Cruising Nowhere: A South African Contribution to Cruise Tourism

Abstract

This chapter explores one aspect of South African cruise tourism, namely cruises-to-nowhere. Unique in the realm of cruise tourism, ‘cruises-to-nowhere’ has become a hallmark of the South African cruise season during the southern hemisphere’s summer months. Such cruises without a destination trade port call for the promise of liminality on the high seas. At the same time, these seaborne holiday experiences provide access to cruising to South Africans new to cruise tourism and generate income for cruise lines operating in South African waters during the European winter months. Using netnographic methods to collect and analyse online travel reviews, travel forums and social media, this chapter explores a new generation of domestic South African cruise tourists and the ways in which they perform liminality through a mix of sun, sea, sex and especially alcohol. Building as it does from tourism literatures focusing on cruise-, alco- and party tourism, this research does not intend to moralise debaucherous shipboard tourism, but rather to explore its development and growth in the unique context of South African cruising. This chapter concludes with a call for a more deliberate focus on what may be termed debauchery tourism, and South Africa’s contribution to this underexplored niche.