Durban has raked in major awards at this year’s World Travel Awards.
This comes after the city was announced as Africa’s leading City destination and Africa’s leading meetings and conference destination.
The Hilton Hotels and Resorts group was also named Africa’s leading hotel brand and South Africa’s leading business hotel, while Oyster Box hotel won the accolade of South Africa’s leading hotel.
The World Travel Awards was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.
Mayor of eThekwini Municipality, Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda, said the awards are a reassurance that Durban’s tourism products and services are of the world standards and an affirmation that Durban is a global destination.
“These awards give credence to our long-held view that indeed Durban is a leading global destination and as we go into the festive season, we are optimistic and confident that this will give the much-needed impetus to our marketing efforts and translate into increased number of visitors,” said Kaunda.
Kaunda added that this is as a result of the working relations that the City has with trade partners and that the City can only grow from here.
“If you look into our new and upcoming tourism products closely, you can clearly see that we are on the right track in terms of using tourism to drive economic development and growth,” he added.
The good news comes as Durban welcomed a new Garden Inn resort under the Hilton group in Umhlanga.
In addition, the city is in the process of developing new tourism corridors in township and rural areas to ensure tourists visit beyond urban areas of the city.