Durban in the running for prestigious travel award prize

DURBAN’S busy port, with 185 390 passengers having been processed during 56 vessel calls last year, is in line to scoop a coveted honour from the “Oscars” of the travel industry.

The prestigious World Travel Awards will be holding the Africa and Indian Ocean leg of the global competition at the Durban ICC on October 6, when one of the most sought after categories will be “Africa’s Leading Cruise Port 2018”.

The Port of Durban is one of the nominees, along with the ports of Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, which will be up against Kenya’s port of Mombasa and Tanzania’s ports of Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.

To enable Durban’s port to pick up the coveted trophy at the ceremony in their home town, the public has to cast their votes for it.

The 2017 passenger totals represented a 173% increase in passenger numbers at the port over the last 10 years, from 67 892 passengers and 39 vessel calls in 2007, Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) said.

One of the busiest ports in Africa, Durban is also the leading port in the SADC region, and is the main trade gateway between south-south trade, Far East trade, Europe and the USA, and East and West Africa trade.

“To have been nominated for the annual World Travel Awards is a huge honour for TNPA. It means that the work we have put into positioning Durban and Cape Town as stimulus cruise home ports is being recognised, while the Port of Port Elizabeth is also taking its rightful place on the map for luxury world cruise tourism,” said Shulami Qalinge, TNPA’s chief exec- utive.

Sihle Zikalala, the MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Enviromental Affairs, said he was optimistic that Durban would do well in the awards ceremony, and called on people to vote for the port.

To cast your vote, register an account on https://www.worldtravelawards.com/vote.

Voting is open until midnight on August 19.