Townships such as Chatsworth and Phoenix have been firmly placed on an international stage after both local and international tourists were recently encouraged to visit Indian gems while indulging on the infamous bunny chow during the Africa’s Travel and Tourism Summit at the end of last month.
The summit was one of the southern hemisphere’s largest meetings of delegates from across the travel sector and has encouraged this year’s guests to play a part in telling a more vibrant, real and human-led story of Africa and South Africa as a region. The summit saw delegates from across the six continents and 23 African countries with its aim to create a meeting point for anyone and everyone looking to find out more about the future of travel to the continent, as well as promoting keynote discussions around major issues affecting tourism. This year’s summit encouraged people to celebrate their identity and tell their own story. Delegates at the event included one from Durban and represented the South African keynote speaker who has made a huge contribution to the Travel and Tourism of South African Shores, Marlin Veerasamy of Ananzi Marketing and Travel PTY LTD from Chatsworth. He said: “Although we are heavily impacted in the lockdown and had to take a huge loss of income, I will still not give up. I live and breathe tourism daily, I am passionate about this industry and will not allow the lockdown to dampen my high spirits.”
One of the contributing factors Veerasamy discussed through a panel of African Delegates was that Durban, and KwaZulu-Natal as a whole, needs to be on the tourism map of Africa. “Places of discussion was the Drakensberg Region where I fondly spoke about the Lord Shiva Murthi and Lord Hanuman statue that is in progress currently where guests can experience the majestic mountains but at the same time go and pay a visit to this beautiful site and pay homage to the Lord of Creation and Destruction. I also mentioned other cultural sites like Ixopo which symbolises the rock formation of Lord Shiva and the discovery of the Lord Hanuman and Lord Ganesha rock formations in the Clarisbrooke area where it is known as the Area of Gods,” he said.Veerasamy fondly called KZN “Africa’s playground” in his address. He said: “KZN is the only region where tourists can pack their bags with everything from the beach, bush, berg and city to experience all of this. We have it all – we are Africa’s playground. We also call upon tourists to visit our local areas such as Chatsworth and Phoenix to show people how we live and the wonders of our suburbia.” “I encourage every citizen to enjoy and make the most of what we have. Go conquer local before you fly elsewhere, we have the best of everything, support local tourism,” he said.
