ETHEKWINI Municipality says it has a turnaround strategy in place to attract tourists back to the city.
The city was responding to concerns raised by the opposition after statistics revealed a dramatic drop in the number of visitors to Durban over the festive holiday season.
The turnaround strategy, tabled in a report at an Executive Committee meeting last week, included a Durban Destination Tourism Promotion Campaign for the period of February to July 2018 as an intervention to declining visitor numbers, and the City’s annual events partnership with various events listed for the 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20 financial years, which were approved by Exco.
The report also granted authority to the Deputy City Manager of Economic Development and Planning, Phillip Sithole and the Acting Head of Business Support, Tourism and Markets, Thulani Nzama to engage with event organisers for the city’s benefit and rights to leverage and profile the Durban Dstination promotion campaign.
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The report also granted authority for City Manager, Sipho Nzuza, to conclude contracts with various events partners.
The budget implications of Durban Tourism’s destination promotion campaign is R2.9 million excluding VAT over the next three financial years.
Addressing the Executive Committee, Sithole said major tourist cities in South Africa had experienced a decrease in domestic tourists, including eThekwini.
He said the tabled report clearly outlined the turnaround strategy to promote the city as well as the number of events to be held in coming months.
“Domestic tourists’ figures according to SA Tourism have been going down for the past few years. We are waiting for the 2016/17 financial year figures but we don’t think there will be any change,” he said.
He said it was important for the City to support events, adding that the funding provided for events differed. Importantly, research was conducted for all the major events the City hosted, looking at the cities the visitors came from and their spending in the City. “A report on this information is compiled by an independent reputable international company. Also, if the City did not fund events like these, the situation would be worse,” Sithole said.
He reiterated that a number of popular tourist cities in South Africa were affected by the decrease in tourism numbers as a result of a range of factors.
“One of these factors is that the black middle class have more disposable income and more options about where to go on holiday. They may come to Durban for three days before going elsewhere for the remainder of their holiday. Another factor is that Durban is also not the cheap holiday destination it once was. A hotel room on the beachfront in Durban during the festive season cost around R6 000 a night.”
Sithole added that the issue was rather complex but Durban Tourism was thankful that council had approved a line-up of events to be held in the City over the next three years.
“This approval will allow us to market the City and these events in advance. The tabled report is about intensifying the tourism campaign,” he added.
EThekwini Mayor Zandile Gumede welcomed the report. She said hosting events in the City ensured visitors would come to Durban and hotels would be full.
She dismissed claims that the Moses Mabhida Stadium, a prime tourist attraction, was in a dilapidated state saying the stadium was in a good condition.
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Chairperson of the Economic Development and Planning Committee Councillor Sipho Kaunda said a number of events, like the Comrades Marathon, would be held in the city as well as at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
“There are other programmes such as cycling events that will attract people to eThekwini from outside the province,” he said.
When Durban launched its Visitor Strategy in 2013, it intended to position Durban as the gateway to Africa and attract more tourists in the City. The aim of the strategy was to attract five million tourists annually to the City and to inject approximately R10 billion into the economy while supporting 74 000 jobs.
He said although tourism was one of the sectors that was experiencing challenges due to economic constrains globally, Durban had made its mark in the global tourism competitive arena and had received awards and accolades from many leading publications and authorities.
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