Industry injected an estimated R1.2bn into the Western Cape economy in the last financial year, with around 90 000 passengers and 38 000 crew members expected to step ashore in the current year.

For the first time in history, Friday (11 April) saw two of the world’s most famous cruise liners the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Victoria dock in the Port of Cape Town at the same time.

The Queen Mary, concluding a 30-day voyage from Hong Kong, was undertaking a turnaround call in the Mother City. This included the disembarkation and embarkation of passengers for her next journey to New York in the US.

The Queen Victoria made a brief stopover for a turnaround call before continuing to Walvis Bay in Namibia.

The area now includes a food market with restaurants and coffee shops, a small craft gin distillery, and a brewery.

Red Sea risk

South African ports are currently benefitting from vessels avoiding the Red Sea as Yemen-based Houthi rebels targetcontainer, cruise, and other ships that would normally use the Suez Canal to access or head back to Europe.

The MSC Virtuosa the biggest cruise ship to dock in a South African port recently called at the Port of Durban’s Nelson Mandela Cruise Terminal to refuel and stock up as part of her return journey to Europe after being diverted to avoid risks in the Red Sea.

Read: MSC Virtuosa mega cruise ship calls in Durban to avoid Red Sea

Wesgro, the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape, estimated in a report that the cruise industry has been a significant contributor to the province’s economy, generating around R1.2 billion in the 2022/23 season.

Although cruise ship passengers do not necessarily spend significant amounts on accommodation and hospitality when they disembark, since their voyages

often include all meals and they sleep on the ship, benefits are reaped over the longer term.

Returning tourists

Research shows that 63% of cruise passengers have returned to a destination they first visited on a cruise ship.

“This is important for the Western Cape. This repeat tourism can increase incrementally over time as international visitors are introduced to the Western Cape and become regular visitors,” says Wesgro CEO Wrenelle Stander.

Bob Dixon, director of sales for Cunard Line, the Southampton-based shipping company that owns the ‘Two Queens’, among others, told Moneyweb its passengers rate Cape Town “exceptionally high”.

The rand’s favourable exchange rate against the dollar, the euro, and the pound means passengers who disembark are not shy about spending money at restaurants and shopping malls in the Mother City.

It is estimated that one full-time provincial job is created for every 30 arriving cruise passengers.

“The current 2023/24 season is seeing 65 confirmed ship visits. With an expected 90 000 passengers in the 2023-24 season, we know that roughly 3 000 new permanent jobs have been created in this season alone,” said Mireille Wenger, Western Cape MEC for Finance and Economic Development.

Moneyweb was part of a media tour of the Queen Mary 2 on Friday. The impressive cruise liner comprises 13 decks and can carry close to 2 700 passengers. Altogether 330 metres long and 67 metres high, the ship boasts eight restaurants, a nightclub, a theatre that can house an audience of 1 000 people, and two open decks, both with swimming pools and hot tubs.

The Queen Mary 2 has around 400 South Africans among its crew members. V.5302

There are fears that more people will be separated by the introduction of a minimum salary level for those wanting UK family visas. Families living in the UK and abroad have raised concerns about what new rules will mean for them as they try to reunite with foreign spouses. In December, the Home Office, which says migration to the UK is too high, announced a package of measures to reduce net migration, following a spike in arrival numbers. V.5318
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An Ethiopian asylum seeker, who does not speak English, claims he was duped by a senior immigration official into paying an admission of guilt fine when he thought he was paying for bail.Two Western Cape High Court judges have condemned the official`s `deplorable` behaviour, set aside the fine, and ordered the immigration official be taken off the case. Tsegaye Esyas claims Annelise van Dyk treated him like an animal which led to him attempt suicide while in police cells. V.5320
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EREMY MAGGS: I want to stay with crime now. Individuals with a criminal record may be faced with significant challenges when seeking employment, I think that’s a given. Here in South Africa, employers may legally exclude an applicant from consideration for a position if having a clean criminal record is what is termed an inherent requirement of the job. That phrase, inherent requirement, is important, but what exactly does that mean, and when can an applicant be lawfully excluded for having a criminal record? V.5321
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As a South African who has adopted a nomadic work lifestyle alongside my wife, Ingrid Lotze, I’ve been an interested observer of South Africa’s snail-pace digital nomad visa (DNV) development process. Despite the optimism surrounding its introduction, the visa seems to miss several crucial marks for digital nomads like us. V.5322
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DA MP says hours lost continue to result in persons being unable to collect their ID documents due to unmanageable queues The DA has been inundated with complaints that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) systems are offline, resulting in long queues and delayed processing of documents. Through questions posed to the Minister, the DA can now reveal that the DHA has lost over 77 years’ worth of working hours due to system downtime and load-shedding from 2019 to date. Concerningly, this data only relates to hours lost for the application of smart IDs, meaning decades more of working hours could have been additionally lost in other spheres such as passport or visa applications. V.5314
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Home Affairs’ seemingly endless court battles set the department back more than R110-million between April 2023 and the end of February this year. This was revealed in a written parliamentary response by minister Aaron Motsoaledi. He said the department accumulated a litigation bill of R117 692 996.3, higher than the R72 637 944.51 spent the year before. V.5315
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Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) this week revealed that Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) has achieved a ground-breaking milestone by processing more than 10 million passengers over a single financial year. This is the highest number of regional and international passengers processed since COVID-19 V.5316
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In recent years, South Africa has seen a significant influx of immigrants from various African countries, as well as other parts of the world. This has raised important questions about the country`s immigration policies and their impact on job creation for both locals and immigrants. The South African immigration system, like many other countries, is a complex and ever-evolving process that aims to balance the country`s economic needs with its social and cultural interests. Let`s take a closer look at how this system intersects with job creation in South Africa. The South African government implemented the Immigration Act of 2002, which outlines the country`s immigration policies and procedures. Under this act, foreigners are required to obtain a visa or permit to enter, work, or study in South Africa. The type of visa or permit required depends on the intended purpose of the individual`s visit and their country of origin. V.5312
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Due to system downtime and load-shedding, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) lost nearly 141,000 hours of Smart ID application and production time between the 2019/20 and 2022/23 financial years. Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed this figure in a recent response to questions raised in Parliament by Democratic Alliance MP Adrian Roos. Motsoaledi provided a breakdown of smart ID production and application hours lost to technical difficulties and load-shedding per province for each financial year from 2019/2020. These disruptions hit home Affairs offices in the Eastern Cape the hardest, with over 34,000 hours to rotational power cuts and system downtime. Mpumalanga offices lost the next-highest number of hours at 17 V.5313
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Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has said the public has shown great support for the final White Paper on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection which appeared in the Government Gazette on Wednesday. Briefing the media, he addressed what he saw as a long-overdue need to replace an outdated Citizenship Act, as well as enact proposed changes to existing legislation. V.5306
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