UMHLANGA’S tourism industry is basking in the best start to the new year as chairman of uMhlanga Tourism, Peter Rose, described the holiday period as one of ‘record numbers’ with jam-packed beaches, restaurants, supermarkets and hotels.
Despite the rainy weather at the start of the festive season, thousands of holidaymakers flocked to uMhlanga’s beaches. One of the major draw cards was the summer festival which Rose hailed as a success.
“From the number of visitors to the general entertainment on offer, it was just an outstanding festive period. We had a number of records broken in terms of entries to both the surf and trail running competition. This is the ninth year of uMhlanga’s summer programme and each year it gets bigger and better,” he said.
Rose said the street party added to the festive atmosphere, attracting visitors to the beaches. “The street party was the cherry on the top. We even made it on to national television,” he joked. “uMhlanga a location allowed us the opportunity to not only service the business tourism market, but the leisure market too,” he said.
Rose also commended the thousands of people who visited uMhlanga for their good behaviour and co-operation with the law enforcement officers.
Mayor of eThekwini, James Nxumalo concurred with Rose saying the festive season got off to a slow start with the rainy weather. “There was a dramatic increase of visitors to our beaches, specifically from 16/12/13 where Durban literally became the warmest place to be. More than 155 000 people visited KZN’s beaches.
“The good weather continued through the weekend of 20/12/13 to 22/12/13 and we saw approximately 236 000 people at our beaches. For Christmas and Boxing Day we had approximately 402 260 people at our beaches.
“On New Year’s Eve there were 93 000 people at our beaches during the day and a whopping 460 780 on New Year’s Day. I would like to thank all our residents and visitors for ensuring a peaceful festive season,” he said.
Nxumalo added there were 28 rescues on the last day of the 2013 and a further 32 on New Years Day.
