‘DURBAN MOVES YOU’ INDABA A RESOUNDING SUCCESS
DURBAN “was a beautiful city” and the globally-famous Ladysmith Black Mambazo were “very happy” to tell people about it wherever they went.
Sibongiseni Tshabalala, the son of the founder, Joseph Tshabalala, said this during Tourism Indaba when Durban Tourism feted them at a special event, one of the highlights of the three-day Tourism Indaba.
The Grammy-award winning musicians are Durban ambassadors and have played a significant role in marketing the city, and on Wednesday night, Durban Tourism told invited delegates at a special gathering at the KwaMuhle Museum all about their partnership with the iconic legends.
They also organised a photographic tribute to the musicians which traced their many successes down the years.
Durban Tourism has just opened a new office at the museum.
The biggest news coming out of Indaba was the announcement that the city has clinched the global event for another five years – and it also has the option to extend it.
The extension will be based on the level of service provided during the five years and Phillip Sithole, the acting head of the city’s Economic Development Department and head of Durban Tourism, said he had no doubt that Durban would deliver as it always did.
President Jacob Zuma made the big announcement when he opened the show on Tuesday and the Durban and KZN industry were ecstatic that it would be returning to the city. This was the 26th consecutive year it had been held.
This week’s Durban Indaba at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre had been one of the best in the event’s history, Sithole said.
He told the wrap-up media briefing that Durban would be a different place to what it was now during the next five years because of the many municipality and private-sector tourism-related projects that were planned – and this would provide an extra reason to make the city the permanent home of Indaba.
This will include the R200million being spent to extend the Promenade from uShaka Marine Parade to the Point Waterfront, with another R200m going on improving the bulk water supply.
Sithole, who was a panellist on the CNBC TV live show yesterday – another highlights of the three-day Indaba – told of the city’s urban renewal programme which would start next month.
The pre-Indaba programme started on Sunday night when Durban Tourism, Tourism KZN and South African Tourism partnered to entertain 200 hosted international media from Germany, the UK, India, China and from several African countries at the beachfront. (Another 400 media also covered Indaba).
The rain did not dampen spirits at the venue and there were sunny smiles all round when the visitors got to taste South African fare and be entertained by local musicians.
Durban Tourism also took the influential media on local tours around the city and beyond to give them a feel of Durban and KwaZulu-Natal.
Having toured the city as well as the Valley of 1 000 Hills, and visited the townships, including the Inanda Heritage Route, they, like other media attending the show, were very active on social media, promoting Durban and the province via their various gadgets as they travelled to the sights.
Great emphasis was placed during Indaba on getting people to experience township tourism, and Sithole told the media wrap-up session yesterday that if there was an award for promoting township tourism, Durban Tourism would get it.
Durban Tourism has been promoting the Inanda Heritage Route for years and has taken the route from a zero base to 20 000 visitors a year.