Cruise market a poor earner for TPT – for now

The SA cruise market – which
marked its official start with
the arrival of the MSC Sinfonia
in Durban last Tuesday – may
be a good earner for the SA
tourism economy, but not yet
for the actual Port of Durban.
Port of
Durban
manager Moshe
Motlohi said
that the MSC
Sinfonia was
one of 14 luxury
cruise liners
and 20 other
passenger ships
that would call
at six of the
country’s ports
this season –
these include the Cunard Lines’
luxury giants, Queen Mary
2 and Queen Elizabeth, and
Compagnie du Ponant’s oneyear-
old newbuild, Le Lyrial.
Each of the foreign
passengers alighting from
these, and an estimated
80% do so, spend an average
of US$100 (over R1 350) a
day ashore, according to
KZN MEC for economic
development, tourism and
environmental affairs, Sihle
Zikalala. Tourism KZN
reckons that both passengers
and crew spend an average
of R1-R2 million per day per
cruise ship port-of-call. For
provisioning
they tend to
spend R3m-
R5m per port
on supplies and
its transport
to the vessels
– and that also
applies to the
MSC ships.
Motlohi
added that the
Durban cruise
market had
grown from 81 800 passengers
10 years ago to nearly 145 000
last season. But the majority
of these are local passengers
enjoying MSC cruises, and
the bulk of their spend
would be in the foreign ports
visited. Nonetheless, those
not residents of Durban or
nearby centres could still have
possible accommodation, food,
transport and entertainment
costs before and after boarding
the cruise liners.
And, along with the foreign
passengers from other cruise
ships calling in Durban, the
estimated value to the province
is over R200 million per cruise
season.
Zikalala sees an exciting
future in the Durban cruise
market. He said that the
rapidly growing global cruise
tourism sector held “an ace”
to propel SA’s economic
development, despite tough
economic times, and he
expected passenger arrivals at
the Port of Durban to hit the
one million mark by 2025.
However, the port itself –
from passenger and baggage
dues, berthing charges and
other ship’s dues – makes
a mere R15m-R20m per
season, according to Motlohi.
However, he told FTW,
Transnet saw this as an
emerging market with great
future prospects, and its
income from cruises one that
would grow significantly in
coming years.
INSERT & CAPTION
Transnet sees this as
an emerging market
with great future
prospects.
– Moshe Motlohi