Durban - It has been a bumper holiday season for the province, with shopping malls, beaches and hotels packed with tourists.
Ndabo Khoza, head of KZN Tourism, said the organisation would conduct a detailed economic impact assessment of the period.
However, all indications were that KwaZulu-Natal had enjoyed an excellent festive season from a tourism perspective.
“From the information we have, there has been a 15 percent increase in revenue among hotels on the coast and a 5 percent increase for those inland. Airlines increased their domestic flights and Emirates also increased its number of international flights to and from Durban.
“We have noted an increase in visitors from Southern African Development Community countries, where we have been marketing KZN. Another important note is that there has been a change in profile. We see that it is mainly black tourists in the province spending a lot of money and that signifies the transformation that we have seen in the country.”
A positive note from the season, he said, was that despite initial fears about load shedding and water restrictions, there had been few negative reports.
Andrew Layman of the Durban Chamber of Commerce agreed that all evidence so far pointed to a bumper season.
“By all appearances it has been very busy. With the number of visiting cars, the occupancy rates in hotels and the crowded beaches, the figures will show that it has been a very good season for Durban.”
Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa operations manager, Charles Preece concurred: “It’s hard to quantify the exact economic impact.
Hotels have been running at almost 100 percent since the middle of December.
Even though the peak is over, occupancy rates are still 70 percent to 80 percent for the next week.”
Shopping centres did well, too.
At Galleria in eManzimtoti, 1 440 124 shoppers made their way through the mall this festive season.
Higher targets
“This is positive growth year on year and it can be attributed to new stores that opened which have increased our retail offering. Although our targets were higher, any type of growth is seen to be a positive,” said Anusha Timul, a spokeswoman.
Liberty Midlands Mall saw almost a million shoppers.
“We are optimistic that the final turnover regarding numbers will reflect a growth from previous years,” said spokeswoman Phumzile Zulu.
With regards to load shedding, Zulu said that the mall had been minimally affected as it was fully equipped with generators that took effect almost immediately after the electricity had been cut ensuring uninterrupted shopping.
“We are also pleased to report that, despite an increase in shoppers visiting our mall, we had a relatively incident free festive period.”
In Westville, the Pavilion could not disclose the exact foot count, but spokeswoman Julie-Anne Zuma said it had accommodated a large number of shoppers.
“Although it is difficult to determine the precise figures at this stage, the centre’s trading statistics are extremely positive.
“As with businesses and shopping malls across the country, the Pavilion has been negatively affected by the continued load shedding process. The centre does have generators which feed common areas and all lifts and escalators.
“Hence we have managed to minimise the trading impact. Our anchor tenants have internal units, which allow for trading to continue, so consumers are still able to shop, albeit in a limited manner,” said general manager Nisha Kemraj.
Anchor tenants, such as Woolworths, said they’d traded in line with expectations, despite the load shedding, with the aid of generators.
“All Woolworths stores have generators, which allow us to trade despite load shedding. The generators allow stores to run the fridges, tills and store lighting. Woolworths continues to trade even when malls in which the stores are located are affected by load shedding.” - Sunday Tribune