A STRATEGY to posititon Durban as the gateway to Africa and investment partner of choice was launched this week as eThekwini Municipality announced its aim to attract five million tourists annual to the city and inject about R10-m into the economy while supporting 74000 jobs.
A key component of the Economic Development and Visitor Strategy focuses on growing the Durban brand. “Tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy and is central to job creation, youth employment, as well as creating various economic opportunities. Estimated at 30 per cent of the provinces’s GDP, tourism is a major job creator in the province. Hosting major events have a positive impact on the province and increases the potential for Durban as a leading events destination in Africa,” said Mayor, James Nxumalo.
“The Durban Visitors Strategy is aligned to both the national and provincial tourism strategies. Currently 3.8-million tourists visit Durban, generating R5.7-billion for the regional economy supporting 61 000 jobs. This would fall to 3.5-million tourists spending R5.9-billion (at current prices not taking into account inflation) and supporting only 56 000 jobs. By not boosting regional tourism, these figures are predicted to decline below the current levels by 2020,” he said, adding that Durban would focus on its core markets in Gauteng, UK, US, Germany, India, and China, while developing potential from new Markets in Namibia, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, France, Singapore and Mozambique.
“Taking Durban to the world means we need to change how we look at the world and how we do things,” said Phillip Sithole, eThekwini Municipality’s Head of Business Support, Tourism and Markets Unit. “We believe it’s important not to rest on past achievements but to focus on attracting foreign visitors, offering competitive alternatives to other countries like Dubai, India and Australia,” he added.
The goal of the Economic Development and Job Creation strategy is to provide direction with regard to strategic economic issues and identify where large-scale investments are required to enhance the economy. It also focuses on the softer issues that improve competitiveness; spatial-economic issues, and to address underdevelopment and neighborhood level local economic development (LED). It was a conscious decision that while the strategy proposes programmes aimed at combating poverty and underdevelopment; it also seeks to put in place programmes aimed at expanding the formal economy to increase the rate of labour absorption.
