Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront (V&A) had now largely recovered from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, CEO David Green told journalists, at a media briefing on Wednesday. “We had a very tough couple of years,” he reported. V&A management’s approach during the pandemic had been to try to preserve as many of the businesses and activities on the waterfront as they could. “We pretty much did that, in all sectors.”

The V&A did not reduce its own staff complement, and supported the businesses it hosted by, for example, reducing their rental fees. Even so, the waterfront’s restaurant sector had been particularly badly hit, with ten of the 80 eateries in the complex going under. However, nine of these had already been replaced.

During the first eight months of this year, the V&A had recorded slightly more than 4.8-million visitors, which was 43% higher than during the same period last year, and 68.4% up on the equivalent period in 2020. But it was still 20.2% below the figure for the same period in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.

“We’re pretty much back to a normalised trading pattern,” he said. Foreign tourist traffic was now at 80% of pre-Covid levels and was expected to reach 100% soon, and thereafter go higher. Moreover, after two years of no visits by cruise ships, the waterfront was expecting to received 75 such visits, by 26 cruise liners, carrying up to 195 000 people, during the 2022/23 southern summer season.  

“It’s [now] not a recovery phase,” he affirmed. “It’s [a] ‘how do we prioritise growth?’ [phase].”

To this end, the V&A has initiated a series of improvement and development programmes, with investments of R1-billion having been made so far. Roadways and landscaping were being improved. New and better e-hailing locations were being created. The Cape Wheel was being moved from its current location, which it had, Green said, “outgrown”, to a new site from which it would offer views of Robben Island as well as Table Mountain; it would reopen early next year. New buildings were being built, and the historic Union Castle Building would be given greater salience. The current helipad would be upgraded into a proper heliport and a ‘4x4’ (offroad vehicle) track created next to it. And various pandemic-related retail initiatives would, because of their success, be continued into the future.