Summer Love
Durban is a leading South African tourist destination and is marketed globally by Durban Tourism, an official marketing unit that forms part of the eThekwini Municipality. The strategic focus of Durban Tourism is to drive tourism and make it a key contributor to the local economy, thereby promoting economic upliftment for all its communities.
Durban Tourism has made considerable progress in repositioning the city as a sophisticated destination with an extensive variety of things to do. Though the “Summer Love†campaign more than one million tourists visited the city during the December 2018 festive season, a growth of 138486 visitors compared with 2017, which resulted in more than 9100 jobs being created, an increase of 1100 compared with the same period the previous year.
Sbu Zondi, a senior manager at Durban Tourism, said visitors increased by 16% in 2018/19 with R2.7 billion in direct spend. This resulted in a R4.5bn gross domestic product contribution.
Of these 47% of domestic overnight visitors were from Gauteng, 18% from the Western Cape and 9% from the Eastern Cape. Swaziland was the highest foreign source market, followed by other Southern African Development Community countries.
British Airways (which now flies directly between London and King Shaka international Airport) included Durban at the top of its Top 19 must-see destinations for 2019. “Durban is a tropical, urban gem offering upmarket guesthouses, trendy bars and stylish restaurants overlooking the azure ocean and sweeping beaches,†the airline said in a statement.
The World Travel Awards 2018 saw Durban winning four awards. The Durban ICC received the honour of being Africa’s leading meetings and conference centre, lifting the trophy for the 17th time. The Port of Durban received the trophy for being Africa’s leading cruise port. The neighbouring Hilton Hotel was named South Africa’s leading business hotel, while the five-star Oyster Box in Umhlanga collected the trophy for being South Africa’s leading hotel.
The city is focussing on providing visitors with a unique set of experiences that go beyond the beach and into the realm of Durban’s cultural and scenic diversity. Durban has a laid-back outdoor lifestyle, providing fun-filled activities ranging from mountain-biking and diving, to deep-sea fishing, game viewing, or cultural and historical tours.
These activities include a visit to the Markets of Warwick; coffee at the Bike and Bean; the slides at uShaka Marine World; high tea at the Beverly Hills; a cocktail at the Oyster Box; a shishanyama at Max’s Lifestyle; trails of the Kranskop Nature Reserve; Zulu dancing at PheZulu Safari Park; and mountain biking at Giba Gorge.
The popular beachfront promenade is a major attraction and is currently being extended to run a full 10km from the harbour to Blue Lagoon, construction on this will be completed in 2019.
Recognising that tourism is an industry that is never static, Durban Tourism is committed to building and defending the Durban brand, thus ensuring that it remains not only the national destination of choice, but also that of the global market. As part of building the brand, Durban Tourism has a three-year partnership with its tourism ambassadors - the Sharks, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Golden Arrows.
Helping to drive the latest campaign is a three-year global partnership with media giant, Discovery. The partnership is across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and across 54 markets, including key tourism source markets for Durban and KwaZulu-Natal.
Programmes on the city have also been flighted on National Geographic and many of South African channels.
Durban Tourism hopes that its Visitor Marketing Strategy, its partnership with its tourism ambassadors and its travel trade relationships will continue to position Durban as a global tourism destination.
The overall aim is to drive significant growth in domestic and international visitor numbers. The current goal of Durban Tourism is for the city to be the number one tourism destination in Africa in the next five years and in the top 20 destinations in the world by 2022.