Johannesburg – The South African cruise industry is growing at a rapid rate and moves are afoot to improve port passenger terminal infrastructure to cope with the increasing demand. Allan Foggitt, sales and marketing director for MSC Cruises, says: “Cruising has never performed better.
“To date, more than 80 percent of our annual budget has been achieved, and we are sitting on an occupancy rate of 70 percent, with many of our cruises sold out.” Foggitt says the time is right to improve efficiency. In a joint initiative, MSC and the Transnet National Ports Authority are to make further improvements to the passenger terminal in Durban.
“N-shed was initially a warehouse that was used as a terminal when we started cruising in local waters in 1989,” Foggitt says. There were 1 300 passengers in a season then. “During the 2015-16 cruise season, we are expecting well over 92 000 passengers to pass through the terminal.”
