Marine tourism is a ‘gold mine’

Potential to net billions in KZN

WHILE coastal and marine tourism is the largest and most lucrative part of the global tourism market, South Africa has yet to begin to realise its true potential.

So say the organisers of the 2nd Annual Maritime Summit which is being held next Monday and Tuesday at the Maritime School of Excellence at the old airport. The summit is being organised by the eThekwini Maritime Cluster.

A comprehensive marine tourism and leisure sub-sector strategy is being developed for South Africa. In 2014 President Jacob Zuma launched Operation Phakisa in a bid to unlock the growth potential of the ocean economy.

According to the latest statistics, marine tourism outranks all but marine manufacturing as a potential earner and contributed R19 billion to the GDP in 2013, a spokesman for the cluster said.

Coastal and marine tourism is more than just cruise tourism, according to a study by the South African Maritime Safety Authority, which explains that it also includes adventure and sport-related tourism as well as cultural tourism.

Thato Tsautse, the managing director of the eThekwini Maritime Cluster, said that Durban needed to focus more on high-profile marine events, like the Vasco da Gama Ocean Race – from Durban to Port Elizabeth – at the end of April, and also leverage economic opportunities via international sports as Cape Town has done through the Cape to Rio and Volvo Ocean race.

Meanwhile, at another tourism gathering in Durban last week, James Seymour, the chief executive of the Durban KwaZulu-Natal Convention Bureau, told journalists at an interactive session hosted by Tourism KZN, that the bureau had experienced a busy year.

The bureau aimed to prepare and support bid proposals for at least 20 major conferences each financial year but had already exceeded its own target and prepared 35.

The success rate was between 10-20%.

Business events that the bureau was already involved in during the 2017 financial year were worth more than half a billion rand, he said.

One of the big events being staged this year was the World Economic Forum at the ICC in May which is expected to attract 5 000 delegates.

Another is the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry Laboratory Medicine, WorldLab being held in October, which is expected to attract 4 000 delegates.

Bongani Mthiyane, the marketing general manager for Tourism KZN, said the format of the annual Tourism Indaba would change this year. Instead of starting on a Saturday, it would be held mid-week from May 16-18. As always, the first event would be a Tourism KZN-hosted breakfast briefing, which would set the tone for the South African Tourism-organised event.

Tourism KZN research manager Karen Kohler spoke of the importance of research and economic impact assessments to know how the sector performed. It was important for marketing purposes to know who came to the province and why, for how long and to establish how much they spent while here.