With the festive season drawing to a close, eThekwini Metro has recorded an increase in the number of tourists who visited the city compared to previous years.
The only metro in KwaZulu-Natal had set itself a target of just over one million visitors.
But Cyril Xaba, eThekwini Metro mayor, says the city has surpassed its expectations.
“We are not out of the woods yet. But these numbers are encouraging and show that we are on an economic recovery trajectory. This also clearly indicates that the metro remains a premier holiday destination for international and domestic visitors. In fact, the increased tourism numbers tell us that South Africa was in Durban for the festive season,” Xaba explained.
He said while tourism authorities in the metro, which serves as the economic heartbeat of the province, had wanted to have at least 1.3-million holidaymakers touching down in Durban, the number shot up to just close to 1.5-million as of January1. This translates to over R2-billion tourism spend, which represents a marginal improvement of R500-million injected into the metro’s economy when compared to last year’s numbers. The tourism numbers for eThekwini metro for 2023 show that the metro recorded 703 000 visitors, with R1.5-billion being injected as a result.
Early last year, Minister of Tourism Patricia De Lille embarked on a tourism drive in eThekwini, which among her key objectives was to arrest the plummeting tourist numbers.
Last February, a task team was established with the key objective of dealing with the aftermath of the 2021 riots, which engulfed Durban and other parts of the country, leaving death and untold economic meltdown. This, together with the crippling infrastructure, crime and water quality in several of the metro’s 23 beaches, scared visitors off.
“We worked hard together with the private sector and the tourism sector to get Durban back to its glory days in terms of tourism. The established task team assisted us in achieving the progress you’re seeing today,” De Lille explained.
Xaba also said the hospitality industry was among those that benefitted substantially because of a surge in tourists.
“We are getting a report that accommodation in and around the city had an occupancy rate of about 75% to 80%. Hotels close to the beachfront were fully booked,” he said.
Over the years, the metro has been losing its substantial tourism share owing to dwindling visitor numbers. The beach life has often been a drawcard for inland visitors and international tourists seeking the warm Indian Ocean.
But high levels of e-coli, mainly linked to sewage spills, initially detected at some of the highly frequented beaches, had turned many visitors away. Exacerbating the woes was some of the key hotels deciding to shut their doors because of the dwindling numbers. The metro has also seen some of its tourist attractions such as the Fun World ceasing to exist,further straining the metro’s tourism potential for the city once dubbed South Africa’s playground.
In 2015, the metro recorded one of its best tourism numbers with 7.4-million tourists. Besides Western Cape, the north and south coasts of KZN have seen an increase in tourists.
Most visitors were recorded from December 16 to January 1
