Southern Africa seeks to attract cruise liners

* Southern Africa plans to lure more cruise liners

* Region devising common strategy

By Wendell Roelf

CAPE TOWN, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Southern African states are working on a common strategy to increase their share of the multi-billion dollar cruise liner market, which has proved resilient in a global downturn, a South African official said.

The push to sell the region, largely unexplored as a cruise destination, comes as the world's top cruise lines, such as Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL.N), look beyond established routes for new customers. [ID:N18358748]

"People around the world are tired of going to the same destinations," Mansoor Mohamed, chairman of South Africa's government-backed cruise liner steering committee, told Reuters.

"The Indian Ocean and sub-Saharan Africa offers the sea and safari experience when nobody else can offer it," he said, referring to the vast area that includes foreign tourism favourites Kenya and South Africa.

"With that comes significant benefits in the form of economic value that could run into billions of dollars," he said in an interview on Thursday.

Tourism has traditionally been an important economic driver in the world's poorest continent, but the sector has been held back because many African countries lack the infrastructure and facilities to showcase their attractions.

The region accounts for less than 1 percent of the global cruise liner market.

LITTLE INFRASTRUCTURE

Initial research showed that a minimal amount of infrastructure development was needed to lure cruise liners, Mohamed said, although an increase in piracy in the Gulf of Aden, around the Horn of Africa, was a concern.

"It is our belief ... that very little infrastructure is required in order to realise the full potential of cruise liner tourism for the sub-Saharan region," he said.

Port cities such as Cape Town could make use of multi-purpose berth facilities instead of having a dedicated cruise liner berth for passengers to disembark, he said.

According to Starlight Cruises, agents for MSC Cruises and South Africa's only regular cruise operator, a lack of viable ports of call was a major factor inhibiting growth in the region.

"Unlike Caribbean, Greek island or European ports where there are dozens of attractive and marketable destinations within a short distance of each other, we have very limited options and this restricts growth," Allan Foggitt, Starlight's managing director, told Reuters.

Foggitt said Starlight regularly operates a fleet of rubber dinghies to move passengers from ship to shore during cruises to the islands off Mozambique.

"And the ships' chefs are required to move food and equipment ashore from the ship to create a fun-filled beach braai for the 2,000 passengers at the island," he said.

Foggitt conservatively estimated the local cruise liner industry to be worth about 350 million rand a year, with passenger numbers expected to almost double to 70,000 during the 2009/10 season from 40,000 in 2008/09. (Editing by Serena Chaudhry and Lin Noueihed)