Cruise ship tourism to South Africa doubled in recent years, with the past season injecting more than R1bn into the economy, according to the first in-depth study to be conducted on the sector's impact.
Cape Town welcomed 70 ships carrying 145,000 two-way passengers and 42,000 crew, resulting in a R1.2bn injection between November 2022 and May 2023, according to the study conducted by Wesgro, the Western Cape tourism, trade and investment promotion agency.
By contrast only about 35-40 ships called in at Cape Town between 2016 and 2019, with the sector then devastated by Covid-19 travel restrictions. Since then, however, thanks largely to investment in the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront’s cruise terminal, the sector has started to fulfil its potential.
The study highlighted the sector’s positive impact on job creation, with about 1,800 local jobs created during the latest season. Every 30 arriving cruise passengers translate into one full-time job, says the study.
Commenting on the study findings Wesgro said the cruise ship sector had a multiplier effect, with cruise passengers likely to revisit a destination first encountered through a cruise ship.
“This multiplier effect holds profound implications for tourism in Cape Town and the Western Cape, and further affirms the importance of developing world-class tourism products along the Western Cape coastline,” Wesgro said on Wednesday.
James Vos, the city's mayoral committee member for economic growth, said: “The cruise travel market is an important pillar in my mission to create a tourism-related job in every household in Cape Town. The value of this industry is massive when looking at the revenue streams and the number of jobs created across multiple sectors. This is why the city proudly supports Cruise Cape Town.”
Western Cape minister of finance and economic opportunities Mireille Wenger said the sector was still “only scratching the surface” of cruise tourism potential, with further benefits likely to be felt in smaller port towns such as Mossel Bay, which this season also doubled its cruise ship visits.
Local marine tourism stakeholders say South Africa is well suited to smaller “bespoke” cruise ships that can be more easily accommodated in local ports.
“These massive cruise ships are at another level, but I don’t know whether we see those in Cape Town,” Bruce Tedder from Western Cape marine sector umbrella body BlueCape, told the Sunday Times last month. “What is becoming more of a trend here is the smaller cruise ships where people on board are wanting proper experiences — these are the ones we are super keen on in the Cape, partly because we can fit more of them into the harbour,” Tedder said.
Cruise line tourism has made international headlines recently with the introduction of a new class of uber-liner, such as the Icon of the Seas, which sets sail in January next year. The 1,198m-long ship is part Disneyland, part Sun City’s Valley of the Waves, with a top deck covered in multicoloured water slides, some extending over the ocean. It has 20 decks, 20 restaurants and bars, seven pools, mini-golf, and is about five times bigger than the Titanic. Sadly, it is almost certainly too big for local ports, but that hasn’t stopped South Africans booking for upcoming trips.
Another benefit of the increasing ship calls is business for local suppliers who help with restocking.
V&A Waterfront CEO David Green said Cape Town’s popularity as one of the world’s most attractive ports was another reason for the sector’s success — and a gateway into the rest of the tourism sector:
“The port of Cape Town is often a visitor's first introduction to the city, and an opportunity to create a positive impression of Cape Town and South Africa while bringing much-needed waves of economic opportunities to our shores,” Green said.
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