Durban — EThekwini Municipality mayor Mxolisi Kaunda has hailed the city’s tourism sector for “a successful 2022 festive season”.
The city held a press briefing at the Durban City Hall on Thursday to explain how well the tourism and business sector did during the December holidays.
He said the 2022 festive season allowed an opportunity to unlock some of Durban’s hidden gems, and this boded well for the upcoming Easter holidays.
“For the international visitors, Durban is not on their mind in the way we envisage, so we need to intensify the marketing of the Durban brand so that people know what Durban has to offer,” said Kaunda.
Kaunda highlighted that the tourism numbers from last season and 2019 - pre-Covid-19 - dropped significantly, but they were still high. Pre-Covid-19, 2019 saw over 980 000 visitors whereas 2022 saw that drop to 702 000.
He believed the reason for this was due to the closure of various beaches and the fact that when potential visitors hear that beaches are closed, they change their plans and don’t come to Durban.
“We were happy that people realised that eThekwini is not only offering beaches, but that we have many other hidden gems.
“We need to up our game so we are not only known only for having beaches and promenades. There are many things that people can explore during their visit,” said Kaunda.
Kaunda noted that Durban hosted many events, such as Fact Durban Rocks, and rugby on New Year’s Eve between the Cell C Sharks and Vodacom Blue Bulls - to name a few - and these events excluded the beach and provided more for visitors.
He was also thankful to residents for their warm reception of tourists and visitors.
“All these activities brought thousands of visitors to the city as the accommodation occupancy rate reached 65%. This translates into 702 735 visitors with a direct spend of R1.5 billion, over R3.8 billion contribution to GDP and 7 775 jobs,” said Kaunda.
Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (Fedhasa) KZN chairperson Brett Tungay said people’s demands nullified negative issues during the high season and most of the tourism sector did well.
“Between December 16 and January 8 – the ‘high season’ – the demand for accommodation was high, regardless of the issues. During the off-peak season (after January 8) the establishments with closed beaches will suffer the most as tourists and visitors will travel to other locations with open beaches,” said Tungay.
Tungay urged the eThekwini Municipality to be more proactive in its efforts to open up beaches as this would contribute more to the sector as well as the economy.
The municipality also used the briefing as an opportunity to update the media on various service delivery issues – ranging from the beaches to water and sanitation to clean-up projects.
Daily News