Ostensibly, this is – as you can see – a plan to fight the city’s overtourism problem. And we’ve heard a lot about the clashes between tourists and locals recently. Must be equally nice and awful to have that sort of problem. But I’m not sure that Barcelona needs the money quite as much as Cape Town does. So shutting down two of your seven!!!!! cruise terminals might be a viable option to cut tourist numbers to some degree.
But then look down at that last paragraph: green power supplied to cruise ships while they are berthed. And while that doesn’t remove the tourists (the two closing cruise terminals do that) or the visual distractions, it might at least reduce the amount of pollution that these ships add to the ports in which they are staying.
Perhaps, since Cape Town is seemingly (and reasonably) anxious to grow our local cruise ship business, we should be looking at providing a similar green energy policy and hook-ups for the cruise ships visiting the Mother City? We have wind, we have sunshine, and we could place something right down in the port area without the need for extensive infrastructure like power lines. Given how much money the cruise ships bring into the city, surely some it invested in making them a greener way of accessing Cape Town – and protecting the health of the local population – would be no bad thing.
Maybe both, depending upon your list of preferences for your luxury holiday? Weirdo.
But I get it – people’s opinions differ.
They are an essential for the tourist economies of the ports that they visit, including here in Cape Town:
The cruise industry contributed R1.32 billion to the Western Cape economy during the 2023-24 season, up from R1.2 billion the previous season, despite a slight drop in ship calls.
Cruise passengers, vessels, and crew generated R1.5 billion in expenditure, supporting 1,965 jobs across sectors like retail, hospitality, and tourism services.
With the new cruise season underway, Cape Town and the Western Cape is set to enhance its role in the global cruise market, driving continued economic growth and job creation in the region.
In this economy, you simply can’t ignore the positive effect of that much money and that many jobs. But there is also no doubting that cruise ships aren’t particularly nice if you’re near them, not on them.
Visually, for a start. Ironically ruining the vistas of the places that they are visiting so that passengers can see the vistas:
The poet and filmmaker Odveig Klyve has lived for several decades in Stavanger, on the west coast of Norway. The city encircles its harbour, on hillsides that slope down to the seafront. It has been a site of international commerce for hundreds of years, Klyve said, first for herring fishing, then international shipping, then the oil industry. “It has always been a city linked to the sea and what the sea can give,” she told me recently. In the short film “View,” Klyve also shows what a maritime enterprise can take away.
It’s 4 minutes of simple shots and sounds. Well worth your time:
It really is like someone building a 15 storey block of apartments right on your heritage doorstep. No planning permission required. Horrific.
But it’s not just the views which are compromised. PLENTY of research shows us that cruise ships are one of the worst forms of transport for creating air pollution. And when they end up on your doorstep – as they do in Stavanger and Cape Town – they are particularly bad for the local air quality.
Air quality measurements taken last week when cruise ships – such as NCL’s Norwegian Star – visited Cobh, in Ireland’s Cork Harbour, show air pollution levels up to more than 250 times higher than safe levels recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Air pollution caused by cruise ships during the hotelling phase in ports represents a significant source of emissions. The hotelling phase refers to the period during which ships remain docked and keep their main and auxiliary engines running to supply power to onboard systems. Numerous studies have shown that this practice significantly contributes to emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx), particulate matter (PM), and carbon dioxide (CO2), degrading air quality in port areas and surrounding urban zones.
The emissions from cruise ships were increasing the annual concentration of NO2 in the port area by up to 31% at ground level, and 86% 50 m above the ground in comparison to the urban background level. The short-term impact of cruise ships was more pronounced with local exceedances of the hourly European limit value for NO2. Increasing cruise ship activity in Copenhagen port leads to air quality deterioration on short time scales with implications for human health.
Toxic air pollutants from cruise ships around ports are higher than pre-pandemic levels, leaving Europe’s port cities choking in air pollution, a new Transport & Environment study shows. Despite the introduction of the UN shipping body’s sulphur cap in 2020, last year Europe’s 218 cruise ships emitted as much sulphur oxides (SOx) as 1 billion cars. However, at the port of Venice air pollutants from cruise ships fell 80% following the city’s ban on large cruise ships.
These chemicals aren’t invisible pollutants, but they aren’t quite as obvious as some ships’ toxic fumes, and so they will often be overlooked, except for by scientists and by those with health issues which are acutely exacerbated by nasty pollutants.
I’ve lived in a couple of big tourist cities in my life, and I’ve watched as the tourists’ levels of consideration for the places they visit have dropped over the years, as a general lack of respect has taken over, and society has rapidly devolved into the cesspool that we see every day online: full of narcissists.
More and more, the cities and sites that they come to are seen as places that are privileged to have them visit, rather than a privilege to visit. And while I’m not specifically blaming the actual tourists for this cruise ship pollution, if they don’t really care about the way that they behave while they’re here, they’re certainly not going to give a toss about the huge amounts of sulphur dioxide that is being chucked out by their transport.
After all, as long as it’s perfect for their visit, that’s all that matters. No matter how they got here: plane, ship or… actually, those are pretty much the only two options for Cape Town.
So yes, we need the cruise liners and their visitors and their money. Just at what cost?
Despite the danger from wild animals around every corner (and on every golf green), South Africa is still a really popular tourist destination. Decent weather (T&Cs apply), loads of varied stuff to do, a single flight from and a very small time difference from a lot of Europe, and THAT EXCHANGE RATE.
It’s pretty rubbish for us living here, but the ever-weaking Rand makes SA deliciously attractive to tourists. Follow anyone who has come here (on social media, not like stalking them), and you’ll hear them wax lyrical about the service, the wine, the scenery, the wildlife, the people, the food and the prices.
