Cape Town’s cruise 2022/23 season, which will see visits from 75 ships carrying more than 195 000 passengers, will again inject hundreds of millions of rand in tourism spend into the city’s economy.

This will be the first full cruise season in three years, and almost R100 million (US$5.45m) in passenger spend is estimated per each port visit. The season opened on October 19 with the arrival of German-based Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ Hanseatic Spirit, which has added Cape Town to its cruise schedule for the first time.

Wesgro, which houses the collaborative Cruise Cape Town initiative, said the season was expected to create a number of jobs in both the downstream and upstream tourism industries.

“Cruise tourism generates R300 million (US$16.35m) in annual economic impact and supports thousands of jobs in Cape Town and the Western Cape, and the start of the 2022/23 cruise season represents a significant milestone in realising Cruise Cape Town’s goal of capitalising on the growing global cruise tourism trend and growing the cruise economy,” said Wesgro CEO, Wrenelle Stander.

Western Cape Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, Mireille Wenger, added that the expansion of cruise tourism presented a key opportunity to increase the number of visitors to Cape Town.

“The opportunities go well beyond visitor spend and extend to resupplying the cruise ships with both goods and services and ship maintenance. I also welcome the recovery of cruise tourism, with bookings in next year’s season growing beyond what was expected before the COVID-19 pandemic, which bodes well for economic growth and job creation in the Western Cape.”

Meanwhile, Stander said the cruise industry would be focusing on four strongly interconnected elements as it looked to the future.

“These will define the future of cruising and its resilience over time: environmental sustainability, modern infrastructures, a personalised customer experience through greater digitalisation, and a value creation-oriented relationship with local communities.”