Page 11 - TKZN Annual Report 2023/2024

8000 delegates attended the trade show, resulting in an injection of an estimated R130 million the provincial economy, with 250 jobs created.
Tourism KwaZulu-Natal continued to its multi-pronged communication and public relations plan to distribute destination and entity news both internally and externally. lt also continued communications support of key international marketing platforms as well as leveraging key PR and hosting opportunities.
As the media landscape continued to change especially in the print industry, the entity shifted its focus to forming partnerships with radio and television, using more digital media and increasing its social media presence to highlight its tourism activities and create awareness of KZN’s offerings as a travel destination.
These efforts resulted in a 105% increase in the use of the TKZN website and mobile app. lnsights show that the highest number of digital visitors were general tourism searches from South Africa, Algeria, Germany, Sweden, US, UK, Eswatini, Nigeria and India.
We cannot market the province on our own and therefore the entity continued to conduct strategic stakeholder engagements with various stakeholders including tourism trade partners provincially, nationally, and internationally; municipalities; provincial and national government, and Community Tourism Organisations (CTOs).
Tourism KZN is mandated by the Provincial government to develop tourism infrastructure through assisting developers with viable projects and by capacitating SMMEs through business skills training, mentorship and access to international, regional and local markets where possible.
We continued our support of several new and exciting infrastructure projects which we believe will improve the geographical spread of tourism attractions and provide rural communities with direct jobs while stimulating the value chain.
The year was rewarding with announcements of major international and domestic investment in tourism products for KZN. French travel and tourism operator Club Med announced and started on its R2 billion resort development at Tinley Manor on the North Coast- the first in mainland Sub-Saharan Africa.
The entity continued its empowerment through training and development of 101 small leisure tourism businesses, including access to key international, regional and domestic platforms for those which had achieved market readiness.
TKZN continued to focus on growing business tourism and the Convention Bureau. During the year 28 major conferences and events were hosted which brought thousands of international visitors to KZN and had a direct spend of over R697 million.
The Convention Bureau continued to initiate its own bids while providing crucial support to key stakeholders. This resulted in securing the right to host three major conferences in Durban, being the World Water Congress 2025, the Ecocity World Summit 2025, and the IUCN World Leaders Forum 2024.
These large-scale events are expected to have significant economic impacts for KZN by attracting thousands of delegates and providing an opportunity to promote pre/post-event tourism activities to encourage the geographic spread of tourism benefits. Whilst as the entity, we were faced with challenges in our top management structures with non-filling of critical and strategic positions, this was swiftly resolved, and we continued to drive major tourism initiatives.
TOURISM KWAZULU-NATAL ANNUAL REPORT 2023/2024 9