Bay or the Cape Winelands face the same circumstances.
At the same time, it would be equally irresponsible to pretend that xenophobia is irrelevant to travellers.
Foreign visitors do not all look the same, speak the same languages or carry the same passports.
An African traveller from Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe or Mozambique may understandably interpret reports of anti-African migrant violence differently from a holidaymaker arriving from Britain or Germany.
Travellers should therefore distinguish between general tourism conditions and the wider social environment they are entering.
Cape Town Has Also Seen People March Against Xenophobia
There is another part of the story that can easily disappear from international headlines.
South Africans themselves have been protesting against xenophobia.
In August, demonstrations took place in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban calling for an end to xenophobic violence. The Cape Town march involved civil-society organisations delivering demands to authorities for action against attacks on migrants.
That distinction matters.
A headline saying there have been "xenophobia demonstrations in Cape Town" can mean two very different things.
Some demonstrations in South Africa have promoted harder anti-immigration positions.
Others have involved South Africans taking to the streets specifically to oppose xenophobia.
Travellers researching the country should be careful not to confuse the two.
Meanwhile, Tourists Keep Arriving
Here is where the story becomes particularly interesting.
International travellers aren't abandoning South Africa.
They're arriving in growing numbers.
South Africa welcomed almost 992,000 international tourists in July 2026 alone, according to the Department of Tourism.
Between January and July, the country received approximately 6.58 million international tourists — an increase of 12.4% compared with the same period in 2025.
Overseas arrivals were also up 5.7%.
That follows a record 10.5 million international arrivals in 2025.
Whatever concerns exist around crime, politics, immigration or South Africa's economy, the available tourism numbers do not currently show international visitors collectively turning away from the country.
And Cape Town remains one of the principal reasons they come.
Cape Town's International Tourism Economy Is Huge
Cape Town's latest tourism data illustrate just how international the city has become.
In 2025, the city received 1.44 million foreign overnight visitors.
Those visitors stayed an average of 9.5 nights and generated approximately R19 billion in direct spending.
Cape Town International Airport handled 3.3 million two-way international passengers during the year.
The city's biggest overseas visitor markets included the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Netherlands, France and Australia.
Tourism isn't a peripheral activity here.
Cape Town's tourism industry generated R24.5 billion in total direct visitor spending in 2025 and supported more than 106,000 jobs.
The city therefore has an enormous economic interest in remaining attractive and accessible to foreigners.
But Is Cape Town Still Good Value?
This is where Cape Town remains unusually competitive.
It isn't necessarily a cheap city by South African standards.
Popular areas such as Camps Bay, the V&A Waterfront and parts of the Atlantic Seaboard can command substantial hotel and restaurant prices, particularly during the southern-hemisphere summer.
Cape Town Tourism reported an average accommodation room rate of R2,574 in 2025, with February's peak average reaching R3,334.
But "expensive for South Africa" and "expensive for an international tourist" are two different propositions.
For travellers accustomed to hotel, restaurant and experience prices in cities such as London, New York, Paris, Sydney or Amsterdam, Cape Town can still offer an extraordinary combination of quality and experience for the money.
And what you get within one destination is difficult to replicate.
A City, Beach Holiday, Wine Trip and Nature Escape in One
Few major cities allow you to wake up beneath a mountain, spend the morning on a beach, eat lunch overlooking an ocean, visit vineyards in the afternoon and return to a sophisticated city restaurant that evening.
Cape Town does.
The city's appeal isn't built around one attraction.
There is Table Mountain.
There are the beaches of Clifton and Camps Bay.
There is the V&A Waterfront.
There is the Cape Peninsula and Chapman's Peak.
There are penguins at Boulders Beach.
And immediately beyond the city are Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and some of South Africa's most celebrated wine estates.
That concentration of experiences is a major part of Cape Town's value proposition.
You're not merely paying for a hotel room.
You're gaining access to an unusually diverse destination.
The Safety Question Is Bigger Than Xenophobia
International travellers considering Cape Town should also avoid allowing the current xenophobia story to obscure the city's longstanding and more general safety considerations.
Cape Town has areas with dramatically different socioeconomic and crime conditions.
Tourist districts can feel polished, affluent and heavily travelled, while communities elsewhere in the metropolitan area experience serious crime and deprivation.
That isn't a reason not to visit.
It is a reason to travel intelligently.
Visitors should understand where they're going, use reputable transport, take local advice, avoid casually wandering into unfamiliar areas at night and pay attention to current official travel guidance.
The same principle applies to demonstrations.
A political march or protest isn't a tourist attraction.
If one is occurring, give it space.
So, Should Xenophobia Stop You Visiting Cape Town?
The available evidence doesn't support reducing the entire Cape Town visitor experience to the country's current xenophobia crisis.
International tourism is growing, Cape Town continues to receive large numbers of foreign visitors, and its visitor economy remains deeply dependent on those travellers.
But neither should xenophobia be dismissed as somebody else's problem.
The violence and intimidation experienced by migrants in South Africa are serious, and African visitors in particular may reasonably want to pay closer attention to developments.
Both realities can exist simultaneously.
South Africa can have a serious xenophobia problem while Cape Town remains a major international tourism destination.
One fact doesn't cancel the other.
Is Cape Town Still Worth Visiting in 2026?
For many international travellers, yes.
Cape Town continues to offer something remarkably difficult to reproduce elsewhere: a major cosmopolitan city surrounded by beaches, mountains, vineyards and extraordinary natural scenery.
Its tourism numbers suggest the world hasn't lost its appetite for it.
But 2026 is also a reminder that travel doesn't happen inside a brochure.
Destinations are real societies dealing with real economic, political and social tensions.
The informed traveller doesn't need to ignore those realities.
Nor does the informed traveller necessarily need to stay home because of them.
Read beyond the headline.
Understand where you're going.
Compare what you're actually getting for your money.
And then make your decision with the full picture in view.
— Blockbuster Articles
Recommended next read:
Why Hotel Prices Can Be Different for the Same Room on the Same Night
Planning a Cape Town trip means comparing a huge range of hotels, apartments and resorts — often with surprisingly different prices for what appears to be exactly the same room. Here's why that happens.
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