Programme director
The Mayor of eThekwini municipality, Councillor Obed Mlaba
The MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Mr W Mchunu
The MEC for Finance, Ms I Cronjé
The MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Ms N Dube
The MEC for Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation, Ms WG Thusi
The Head of Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Ms Carol
Coetzee
The Manager of the eThekwini Municipality, Mr Michael Sutcliffe
The Provincial Head of the 2010 Office, Ms Phindile Makwakwa
The visiting your operators
Ladies and gentlemen
We wish to express our delight as the KwaZulu-Natal province to our host city Durban for hosting this dinner with FIFA participating tour operators from different countries
Programme director, as all of us know, today’s event comes hot on the heels of a highly successful and slick draw on Friday, 4 December, which has send an unequivocal message to the world that South Africa is ready to host the world cup and to welcome the throng of supporters who will visit our country. Indeed, what we saw on Friday, the sheer panache with which the spectacle was delivered, has confirmed what we always knew that we are ready to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup and ours will be the most successful in the history of this biggest sporting extravaganza on earth.
It is now history that Durban will host some of the most mouth watering and do or die titanic clashes including the game between Brazil and Portugal among others. Boasting two of South Africa’s largest ports, namely Durban and
Richards Bay and a new King Shaka International Airport to be opened in May 2010, our province of KwaZulu-Natal is correctly referred to as the gateway to the African market, particularly to countries like Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho, with whom we share borders.
2. About KwaZulu-Natal and Durban
Although some might have told you about our province of KwaZulu-Natal, allow me to share with you what our province is all about. KwaZulu-Natal is the second largest province by population and economy. Durban, our host city, is the second biggest city by population and economy in our country, with a population of about four million. It is the most popular domestic tourist destination, and the third most visited destination by international tourists with about 1,4 million international visitors per annum.
3. The stadium
As the province of KwaZulu-Natal, we have built the iconic Moses Mabhida stadium which boasts a 54 000 fixed seating capacity. However, for the 2010 world cup we will add temporary seating to increase its capacity to 70 000. The stadium can take more than 80 000 with additional temporary seating. It is a multi-purpose stadium that will not be used for football only. Unlike the other stadiums built for the world cup, the Moses Mabhida has a flexible design that allows it to be easily adapted to serve as an Olympic stadium.
4. Airlift
A new international airport is being constructed as part of the overall Dube Trade Port Development initiative. This new airport which is named after the legendary warrior of the Zulu nation, King Shaka, will have a capacity for 7,5 million passengers per annum by 2015 and more than 25 million passengers by 2060. It has a runway length of 3.7 kilometres which will accommodate the latest New Generation Large aircraft (NGLA, including the A380 airbus). Space has been allocated for the lengthening of the runway to four kilometres. There is enough capacity to accommodate airlines and charter companies looking for landing slots during the 2010 world cup. In addition, the airport will provide comprehensive facilities for police, the military, very important persons (VIPs), and general aviation and aircraft maintenance operations.
The province boasts air connectivity to all major cities in the country and most of the 2010 host cities, for an example: connection between Gauteng and Durban is only an hour flight and the flights are as regular as every hour. There is flight every two hours between Cape Town and Durban. We also have flights to and from Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Nelspruit which are some of the cities that will host 2010 football games. As we speak, we have a daily flight from Durban to Dubai run by Emirates. With the new airport up and running, we anticipate more direct international flights.
5. Road infrastructure
We boast an excellent road infrastructure network across the country which connects Durban to other major cities within reasonable time period. Our road infrastructure also links us to neighbouring countries like Swaziland, Mozambique and Lesotho.
6. Ports and cruise liner opportunities
KwaZulu-Natal has two ports, Durban and Richards Bay accounting for 80 percent of our country’s imports and exports. The ports attract cruise liners all year and with 2010 around the corner we hope that this will increase.
7. Accommodation
The KwaZulu-Natal requirement for accommodation is a total of 6 400 rooms, this number has however been surpassed and is currently standing at 6 553 (before the draw). This is the accommodation around KwaZulu-Natal that has been registered with the FIFA hospitality company, MATCH, so far this year. Approximately 68 percent graded hotel accommodation and 12 percent of graded alternative accommodation is contracted to MATCH.
Additional capacity is available for direct bookings and star grading of accommodation establishments is the only way to guarantee high quality service. The number of graded establishments in KwaZulu-Natal has grown by 169 percent following the launch of Tourism KwaZulu-Natal’s grading campaign.
8. Entertainment and attractions
Our host city, Durban is within three hours of most of the province’s tourism attractions therefore all of these could be packaged as part of the soccer world cup experience without impacting on the soccer schedule. A game takes about 90 minutes and in between the games tourists can spend their time exploring and experiencing the offerings of the KwaZulu-Natal province like wildlife, hiking, horse riding, hot air ballooning, beach experience, surfing, arts and culture, birding, diving, fishing, bungee jumping and a lot more.
The province further boasts two world heritage sites namely, Isimangaliso Wetland Park and Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park. These are among the most visited attractions within KwaZulu-Natal. Our province also boasts pristine beaches and is home to the people with a big heart, the Zulu people. We also have the battlefield route, which is a living monument to our forefathers’ valiant struggle against colonialism. We are one province where you are guaranteed to see the big five if you visit one of our many game parks.
9. Weather and climate
The 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup takes place during our winter season. This contrasts with the many times when the event was held in northern hemisphere countries during their summer. Unlike other parts of our country our province has a warm, sub-tropical and maritime climate. The average summer temperature is 28 degrees, winter temperature is 23 degrees and the sea temperature of the
Indian Ocean averages 21 degrees throughout the year.
10. Why this interaction?
We are sharing this information with you because we appreciate that you need to package exciting tours for the visitors during the world cup. We understand that visitors want a complete package of tourism activities, preferably without having to travel long distances. We want to reiterate that all of South Africa, all her nine provinces, holds possibilities for tourism activities that are unparalleled in the world.
However, the fact that we are the biggest domestic tourist attractor means that the whole of South Africa is unanimous that KwaZulu-Natal is the jewel in the country’s crown. This is a province where a visitor gets to experience all the tourism splendour that South Africa has to offer within one province. This, therefore, is one province which all the fans must visit before they go back home.
We, therefore, invite you to partner with us to ensure that we host a memorable 2010 FIFA World Cup. Critically, we want to ensure that, working together with you, we offer fans a tourism experience that they will never forget. The answer to this is simple, fans have to visit KwaZulu-Natal. We have no doubt that our province offers the base camps of choice for teams because of its facilities. We are tying up negotiations with various big name soccer federations and very soon we will make an announcement as to which of the world’s best teams will be based in our province.
We also want our province to be the base for fans, even those whose teams may not necessarily be based in our province. We are going to share with you in detail our tourist attractions and what experiences you can package for these fans. As we have said, KwaZulu-Natal is the jewel in the crown of South Africa when it comes to diversity of tourist packages. Your clients would have been short changed if they are not allowed an opportunity to visit the Kingdom of the Zulu.
We believe that with our new King Shaka International Airport we should be chosen as a landing destination for your charters. We also want to assure you and those who will be coming to our country and our province that we are warm people, friendly and courteous. We have also taken stringent measures to thwart the odd incident of crime and visitors can walk our streets without fear because we have beefed up our security measures.
There is no stranger in our province. All of us are family and we have opened our doors to our friends from across our borders. We say to all our visitors: “Feel at home because indeed Africa is where mankind originated”
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Economic Development and Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
9 December 2009
Source: Department of Economic Development and Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government (http://www.kznded.gov.za/)
