DOLFINVIEW SELF-CATERING ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation Services in Port Shepstone

The aims and objectives of the Ugu South Coast Tourism (Pty) Ltd are to promote tourism growth and development of tourism in the Ugu District Municipality area. UGUSCT aims to develop new tourism initiatives in the hinterland, improve existing tourist attractions and market the region as a premier tourist destination. Service Centre’s will provide professional service to the community of the region and visitors. Howard Kelly who sits on our Board recently jumped into a helicopter in order to take visuals and geo-plot key elements of the proposed trail and his initial observations indicate our inland areas have pockets of outstanding cultural, natural and scenic value. It appears that part of the trail area in the valley system involves some really impressive and precipitous river gorges with waterfalls and vegetated landscapes which in due course can be presented to our outdoor markets and have a great educational value as well. So often when one lives in areas that have outstanding tourism assets (in our case the beaches and ocean) one can lose sight of the richness of other terrestrial and heritage orientated assets inland. Recently at our Port Shepstone Member’s Meet and Greet, local environmentalist Paddy Norman did a brief presentation of some of our unheralded green assets and astonishingly he indicated that there are over 35 conservation properties on public and private land that have immense nature based tourism potential. This being said a recent Stats SA report on SA tourism indicated that our sector contributes some 3.1% to the country’s economy with about 1 in every 22 employed being involved in the tourism and leisure sector. Tourism is now larger than mining in terms of numbers employed. Our own local economy relies heavily on our tourism revenue yields and besides an aggressive local marketing programme we are looking at constructive ways to bring long haul visitors from the northern hemisphere to our shores here in KZN. Our team is engaging with SA Tourism to get us more profile within their international marketing efforts so that in due course longer stay visitors will see us as a clear touring option. With the recession on us and market sensitivities being what they are our commitment to be market and marketing focused will remain resolute- our destination is that good to promote. All was positive and during the discussion the visitor asked where one could have some sushi for supper. Into the bargain was the fact that on that day the restaurant was having a half price on sushi meals. Word of mouth is still the most influential aspect for people to express their like or dislike of their leisure time away from home. This is good news for us because we are then afforded the opportunity to host tourism trade and media tours either before or after the event- and costs to promote locally are way less than attending the show in say Cape Town or Johannesburg. It was interesting to note that there was some interest in our area from agents from potential source markets such as China, Italy and Switzerland which previously had not cropped up on our international radar. Most of our long haul visitors originate from the United Kingdom and Germany so any expansion into new markets will be superb. This week saw the launch of edition 20 of the Southern Explorer Route Guide which is the official tourism publication for our diverse and captivating destination. Talking of exploration, local charter operators C Freaks kindly took our tourism interns for a trip out to sea. Some of our future tourism ambassadors had never been off shore before so when one looks at their happy photos of the exciting outing there is no doubt that they will recommend this experience to all and sundry. The South Coast Bike Fest has concluded (and what a weekend it was). Many athletes came from other parts of KZN and beyond to sweat their stuff. To cap it all the ever popular bowls week in Margate started this week and hundreds of bowlers have congregated to enjoy their matches in our glorious autumn sunshine.