Durban Tourism spends millions to revive city’s holiday reputation

DURBAN Tourism is confident that the upcoming Tourism Indaba will give the tourism industry a positive turnaround in business, after the sector took a knock in the past two weeks.

“Our focus now is to restore the stability in the hospitality industry, regain our visitor confidence and continue with our exciting marketing forthcoming plans of taking Durban to the world,” said Phillip Sithole, head of Durban Tourism.

He said while tourism targets for the current year will be affected, intervention plans are in place to mitigate the damage caused and revive the tourism industry.

This includes a series of multi-million Rand international campaigns aimed at winning back tourists and visitors to the city and reclaiming Durban’s reputation of being a New 7 Wonders Cities.

Following recent issues surrounding xenophobia in the city, Phillip Sithole, head of Durban Tourism, reiterated that the city was not compromising on any efforts to be the perfect host city for the Tourism Indaba, and said it was time to show the world that Durban is a city that has the tourism potential and capabilities to be able to withstand any social and environmental concerns.

Durban Tourism’s research branch recently conducted face-to-face and telephonic interviews with business owners throughout the city to establish the economic impact the xenophobic attacks had in the city in terms of tourism.

Face-to-face interviews with traders in Dr Yusuf Dadoo (Grey Street), David Webster Street (Leopold ) and Dr Goonam (Prince Edward Street), indicated that because of fear of being looted, these local traders decided to close their shops early and they ran at an economic loss of 60 to 70 per cent.

In Florida Road, Bradley Parsens, operational manager at Spiga d’ Ora, stated that business was quieter than usual and he had challenges with staff as they did not come to work.

He however stated that Spiga D’ Ora Florida Road and Durban North were not affected much by the xenophobic attacks as business was normally quiet around April and usually picks up in the beginning of May.

At the Benjamin Hotel Linsey Torrance, frontal house manager, said that it was business as usual for the hotel. She said there was one incident where a guest from Cape Town was in the city centre and witnessed the mayhem.

A group of British visitors went on a city tour but the tour guide refused to allow them out of the bus for their own safety. Torrance said there had been no cancellations for Indaba, although two visitors from the Seychelles were nervous about coming to Indaba but were reassured that Durban is safe.

Tsogo Sun Hotels indicated that business was quiet but being a leisure hotel, business is usually quiet in April and picks up again in May, based on the normal holidaymaker trend every year.

Tsogo Sun hotels in Durban saw approximately 30 room nights being cancelled early last week, however bookings have started flowing in again.

Two restaurants at the beachfront recorded economic losses with Afro Chicken restaurant losing around 30 to 40 per cent and California Dreaming Restaurant, which found it very quiet in the evening, reported a loss of 60 to 70 per cent of business.

Durban Tourism research projections for Indaba 2015 indicates that attendance for this year’s Indaba currently stands at approximately 8 800 visitors for this year.

Sithole said currently accommodation statistics for Indaba indicated major hotels such as Tsogo Sun were approximately 90 per cent full in all of their six hotels, while Hilton Hotel reported that they are fully booked for Indaba.

Other accommodation sectors in regions such as Sapphire Coast said they are 50 per cent booked, some B&Bs are already fully booked till 8 May while others do not have a single booking.

In the south of Durban and Westville, only 15 per cent of bookings for Indaba have been reported, while Umhlanga reported that it is the first time that they have not been fully booked over the Indaba period. The bookings they have had are all short term and not for the full five days that visitors normally book for.

The estimated direct spend by visitors to Indaba in 2015 is projected to be around R50.4 million. This excludes organiser spend on the event which will be in addition to visitor spend.

The contribution to eThekwini’s GDP of the direct visitor and organiser spend as a result of Indaba is projected to be around R180.1 million with estimated 531 jobs sustained in Durban’s tourism sector. The contribution to government taxes as a result of Indaba is projected at R12.1 million.

The city has also renewed its contract with National Geographic which includes the screening of television ads around the world promoting Durban and a ten page editorial on Durban in the National Geographic Traveller insert which boasts an international readership of 10 million.

Coupled with this strategy, Durban Tourism is also finalising the appointment of Destination Management Companies in key international markets, including the Unites States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The agencies will begin their Durban destination marketing in July this year.