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Durban’s tourism story has long been closely tied to its beaches, but the city is looking to broaden the experience it offers visitors by bringing more heritage, township and community-based experiences into the mainstream.
Speaking to Time Out Durban at Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu, where the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV took on the Sanlam Boland Kavaliers in a Carling Currie Cup fixture, eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba said the city’s focus is shifting towards expanding its tourism appeal and ensuring the benefits reach communities beyond the traditional tourism hubs.
The rugby fixture formed part of a wider Durban Tourism experience that took visitors through some of the city’s cultural and heritage offerings, including Kwa Muhle Museum and the Inanda Heritage Route, before ending with professional rugby in KwaMashu.
For Xaba, bringing major sporting events into townships is part of a broader vision for an inclusive city.
“It sends a good message that we are now shaping a new future, a future that is inclusive, a future that really is for all of us.”
READ: What it felt like when Currie Cup rugby came to KwaMashu
Beyond the beachfront
Xaba says Durban Tourism has already done the work of marketing the city as a destination. The next step, he says, is to give visitors more reasons to stay.
“We are now at a stage where we are focusing on the tourism products,” he said. “Ours now is to add more so that people consider extending their stay each time when they’re in.”
That means looking beyond the city’s established attractions and creating more experiences for visitors to discover.
“After you have been to Durban, you must really send out a good message because you then become our ambassador,” Xaba said.
Bringing tourism closer to communities
For the Mayor, expanding the city’s tourism offering is also about economic inclusion.
He points to Durban’s existing advantages, including its beaches and hospitality establishments, but says the economic impact of tourism should reach further into local communities.
“You can then start to think of jobs that are created, as it were, not only limited in the city centre or affluent areas, it’s now going down to where the people are,” he said.
“That’s what we want to encourage so that we build an economy, a tourism economy that is inclusive, that leaves no one behind.”
The KwaMashu rugby fixture, he says, is one example of how partnerships between tourism and sport can help drive that vision.
“It’s a serious match to a township,” Xaba said, adding that the relationship between the Sharks and Durban Tourism could continue to grow because “it benefits both the sports as well as the community.”
And when the mayor clocks off?
Our final question was a little less official.
Asked what he enjoys doing in Durban when he’s not working, Xaba admitted he had been planning to leave the rugby match early.
“I thought I wasn’t going to stay for the full match, but look, now I’m here and we’re now in the second half,” he said. “It’s exciting.”
And his favourite way to spend his time outside his official duties?
“I’m with my granddaughter. She’s lovely. She’s looking forward to welcoming me this evening.”
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