Cruise ship arrivals give SA tourism major end-of-year boost

South Africa hopes to get a major end of year year tourism boost – thanks to the number of luxury ships tying up at the country’s ports over the coming months.

Luxury cruise ships calling at South African ports set to give the country a major late year tourism injection Image by Stefan Wisselink / CC BY 2.0

Home and international tourists will be part of the massive influx among the eight cruisers and 10 massive vessels en route to and from travel hotspots.

Included in the ships calling is the MSC Sinfonia which arrived in her home port of Durban and is the most popular and biggest cruise ship in the area, according to the South African Sunday Times. This was the ship’s first visit to South Africa following a €50m revamp..

Moshe Motlohi, the TNPA’s port manager for the port of Durban said the expansion and upgrading at the port meant the terminal was now more in line with international standards and would help to bolster the local cruise tourism area.

The first passenger vessel to call was the RMS St Helena when she berthed in Cape Town last month.

The cruise season in the country will continue for another six months up to next May.