Tourism bodies have urged the provincial government to change the perception of KwaZulu-Natal being a “broken province” and send a message that it is open for business to attract more international visitors.
They say that they would like to see the success of the Hollywoodbets Durban July, which boosted the hospitality and tourism sector, sustained and the Springboks versus Ireland Test match on Saturday is a prime opportunity to showcase the province.
The match is expected to attract more than 20 000 international visitors or almost half of the 52 000 spectators who are attending the big game.
There has been a drop in the number of international tourists coming to KZN with the 2021 July unrest and the 2022 floods which damaged infrastructure, cited as reasons for a negative perception of the province.
On Monday, Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille said that arrivals in the country between January and May this year totalled nearly 3.8 million, up by 9.7 % compared to the same period last year.
Brett Tungay, the East Coast chairperson of the Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa) said while numbers of foreign visitors had increased nationally, there had been a decline in KZN.
“Unfortunately, even though the minister is saying that there has been an increase in the number of international visitors in South Africa it is mostly the Western Cape and Mpumalanga benefiting.”
Tungay said the July 2021 unrest and floods in 2022 had painted a negative picture of the province and eThekwini.
“There needs to be a message sent by Tourism KZN and SA Tourism that KZN is open for business and that the challenges that were being experienced are being addressed. The other issue is that we need agents to market KZN, we urge tourism bodies to bring tourism agents to the province and make them understand the KZN product so that they can market it to international travellers. It is not only the high-income but also the middle-income earners that need to be targeted to come to KZN.”
Andrzej Kiepiela, from the KZN Growth Coalition said that he did not know the exact amount of international visitors coming to the province but it is lower than what had been experienced.
“It’s unfortunate that we have so many people choosing to go to Cape Town and Mpumalanga instead of coming to Durban and KZN. The fact is that other provinces are actually benefiting from the boom of international tourists and we are not.”
Kiepiela said that tourism bodies need to develop new strategies to attract international tourists to come to KZN.
“We have to fix the infrastructure and make sure the beaches and the province are clean, as attracting international tourists is actually the window to tourism.”
Jeannie Sarno, chairperson of uMhlanga Tourism, said eThekwini can do with more international visitors.
“We have seen numbers increase from last year and this will continue to increase if we make sure South Africa is a safe and secure destination. Countries like the UK, US and Germany love our land and we don’t blame them. There’s so much to love in South Africa but the world needs to know that Durban is the Gem of Southern Africa.”
Sarno said that eThekwini has the most favourable winters in the country.
“Personally, I feel we need to have more trade shows to attract international visitors, once they are here for work and see what’s offered, then they will come back with their families.”
Francoise Malby Anthony, MD and owner of Thula Thula Game Reserve said their international guests come from the US, Australia and Europe.
“Covid hit us hard, the same as everyone in the hospitality industry but we were able to survive thanks to the support of South Africans. Now we are back to where we were before Covid.”
Anthony said to attract more international visitors, Durban needs to be upgraded with more interesting activities to increase tourism.
“A bigger promotion would also be to attract more international airlines to Durban. KZN has it all from the beach to the bush and the best climate to attract international visitors.”
Greg Allan, GM at Tala Game Reserve, said more international visitors to the province would be welcomed.
“Tala specifically receives a very small amount of international trade during the winter months, however, we have seen an increase in international visitors through our relationship with the cruise line operators during the summer season. We do feel local municipalities, in our area and surroundings have turned a blind eye to the tourism and hospitality businesses.”
KZN Tourism and the eThekwini Municipality said they would analyse the latest international tourism visitors numbers.
Interim CEO of KwaZulu-Natal Tourism and Film Authority, Mr Sibusiso Gumbi said that after the devastation caused by the Covid 19 in the tourism sector, as the KZN Tourism and Film Authority, they have worked tirelessly to rebuild the tourism sector with a special focus on the international tourism which was badly impacted. “For the past four years, we’ve had targeted international interventions which included exhibiting at key tourism trade shows like ITB and WTM as well as collaborating with South African Tourism to conduct roadshows with Tour Operators in our key source markets like India, the Americas as well as in Europe.”
Gumbi added that it is pleasing to see that their efforts are bearing fruit. “ We continue to see growth of international arrivals to KZN from 2020 which had 224 988, 2021 had 267 537, 2022 had 554 156 and 2023 had 646 234. In 2024 – Q1 (Jan – Mar), KZN received 181 785 internal arrivals, compared to 168 693 for the same period in 2023. This is testament that our international arrivals continue to rise and sooner than later we will surpass our pre-covid numbers.”
The Mercury