Business activity at Cape Town's Victoria and Alfred Waterfront makes up close to 2% of the Western Cape's economy and contributes R31.5bn to GDP, according to an economic impact study released by the Waterfront this week.
Plans to develop a service industry for superyachts, continued growth of the cruise-liner terminal and hopes the visa regime will become simpler are expected to further boost growth at the iconic development.
The fourth edition of the biennial impact study analysed the V&A's performance in the two-year period immediately prior to the tourism slump in mid-2018, at the time of Cape Town's "Day Zero" water crisis.
It highlighted significant increases in direct employment and retail business, with economic growth leaping 13.5% during 2017 - dwarfing national growth of 1.5% and provincial growth of just 0.5%.
The V&A's contribution to the provincial economy increased to 1.6% in the 2017/2018 financial year - up from 1.1% in 2005 and 1.3% in 2015 - after strong turnover growth and enterprise development.
V&A CEO David Green singled out enterprise development as a particularly pleasing aspect of the latest impact report: "We put a lot of focus on that because that is where the jobs will come from going forward."
He said the growth of office and residential development showed the V&A had created "an environment where people want to come to work and live".
These developments also ensured the area remained vibrant and diverse, he said.
A simpler and more efficient tourist visa regime, as well as the continued growth of the cruise-liner terminal, would further bolster Cape Town's already strong tourist brand, he said.
The report says: "There has been a spectacular increase in economic activity at the V&A Waterfront. This has been driven particularly through developments at the new Silo and Canal districts ... the recent increase in economic contribution eclipses all previous changes at the V&A Waterfront."
Any impact of the 15%-20% drop in tourism around Day Zero would only be reflected in the next impact report.
The Silo District, opened in 2017, has expanded the V&A's retail footprint and added a new global draw card in the form of Africa's largest art museum, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa.
The 8.4ha Canal District is a mixed-use development that includes a hotel, film studio and urban park built around the remnants of the historical Amsterdam Battery.
Other positives in the report include:
• Direct employment has grown to 23,000 jobs, a 4.7% annual increase from the 20,742 jobs in 2016;
• Total jobs (including tenants and their employees) has increased 8.5% annually since 2016 to 66,043; and
• Revenue from enterprise development shot up to R329m in 2018 - partly due to the hugely successful Oranjezicht City Farm Market - more than double the R139m generated in 2015.
Another notable feature of recent growth is the rapid increase in commercial office space, which now makes up 25% of all gross lettable area.
The V&A this week also confirmed it was seeking to attract more boat builders and superyachts by offering more attractive berthing packages. "If we could draw the superyachts here that would be a whole new industry, and we already have the expertise that can deal with that kind of refurbishment and maintenance," V&A marine and industrial executive manager Andre Blaine said.
