{"id":94574,"date":"2025-12-23T14:18:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T14:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost"},"modified":"2025-12-23T14:37:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T14:37:42","slug":"ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost","title":{"rendered":"eThekwini Sees R1.8 Billion Visitor Spending Boost"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>A preliminary analysis from the eThekwini Municipality shows about R1.8 billion in direct visitor spending so far this festive season. Since the start of December, the coastal city has welcomed approximately 500,000 visitors to its shores.<\/p>\n<p>The municipality released its mid-season festive statistics during a media briefing on Monday at North Beach. There has been some criticismfrom opposition parties over the municipality\u2019s failure to consistently keep beaches open, and how this negatively impacts tourism and business in the city.<\/p>\n<p>However, the municipality says this criticism does not reflect reality, as the city is currently enjoying a successful festive season, comparable to the pre-COVID era.<\/p>\n<p>eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba says 22 of the city\u2019s 23 beaches are open, hotel occupancy is at 70 percent and direct visitor spending has reached R1. billion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese indicators confirm strong festive season performance and sustained tourism demand. While Durban is well known for its warm beaches, many visitors have also come to enjoy a variety of attractions and events hosted across the city.\u201d Xaba added that the municipality expects further economic gains as the festive season continues.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. A preliminary analysis from the eThekwini Municipality shows about R1.8 billion in direct visitor spending so far this festive season. Since the start of December, the coastal city has welcomed approximately 500,000 visitors to its shores. The municipality released its mid-season festive statistics during a media briefing on Monday at North Beach. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":94573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-94574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>eThekwini Sees R1.8 Billion Visitor Spending Boost - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A preliminary analysis from the eThekwini Municipality shows about R1.8 billion in direct visitor spending so far this f ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"eThekwini Sees R1.8 Billion Visitor Spending Boost\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A preliminary analysis from the eThekwini Municipality shows about R1.8 billion in direct visitor spending so far this f ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-23T14:18:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-23T14:37:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1766487997.658185.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"eThekwini Sees R1.8 Billion Visitor Spending Boost\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-23T14:18:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-23T14:37:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost\"},\"wordCount\":199,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1766487997.658185.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ethekwini-sees-r1-8-billion-visitor-spending-boost\",\"name\":\"eThekwini Sees R1.8 Billion Visitor Spending Boost - 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