Plans to revive local tourism underway

Reviving the local tourism sector might be possible due this was made evident at the Durban Tourism Imbizo.

Captains of the tourism industry and eThekwini Municipality leadership presented collective ideas to turnaround the sector.

Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda hosted the dialogue to consult with industry players about efforts to re-ignite the tourism sector following the devastating impact of Covid-19.

“The city has a great deal of competitive advantages that can help revive the tourism sector. These include our Golden Mile, which has clean and safe beaches, state-of-the-art conference venues, cultural heritage, outdoor adventure and sport tourism.”

He was pleased to meet with the tourism industry players so that they can collectively tap into these competitive advantages and reimagine tourism post Covid-19.

“We will further utilise Re-Ignite Durban programme introduced in September 2020 aimed at re-projecting key assets that brings people to Durban and additionally promote Durban as a safe tourist destination.”

Beach tourism, events and sports were also counted amongst key activities that the city is determined to utilise as they are known as key attractions, while complying to all Covid-19 safety protocols.

Romy Wenzel of Sapphire Coast Tourism is hopeful that lockdown level one will bring about a much needed influx to local tourism. “With the Easter holidays around the corner, we are hopeful that visitors both locally and nationally will come visit the coast. We encourage everyone to try and support local businesses and restaurants. Everyone took a dramatic loss due to the pandemic and we are hoping that things will start to look up again.  We will not host an Easter holiday beach programme this year but we are hoping to do other activities in the community such as egg hunts. However, plans are still in the works with other Sapphire Coast Tourism registered members at the moment.”

Romy appeals to residents to adhere to all lockdown regulations to ensure that the country remains on level one lockdown.

Mayor Kaunda also outlined how the city supported the tourism industry through the city’s economic recovery plan during the lockdown.

These includes bed and breakfasts that were allowed to pay residential instead of commercial rates for a limited period and increased funding provided to community tourism organisations from R250 000 to R500 000 to market their areas and create new tourism packages.

On issues of crime, Mayor Kaunda said that eThekwini is the first city where SAPS launched the Integrated Safer Cities Project.

Through this Project, launched in November last year, a first of its kind Fusion Centre in Africa was established and unveiled in eThekwini using technology to fight crime more effectively.

“I must say that it is up and running and can detect criminal activities before they happen. About R52 million has been allocated for Inanda, KwaMashu and Umlazi areas to put more CCTV cameras. These areas continue to be the top crime hotspots in the country. We are pleased that a specialized SAPS Unit has been recently created in Inanda. Our programme to install CCTV cameras in all our tourism sites is being accelerated.”

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