Melanie Gosling
DEVELOPMENTS by the V&A Waterfront could contribute a cumulative R223.7 billion to South Africa’s gross domestic product by 2027 – and the contribution by the new cruise liner terminal at Cape Town harbour will form part of that, V&A Waterfront chief executive David Green said yesterday.
The Transnet National Ports Authority this week awarded V&A Waterfront the tender to develop a cruise terminal in the port close to the Silo District of the Waterfront .
Green said the financial forecasts were the result of an assessment on the economy his company had conducted. The cruise terminal is to be open to the public as a “people’s port”.
V&A Waterfront will invest just less than R179 million to design, finance and develop the new passenger liner terminal, scheduled to for completion in December 2017. Because of the seasonal nature of the cruise industry, the company plans to develop the terminal into a “multi-use” area with commercial activity all year round. Cape Town got between 25 and 29 cruise liners a year.
Transnet said the development “envisaged retails and hospitality services”, but that would be up to the V&A Waterfront.
Green said the first phase of the development would be a facility to handle passengers disembarking from cruise liners.
This would include immigration, customs and baggage facilities. The company might build retail structures at a later stage if there were demand.
The company sees the passenger terminal as an extension of the V&A Waterfront.
Last year a study commissioned by the City of Cape Town found that South Africa accounted for only 0.6 percent of global cruise liner activity.
Cape Town port manager Sipho Nzuza said the terminal was being built on government’s instruction.