I can’t believe that we got all of this – including drinks – for less than fifty quid
is a regular line at the end of every 4 course meal shared on the TikkityTok. And if you’ve ever been to the UK, you’ll understand exactly why that seems amazing.
And then I saw this:
I did some rudimentary calculations and worked out that at an average of about R40 (this is not Fireman’s, Forries or the Waterfront, obvs!), we’re sitting at about the €1.98 of Hungary for a 500ml Castle Lite or a Black Label. Sure, that may not be your tipple of choice, but this isn’t just about you, and if you’re going to want to drink something “Crapft”, then sure, things can get silly quite quickly.
But this is about the average price for 0.5 litre domestic draught beer in restaurants. Like it says on the map.
And that shows just how cheap this place is when you’re coming from somewhere that’s yellow, orange or red. It also demonstrates that needs to be more than just cheap beer prices to take into consideration when choosing a holiday destination. Because Ukraine looks very inviting on this map.
But… well… you know…
I remember going to Czechoslovakia (when it was just still Czechoslovakia) and buying a bottle of beer for the equivalent of 2 English pence. I thought they’d misrepresented the price or I’d mis-converted it, and it should have been two pounds (which would have been very expensive for someone from the North of the England in those days), or maybe 20 pence (ridiculously reasonable). It turned out that I just needed to move my decimal point along again. Amazing.
Looking back, I demonstrated some incredible – and some might say, foolish – self control on that trip.
Beer has gone up a lot more in the ex-Czechoslovakia in the last thirty years than it has in the UK.
And it’s definitely more expensive here since I arrived as well, but then isn’t everything? But like I say, if you’re coming out to Cape Town from London, then you’re probably going to think that they’ve undercharged you for your beer.
Still, the “cheap” beer is also a good thing for us locals. It’s just a shame that these days we can’t afford anything nice to eat with it.
I recently heard someone remark the other day that Cape Town seemed quieter than usual over the holiday period this year. I’d noticed that too.
Not here though.
We only arrived in Agulhas yesterday, but wow: it’s busy. Really busy.
Even the internet is overloaded and slow like if you were at a concert or a sports event, or just on Cell C.
I’m sure that I have mentioned on here sometime previously that it’s really difficult for businesses to cope with this once off seasonal demand.
Cape Agulhas is a wonderful place, but you have to want to come here. It’s not somewhere you reach accidentally. It’s not near a big airport or transport hub. It’s not on the road to anywhere else (in fact it’s a good 100km-plus off the road to anywhere else). It’s a trip you have to decide to make. And so the two weeks or so around Christmas is the only time this place sees any major action.
That’s just how I like it, of course: it’s why we spend so much time here. But it does make it very hard work for the tourism-related businesses here to make things work. Fifty weeks of the year, they are just trying to survive on the meagre scraps provided by a trickle of geographically-curious visitors; but then they are expected (and required) to upscale for the annual invasion of the Christmas fortnight. The campsites are full, the towns are buzzing, the queues are… noticeable.
And the local restaurants have invested and really stepped up to the challenge this year: the wine shop now has a wine bar and does picnics, the fish and chip shop – an institution – has built a posh extension and can seat many more people, the Twisted Fork has rebranded as the Crafty Pig (and I even saw customers in there), Seagulls has renovated its downstairs restaurant area, Pot Pouri is now huge and has a double-storey gift shop, and Zuidste Kaap has done absolutely nothing, because that’s just how they roll.
With the investment comes a degree of risk, of course: the fish and chip shop was packed today, but on a drizzly Tuesday next July – probably not so much. But I’m sure that the owners and manager of these businesses have taken all this into account when making their decisions. And I’m delighted to say that they were all happily making hay yesterday.
I need to go to bed now, to mentally prepare myself for the very real possibility that that there might be someone on my beach tomorrow.
I haven’t dared to warn the beagle. But then it wouldn’t understand anyway.
Local authorities in Cape Town have come under fire this week for their latest attempts to convince tourists of the severity of the drought in the Mother City, with critics saying the posters “go too far”, and are “frankly rather scary” and “wholly distasteful”.
The summer tourist season is approaching, and many residents have expressed concern that transient visitors will either be unaware of our water crisis or simply won’t care, and would therefore waste our precious resources. Tourism is huge business in the Western Cape, with 1.5 million international visitors spending a massive R18 billion in the province in 2016. It’s clear that without that money, Cape Town would be in deep trouble, but running out of water completely would obviously be a disaster.
However, those same residents were stunned at the authorities response, with shocking posters which are set to be displayed prominently in the arrivals area in the airport and at popular tourist sites around the city.
Elsie Grootbek of Newlands was aghast:
Look, of course I know that the drought is a big issue, but South Africa does have a bit of a reputation and posters like this really don’t help with that. This is terrible. Which moron actually thought that this would be a good idea?
Reaction to other posters was equally incredulous. Fanie Praatbaie, a guest house owner in Melkbosstrand, couldn’t believe the posters and was concerned what effect they might have:
It’s bad taste and really off-putting. We’ll talk to our visitors, one to one, and explain the water crisis. We don’t need this sort of thing welcoming our tourists. It might even spark vigilante action if one of our guests takes a 4 minute shower or something. It’s hugely worrying.
However, government representatives were quick to point out that this ‘shocked’ reaction was exactly what they were after.
Spokesperson Willem van der Maydup told us:
It’s really not meant to be threatening. It’s just designed to make people think when they turn the taps on in their hotel rooms. Water is the lifeblood of any city, and we want visitors to value our water as if it were their own blood.
I showed one of the posters to my 6 year old son last week and it’s clearly had an effect: he hasn’t even gone into the bathroom since then. Or slept.
It’s unclear whether the backlash will force the authorities to change their mind on the controversial campaign, but with the local tourism season just around the corner, it may be too late to come up with an alternative means of getting their important message across.
