Durban to be a 2010 FIFA World Cup hotspot
13. May, 2009
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THE weather gods might have put a dampener on South African Tourism’s big Indaba at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre at the weekend, but Durban is still set to be the hotspot during the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer spectacular in just over a year.
That’s the word from eThekwini deputy mayor Logie Naidoo, speaking at the five-day Indaba 2009 – Africa’s biggest annual travel tradeshow – which ended yesterday on a high note resonating with soaring expectations in the run-up to 2010.
“The World Cup will be in June/July next year – in the middle of South Africa’s winter season – so where’s the hottest place in the country in winter? Durban and KwaZulu-Natal naturally, with the region boasting balmy weather and some of the highest winter temperatures in South Africa,” he said.
However, when the skies opened and heavy, unseasonal rain fell on Saturday, Naidoo later joked at the Indaba opening ceremony that “while Durban boasted 350 days of sunshine a year, this is one of the 15 days of no sunshine”.
Durban certainly has more bad weather days than that, but Naidoo is famous for his “350 days of sunshine” catchphrase and for hyping up the region’s winter weather competitive advantage.
When it started raining heavily on Saturday, Indaba delegates were left dumbfounded, wondering what had happened to the usually great weather.
Rarely has there been heavy rain during the event, and with several downpours on the busiest trade day on Saturday, the outside exhibition stands at the ICC Durban Exhibition Centre found themselves cut off from delegates who chose to stay indoors at times.
Even the Indaba’s legendary beach party at New Beach on the city’s Golden Mile was forced to close early.
Many delegates were disappointed to leave early from the beach party, which caters for up to 10 000 people, because of weather-related safety concerns at the giant tent venue.
Meanwhile, KwaZulu-Natal’s 2010 weather propositioning was also being promoted at Tourism KZN’s 2010-Breakfast at Indaba with the head of the provincial destination marketing organisation, Ndabo Khoza, saying that the province’s winter sea temperatures were much higher than many European summer sea temperatures.
“Our province has a warm, subtropical climate… KwaZulu-Natal’s average summer temperature is 28º while the winter average is 23º.
“Our sea temperatures average 21º throughout the year, which makes swimming and beach activities all-year-round possible,” Khoza told about 200 local and international tourism industry leaders at the breakfast.
“We want to attract as many visitors as possible to KwaZulu-Natal during and beyond 2010.
“We are looking for partners in the tourism trade to package the province as an experience during the event.
‘We need your support in helping to spread the word,” Khoza said.
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My name is Muzi Mohale a full-time travel blogger, your host at Travelwires.com responsible for all editorial on this blog. I blog about the travel and tourism industry in Africa. Apart from blogging about tourism, I also run 
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