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Establishing the Mother City as a top cruise destination in Africa was one of the cornerstones of the City of Cape Town’s tourism recovery plan, post-COVID-19.

Cape Town has been growing in popularity as a stop for international cruise ships, which has offered enormous potential for tourism growth.

It has also created major congestion on our roads.

The City has warned motorists to expect increased congestion from today to Saturday (April 13) due to the docking of the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria cruise ships in the harbour, particularly during boarding periods.

The Queen Victoria was scheduled to arrive this morning, April 11, and will depart at 5:30OPM on Friday, April 12. The Queen Mary 2 is scheduled to arrive at 5:30AM on Friday and depart at 6PM on Saturday.

While this might be a nice injection for our economy, the City is aware of the inconvenience that increased traffic causes and is implementing mitigation measures where possible, per Cape Town ETC.

Motorists are encouraged to plan alternate routes around the Waterfront area during peak hours, and passengers scheduled to board are asked to arrive early. Try and avoid Nelson Mandela Boulevard, FW De Klerk Boulevard and Buitengracht Street for the time being. Traffic Signal Operators are reportedly going to be monitoring these roads closely to ensure a seamless flow of vehicles, supported by City Traffic Service officials, who work with port officials to implement congestion-reduction measures.

Traffic aside, events like these are a sign of economic prosperity, which improves the quality of life for all of our residents, per the City’s press release, noting how Cape Town has grown massively as a cruise tourism destination.

“Between 2016 and 2019, each season averaged between 35 and 40 ships arriving at the port in the city. In this 2023/2024 season, the number of ship visits is currently at 67.

These gains directly follow the City’s support for the Cruise Cape Town initiative, administered by Wesgro, to promote our destination as one of choice for the cruise travel market.”

While a cruise ship carrying thousands of passengers injects millions of rands per day into the local economy, according to the city’s estimates, some worry that investing in big corp cruise ships is not sustainable, nor beneficial for job creation and meaningful tourism.

“This is a sector of tourism that is deeply valuable for us with research by Wesgro revealing that cruise tourism injected R1,2 billion into the Western Cape economy between November 2022 and May 2023. In addition, for every 30 arriving cruise passengers, the Western Cape cruise industry created one full-time job. This is worth bearing in mind when considering the thousands of passengers on board the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria.”

The City will continue working closely with its partners to make Cape Town stand out on the global cruise travel map, said James Vos, the mayoral committee member for economic growth.

30 passengers = one person’s job. That seems like a slightly imbalanced ratio, to me.

[source:capetownetc]