Business appears to be booming for some of Cape Town’s seaside restaurants, despite recent beach closures.
So far, the stench of an overflowing drain has not kept patrons away from the Spur restaurant in Gordon’s Bay, where the beach was shut down temporarily recently. The popular eatery experienced a 16% growth in business this season compared to the previous year.
“It didn’t really affect us. People didn’t really take it seriously. They were still coming to the beach and swimming…They totally ignored all the warnings and danger related to the sewage problem,” said Spur manager Shawn Wagenaar, referring to the beach closure.
He said a nearby drain had been fixed but about 200m away, another one was still posing a problem.
“There’s one drain at the corner that overflowed in December and beginning of January. They came and pumped it out, but they haven’t done anything about the other one…That started in December already… It’s a foul smell and it’s not pleasant.”
Regarding future business, Wagenaar said: “It may affect it, because the people that were here at the beginning of the year were still tourists. Probably the local people, when all the people are gone, won’t come to the beach…That will be a concern in the future.”
A few minutes’ drive from there, at Ocean Basket, they enjoyed one of the best seasons in about five years.
“We had a lot of foreigners visiting us again. Lockdown regulations throughout the world were lifted. A lot of people came to visit their usual spots throughout the year,” said restaurant manager Eben Potgieter.
Load shedding is a bigger problem. He hopes tourism officials intervene to get the message across to diners.
“(Friday) morning I read a message online that they’re going to increase the load shedding hours to 14 hours a day. That makes life uncomfortable for everyone. Even two hours, three hours a day makes life very uncomfortable, yet we are still open. We are still ready for you, ready to meet you, ready to serve you.”
At the Bossa restaurant in the neighbouring Strand, an empty beach is not necessarily a bad thing.
“Most of the time when the beaches open… it’s actually a negative thing for us because the guys come and fill up the parking, and then our clientele don’t have room to park and they end up not coming here,” said restaurant manager Gilbert Moyo, appealing for security during peak season to make beachgoers feel safer.
Eddie Andrews, the City’s deputy mayor and mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment, said the impact of beach closures was minimal.
“First off, most of the City’s known beaches are suitable for recreational use, most of the time, all year round,” Andrews said.
“Secondly, where sustained high stages of load shedding and illegal dumping impact on City sewer pump stations and related infrastructure, we immediately act in accordance with a standing sewage spill protocol to facilitate a well-co-ordinated, swift and efficient response across various City departments.”
He said City teams had kept 99% of the coastline “open and safe for all at any time”.
“Cape Town is a tourist destination for a variety of reasons, over and above our magnificent coastline and coastal amenities. This includes our wine farms, excellent restaurants, outdoor activities such as hiking in Table Mountain National Park and our nature reserves…
“Thus, it would be wrong to make an assumption – not based on any statistical analysis of tourist numbers – that a temporary beach closure would have an immediate and long-term impact on tourism.”
This week, tourism bodies welcomed the increase in travel figures to Cape Town over the December period where 30 000 passengers were being processed daily, according to the City’s economic growth and tourism Mayco member James Vos.
Vos estimated that between now and March, they would have 1.68 million two-way seats available, and will land 191 international flights a week, generating about R8 billion in tourism spend.
Wesgro’s Cruise Cape Town initiative also indicated that on two separate days this season, the Cape Town Cruise Terminal welcomed three ships in the terminal on the same day – a first for the port.
The body said between November and April this year, 75 ships were expected visit the Cape Town Terminal, the largest number in its history. 41 ships were turnaround visits where passengers disembarked and new passengers board for a new journey.
Weekend Argus