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Unless someone from out of town is visiting, I generally try and steer clear of the V&A Waterfront and the busloads of tourists.

Of course, that’s all gone out of the window since late March, and foot traffic plummeted under the various alert levels South Africa moved through.

According to Growthpoint, which co-owns the V&A Waterfront, during June’s alert level 3 restrictions, as few as 3 000 people a day were visiting during the week.

That number has now rebounded to around 38 000 a day during the week, and weekend numbers are up, too. Below via Moneyweb:

[There were] over 90 000 visitors to the precinct in the second weekend of October.

This is more than double the roughly 40 000 level reached in June as the country entered Level 3. In an earlier update to the market, co-owner of the iconic development Growthpoint, said visitor numbers had trended up to 60 000 on weekends, about 60-65% of last year’s levels.

Foot traffic may be on the rise, but much of the commercial office property in the area remains unoccupied. Some of the V&A Waterfront’s biggest commercial office space tenants are planning to have staff return, even if just for a few days a week, but Growthpoint reiterated that  “critical to the Waterfront returning to normal activity is … the return of international tourists”.

When you consider how much money the V&A Waterfront contributes to South Africa’s GDP, that becomes clearer.

Stores that rely heavily on tourists passing through, such as jewellery, curios and restaurants, have really suffered.

Yesterday, the South African government announced updates to its list of high-risk countries, with tourists from the likes of the US and the UK currently banned from travelling to our shores.

That list will be closely watched by V&A Waterfront CEO David Green, who, despite the increasing visitor numbers mentioned above, painted a sombre picture during a recent CapeTalk interview.

Green said that “with very few exceptions, everybody is really struggling”, adding that it’s “about survival until tourist numbers pick up”

You can listen to that interview below:

[sources:moneyweb&capetalk]