It appears that the Cape Town Cruise Terminal will be happening, but concerns are being expressed that the cost of building it may be larger than the revenue generated by the cruise ships visiting the city. No additional cruise ships are expected to visit Cape Town as a result of the new Terminal, a tour operator told Tourism Update.
Cruise passengers need a facility to handle a large number of passengers to go on land, for the Department of Home Affairs staff in particular, and are less worried about the design of such a facility, being interested in the shopping and tourist highlights which the city they are visiting offers. As Cape Town would not receive visits from cruise liners every day of the year, the Cruise Terminal should offer other uses, to make the building more viable, including a tourist information centre, a conference centre, shopping facilities, accommodation, and even medical facilities. The more money that is spent on the Terminal, the more expensive berthing becomes for the cruise liners, and therefore the shorter their stay will be.
Cruise liners tend to visit Cape Town from October to May, and a new Cruise Terminal will make the embarkation more efficient in Cape Town.
The tourism benefit of 1000 or so cruise line passengers visiting Cape Town and the Winelands at a time is enormous, being good spenders when shopping, and in eating out and renting tourism experiences. One hopes that talk about the Cruise Terminal will become reality soonest!
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Tel (021) 433-2100, Twitter:@WhaleCottage Facebook: click here
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