TITLE:
The Status of Coastal Marine Tourism in KwaZulu Natal in 2022
AUTHORS:
Leticia Grimett
KEYWORDS:
Coastal Marine Tourism, Rural Development, Stakeholder Engagement, Rural Community Engagement in Coastal Marine Tourism, Coastal Marine Tourism Products, Challenges Related to Rural CMT Development
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.12 No.12,
December
12,
2022
ABSTRACT: The 2014 Operation Phakisa:
Oceans Economy Maritime growth strategy document made provision for the growth
and development of six maritime sectors as part of the country’s economic
growth strategy. One of the chosen sectors was coastal marine tourism. Within
the South African context, coastal marine tourism has been most developed
within the urban coastal areas like Durban, Ballito and Richards Bay as well as
the southern coastal belt from Durban to Port Edward. Along the coastal regions
between Durban and Kosi Bay, not much was known about the status of coastal
marine tourism within the rural coastal areas. To understand the status of
coastal marine tourism within these areas, the Moses Kotane Institute surveyed
rural community coastal marine tourism (CMT) related businesses and local
economic development officials within the districts of uMkhanyakude, King
Cetshwayo, iLembe and Ugu. Participants were
vocal about the challenges facing communities and fledgling businesses and the
solutions needed. While all participants were able to identify some CMT
products, they all agreed that communities were not enjoying the benefits of
the CMT value chain or engaging in the industry as they should. Challenges
cited included lack of infrastructure, insufficient knowledge of the
sector, difficulty raising funding, lack of business knowledge or access to
opportunities, and the powerlessness of local
and provincial agencies when dealing with the administrators of the many
protected areas, as they report directly to national government structures and
get their mandate from national government and the ineffectiveness of many
government programs and community
interventions. They also referred to the government departments that had made a
positive contribution towards community economic development and suggested
interventions which they thought would assist them. These are all captured
within this paper, together with observations and recommendations on
interventions that can be made.