My City, My Heritage campaign to boost tourism – Featured Durban Blog

My City, My Heritage campaign to boost tourism:

 

To revive the City’s tourism sector, eThekwini Municipality on 10 September launched the My City, My Heritage campaign at uShaka Marine World. The campaign looks at travel and tourism in a new way, reminding visitors how culturally diverse the City is by showcasing its hidden gems. The campaign was launched by eThekwini Mayor Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda during Tourism and Heritage Month. Industry stakeholders lauded the initiative calling it an innovative marketing tool to aid the recovering tourism sector which has been adversely affected by Covid-19 and th recent civil unrest. Mayor Kaunda said: ”Through this campaign we are going to unearth and showcase Durban’s hidden gems to promote domestic tourism. This will be achieved through several roadshows, digital activations and competitions encouraging people to rediscover Durban through heritage tourism.” He said the campaign will take South Africa on a digital historical journey of Durban, to rediscover the City through media campaigns. Mayor Kaunda said there has already been an increase in visitors to the City. They are projecting increased visitor numbers during the heritage public holiday long weekend from 23 to 26 September and the October school holidays from 1 to 10 October. ”For the September long weekend, we are anticipating 60 percent visitor occupancy which equates to 75 000 visitors, a direct spend of R103 million, injection of R256 million to the GDP and 550 jobs being created. For the October school holidays we are forecasting a 55 percent visitor occupancy which translates to 90 000 visitors including day visitors, R192 million direct spend and R476 million contribution to the GDP. Around 1 020 jobs will be created,” he said. Chief Executive Officer of uShaka Marine World Ndabo Khoza said: ”We are prepared to work with the City as stakeholders to ensure Durban is a destination of choice. As a coastal city, it is imperative to showcase and educate people about marine life. We encourage residents to be visitors and explore their own City.” 

The month of September is known as Tourism and Heritage month. What better way to celebrate both than with exploring the history, heritage and fun in rural and township settings. We encourage you to take pride in your history and heritage by visiting a tourism office near you. EThekwini Municipality’s strategy to revive the tourism sector in townships through funding the Durban’s nine Community Tourism Organisations has yielded positive results. The municipality has aided Community Tourism Organisations (CTOs) in the municipal area through many programmes and as a result, beneficiaries are showing signs of growth in their establishments. This is despite the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has affected many businesses, particularly small, medium and miro enterprises. The Municipality, through its Economic Recovery plan has assisted several tourism establishments to get back on their feet during the lockdown and to be ready for business. Some of the relief measures included additional rates rebates – specific to the accommodation sector, assistance with marketing initiatives, support for online/virtual events and prioritising bed and breakfast establishments for Municipal business. Furthermore, the Municipality recently increased funding by 100 percent to CTO’s from R250 000 to R500 000 to market local areas and create new tourism packages. At a recent Durban Tourism Imbizo eThekwini Mayor Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda said: ”Government is going to invest more resources in this sector by increasing support to industry players and establishing new tourism corridors in rural and township communities.” ”The fact that 68 percent of our geographic space is constituted by rural areas, eThekwini has an important task of ensuring that the economic opportunities available in the tourism sector reach these communities.” Commenting on the role of the CTO in the growth of her business, Lungi Ngcobo – founder of Clermont Lodge – said the support they have received from the Clermont CTO has been amazing. She said her establishment recently received R50 000 in Covid-19 relief funding from the national Tourism Depatment which was facilitated by the local CTO. UMlazi CTO’s Public Relations Officer Portia Mkhize said uMlazi has a lot to offer regarding tourism attractions, with shisanyamas being just a small part of the product. ”We are currently developing different tour routes packages for uMlazi, Ngonyameni, Lamontville and surrounding areas showcasing the history of these townships, including bicycle and quad biking guided tours,” she said. Mkhize said the current focus was ensuring that these are developed for domestic travel first before getting ready for international tourists. 

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Quick Durban KwaZulu-Natal Fact: Durban has a fascination with sharks; the local rugby team is even named for these magnificent creatures of the deep. The infamous Black December, which actually lasted from December 1957 to April 1958, marked five deadly shark attacks off Durban beaches in just 107 days. These weren’t the first deadly attacks – between 1943 and 1951, the city experienced 21 shark attacks, seven of which were deadly. The resulting hysteria amongst beach-goers after Black December prompted the authorities to take action, and a navy frigate was called in to bomb sharks with depth charges. In 1962, the Natal Sharks Board was created to explore the installation of shark nets at Durban’s swimming beaches, an exercise which had been attempted, with little success, as early as 1907. Nowadays, while most Durban beaches are protected by shark nets, sharks are a tourist attraction, with people coming from all over the world to have close encounters via shark cage diving.

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