Cape Town – Transnet National Ports Authority has announced The V&A Waterfront as the preferred bidder for the long-overdue Cape Town Cruise terminal in South Africa’s oldest working harbour.
The agreement includes operation, maintenance and transfer of ownership back to TNPA after 20 years.
David Green, CEO V&A Waterfront told Traveller24 that the V&A Waterfront’s mandate starts from September 2015 with an initial two year redevelopment project making up the first phase of the R179 million development. The entire redevelopment of the passenger terminal is expected to be completed by December 2017.
“From an economic impact assessment conducted, we know that developments by the V&A Waterfront could contribute a cumulative R223.7 billion to the nominal GDP by 2027. The investment into the re-development of the passenger terminal would contribute to this figure.”
An extension of the V&A Waterfront experience
“Our focus will be primarily on enhancing the experience. The cruise terminal gives us the opportunity to extend a warm welcome to our fair city, and is important in the first impression it will create of Cape Town,” said Green.
According to Green, the intention is for the facility to comfortably handle the full passenger complement of the likes of cruise liners such as the MSC Symphonia or the Opera.
“The terminal building is in close proximity to the Silo District of the V&A Waterfront, which is set to become a major hub with the development of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. With the development of the terminal building comes better access to and egress from this area,” he said.
READ: New Cape Town luxury cruise terminal finally gets the go ahead
“Our vision is to scale the retail offering up or down in response to demand, in addition to baggage handling services, immigration desks and infrastructure and customs facilities.
But owing to the seasonality of the cruise industry, the project is aiming to “develop and run the terminal building as multi-use to bring activity year round”.
South Africa’s cruise season runs from October to April and while activity has increased in the past 10 years and passenger volumes had doubled globally South Africa accounts for an estimated 0.6 percent of overall passenger activity.
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