Metro’s failure to maintain tourism asset slammed

It will come as no surprise to many that “crime and grime” is an enduring feature of the tourist experience in Buffalo City Metro (BCM) on the metro’s beachfront areas and especially the esplanade.

“Urban blight” best describes the physical degradation and brokenness which is evident and that affects the enjoyment of residents and visitors alike of beachfront amenities.

The decrepitude is exacerbated by inappropriate and illegal behaviour.

Locals blame official inaction for an informal car wash on the esplanade that causes litter and wastes water, weekend parties in parking areas adjacent to hotels and tourist attractions, posters for penis enlargements on street furniture, people living in the bushes along the beachfront.

Even the metro municipality’s tourism growth strategy lists litter and waste management, along with safety, as primary concerns which the city must address, based on visitor surveys.

About R1.9bn is spent on tourism in the metro, which makes it imperative that the city does everything it can to preserve the sector.

But, as a discussion with some of those with a stake in the East London beachfront showed, the city continues to let the state of its prime tourism asset slide and missing the opportunity to maximise the economic benefits from the sector.

Walter Sisulu University tourism academic Dr Kofi Achempong said the metro was “slaughtering the goose that lays the golden egg” by failing to manage its tourism sector.

He suggested the re-development of the beachfront currently underway would become “a one-day wonder” due to inadequate maintenance.

He said tourism was based on repeat business, with tourists returning to favourite places. Someone from Germany interested in visiting the German monument on the esplanade would be put off from visiting again.

“Who will support the hotel, the restaurant, the craft seller along the beachfront?”

He said the old amphitheatre adjacent to the Heroes and German monuments had become the new Ebuhlanti, referring to revellers who used to frequent Ebuhlanti relocating to parking areas adjacent to esplanade hotels and tourist attractions.

This had happened at the end of the Covid-19 lockdown because of the lag between the lifting of some regulations and the failure to open beaches.

He said East London’s was “the only beachfront I have seen where there is an activity like a car wash. What impression does it create? We can create a space somewhere else for this”.

Kat Leisure has a huge footprint on the metro beachfront and director John Thompson made the point firmly that the city – comprising government and private stakeholders – must look after its assets.

“We have some of the nicest beachfronts. I am more concerned about the neglect and the feeling that we are going backwards and not forwards.

“We’re all ratepayers, we pay huge amounts of rates. We would like to see our areas managed better [by the municipality].”

He said all tourists, regardless of where they originated, wanted “some form of safety and cleanliness in order to enjoy the experience they are coming to have”.

“We simply believe that more can be done. As investors in the beachfront, would you buy here, the way things are, or would you prefer to invest somewhere else?”

He said fraud at beachfront ATMs was a regular occurrence,

Accommodation owner Satish Nair who has investments in rental apartments on the beachfront, said when residents woke up in the morning, “what they see is terrible”.

He said tourism needed to be protected “from all angles”.

“It all comes down to proper management – we can have the best of everything on the beachfront, but it must be managed well.

Nair said car washers slept in the bush behind the German monument, creating a security hazard for businesses and residents.

He expressed disappointment at the failure of ward councillor Vusumzi Njece to participate in the virtual meeting after initially confirming that he would attend. Njece messaged during the discussion that he was stuck in another meeting.

“I’ve taken him personally in my car, showing him around and he says ‘it’s not good’ but it stops there.

Long-standing Quigney resident Samantha van Wyk said the positives of the beachfront included the Heroes and German Settlers Monuments, along with the popular Orient Beach complex.

A long list of negatives included revellers on foot and in cars drinking alcohol, playing excessively loud music, and leaving alcohol bottles and piles of rubbish everywhere, reckless drivers using the esplanade as a race track, and homeless people living in the bushes along the beachfront.

“Running and walking becomes a problem because of all the broken glass. The litter on the beachfront is a real eye sore.

“This of course is all illegal and much more needs to be done by BCM and the law enforcers to curb this anti-social behavior which is definitely not a tourist attraction.”

I am more concerned about the neglect and the feeling that we are going backwards and not forwards