Durban rakes in the cash thanks to raging July fever

THIS is arguably the biggest event on South Africa’s social calender. And Durban — often overlooked as an economic force — is expected to score a R400-million windfall from yesterday’s premier horseracing event, the Vodacom Durban July.

More than 55 000 people flocked to the Greyville racecourse, hauling out their wallets for food, drinks, hotels, flights and betting, and then splashing out even more for the July parties after dark.

Experts and tourism officials said the massive single-day cash injection is a cornerstone of the economy of the country’s thirdlargest city.

The city benefited by as much R182-million from last year’s event. It’s expected that this year’s figure will top R200-million. And this is before the R200million that was expected to be wagered on the races themselves are included.

Durban Tourism boss Phillip Sithole said indications were that hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses in the city were booked out for the weekend — a clear sign that the event was continuing to attract visitors from outside the city and province.

“We were expecting more than 24 000 visitors from outside the city. Hotels and other accommodation facilities were at capacity.

“Most flights were full to capacity, and the same goes for car rental bookings at the airport. This indicates that there was no slide-off in attendance (from previous years),” said Sithole.

This was a sign that the city’s economy was likely to again benefit massively, he said.

“These events are key marketing opportunities for Durban, as well as having an economic benefit.”

Andrew Layman, head of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the big event was a huge moneyspinner for the city.

“The Vodacom Durban July is right up there as a major event. There is reason to believe the event will continue to grow.

“I understand it was impossible to get a flight to Durban on Friday afternoon.

“This means lots of business for the hospitality industry. Shopping centres such as Gateway and Pavilion would also have been busy over the weekend, not to mention the beaches,” said Layman.

A Tourism KZN study on last year’s July showed that many visitors stayed for longer than just the race day — and this was expected to be repeated this time around.

According to the study, more than 55 000 people attended last year’s event, and about 21 450 of them came from outside KwaZulu-Natal.

The study found that visitors splashed out between R4 049 and R5 859 each during their stay. The 33 550 Durbanites who attended the event spent between R1 168 and R1 695.

“The estimated direct impact (during the event) was at least R86.8-million, and as much as R125.6-million from visitors alone.

“From residents … there was a direct spend of at least R39.1million and as much as R56.7million,” the report said.

This means that Durban raked in between R125.9-million and R182.3-million for the event in direct spending alone last year.

Dave Macleod of Gameplan Media, which does the PR for the event, said an additional R200million was spent on top of that on betting at the July.