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Dazzling Prospects
April 16, 2019
The Rainbow Kingdom
April 18, 2019

Solar Powering Prosperity

Tourism could be the elixir for economic growth in KZN.

Imagine if it were a song, a catchy tune, and it was on all of our lips. Imagine if it were such a groovy melody it automatically got the feet of everyone in KwaZulu-Natal tapping. A song like Pharrell Williams’ Happy or the Penny Whistle Jive, a hip swaying beaut of a number. We’d sing it effortlessly because the words were simple and we loved it. And all the while we sang it we felt the money from it jingling into our pockets.

Tourism could be the elixir for economic growth in KZN. Tourism could also do spectacularly well. Why? Because we live in a patch of paradise with a great international airport and the infrastructural pillars of a great economy. Tourism is arguably the quickest, low-barrier-to-entry, big multiplier business.

A snapshot from Durban Tourism shows that in the last financial year 3,8-million tourists came to KZN, contributing R19,6-billion to the economy and employing 53 400 people. Alas, that’s 527 000 less visitors than the year before, R600-million less loot, and 4 100 fewer jobs.

Hat’s off to the leadership of FNB in KZN. Over a period of time FNB has quietly drawn together a group of top tourism stakeholders to foster day per person, which is on average double what domestic tourists spend, and their market is in the billions.

KZNINVESTISSUE2September2018
Greg Ardé
Greg Ardé
Greg Ardé is a journalist based in Durban, South Africa. He has written three books and currently edits a magazine. In the course of his 30-year career Greg has been involved with a number of media, including newspapers, radio and television. He is the former bureau chief of the Sunday Times in Durban and editor of a monthly magazine which appeared in that newspaper. He was previously deputy editor of the Sunday Tribune, property editor of the same publication and business editor of The Mercury. He was political reporter on the Daily News and worked for the South African Press Association in the run-up to South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994. In that time he covered political violence extensively. Greg has a national diploma in journalism from the erstwhile Technikon Natal. As part of this, he served a year’s internship at the Daily Dispatch in East London and later ran the Dispatch's Umtata bureau, close to the birthplace of Nelson Mandela. He is deeply committed to issues of justice, accountability and development and wrote a weekly column for 15 years. Greg has a keen interest in the evolution of cities and in 2013 and 2014, contributed to the Resilient Cities series, an initiative sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. Greg’s passion for politics, cities and development nurtured a curiosity in business and entrepreneurs and he has run three publications in that vein. In the course of his career, Greg has also facilitated a number of roundtable talks aimed at improving education, economic development and job creation in Durban, the city he calls home.

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