Newcastle, the third-largest city in KwaZulu-Natal, holds a significant place in South Africa’s history. Being part of the Battlefields Route and with the festive season now fast approaching, it raises the question: how is the local tourism sector performing, and what steps is the Newcastle Municipality taking to promote it?
Examining the performance of the tourism sector over the past year, Newcastle Municipality Spokesperson Mthandeni Myende explained that local establishments within the tourism industry, such as accommodation providers, have shown noticeable growth.
He emphasised that this growth indicates a positive trajectory for Newcastle’s tourism sector. Myende further stated, “Additionally, Events Tourism stimulates further growth and attracts tourists into the town.”
However, Myende acknowledged that Newcastle faces challenges in enhancing its tourism sector. These include the need to sustainably manage growth, improve infrastructure, and offer unique experiences. Yet, the Municipality’s financial constraints limit its ability to prioritise tourism development fully. Building on this, Myende pointed out, “The budget may be directed to priority issues such as basic service delivery.”
Despite these challenges, he emphasised that the Newcastle Municipality is taking measures to address the financial issues. He explained, “The Municipality has appointed personnel to assist in sourcing funding to tackle the issue with financial constraints. Furthermore, the Municipality continuously works on attracting external funding through the Tourism Office. A result of this is the implementation of a learnership program to advance tourism development through a fast-food learnership program that is in the process, which was through external funding.”
In addition to these initiatives, Myende highlighted the Municipality’s efforts to enhance communication with the public and provide accessible tourism information.
He also stated that the Municipality has a fully-fledged and fully functional Municipal website, which serves as a key communication tool for disseminating important information. This is complemented by the Tourism Office located at the Town Hall, which plays a critical role in sharing details about local attractions and providing information to visitors.
Myende further elaborated on the Municipality’s marketing efforts. He explained that a tourism calendar has been developed, which includes all planned events from both the Municipality and the private sector. “The Municipality also partners with the Provincial Tourism Marketing Authority and broadcast marketing companies to promote Tourism, such as the SABC 3 Expresso Morning Show,” he said.
Moreover, Newcastle Municipality has subscribed to various marketing platforms dedicated to promoting its tourism sector. These platforms include:
- The Amajuba Tourism E-Brochure,
- The Battlefields Route Brochure, and
- The Open Africa website.
When discussing what Newcastle offers to out-of-town visitors, Myende noted that attractions like the Carnegie Art Gallery and Fort Amiel stand out as key heritage sites. These locations provide valuable insights into the area’s cultural and historical significance and are promoted through exhibitions hosted on-site.
Myende also stressed the geographical significance of Newcastle, stating that it is situated within the foothills of the Drakensberg escarpment and forms a vital part of the KwaZulu-Natal Battlefields Route.
Considering the above efforts, what are your thoughts on the Newcastle Municipality’s initiatives to promote the local tourism sector? Where do you feel improvement is needed to boost the local tourism industry and do you feel the marketing being done is sufficient?
Share your views in the comment section below.
Comments 9
Hold on, you market municipal things on a random SABC show that no one watches and place adverts in marketing products that are not distributed to tourist…As a person in the hospitality industry I can honestly say that whoever is making your marketing decisions needs a bit of an education on the subject. People watching an SABC morning show are not spending money on travelling and vacations and no one is visiting the municipality website to learn about B&Bs like the one I work for….no wonder the tourism sector is barely holding on. Lastly, the only reason B&Bs have seen an increase is not because to tourism, but sales reps and government people working in Newcastle.
Service providers,that’s a joke,you lot can’t even fix roads properly or keep the waterworks in a working condition… seriously! Once a week we as tax and rates payers are sitting with out water..you lot are fast to cut our electricity when one is just a day late by accident..but you can be lax on service delivery,what a cheek you have to say you are sufficient on here!Shame on you ,how can you lie to people like that?have you no shame?!!oh I forgot politicians doesn’t have a conscience!!!!!
Is there anyway we can have a cinema in Newcastle, im sure that will be a step in a right direction and will bring some revenue to our most loved city that we proud of
Cinemas are no longer making profit since Covid 19, most of them have shut down due to a limited number of people going to these facilities. If big cities are closing cinemas, do you thing small towns can survive?
In addition, Netflix, Showmax, Apple Tv and Prime are the major competitors. Others are also streaming new movies online. I think your suggestion is not viable in financial and economic terms in this point in time.
We need to make sure that as the people of Newcastle, we stop entertaining events that are no good to our city, we need new ideas let’s get rif of all old events that are not adding any value to our city please.
We have so many experienced and innovative people in Newcastle yet we waist time and sponsor events that have no wow!! factor anymore.
Newcastle need to have a new entertaining place that will attract more tourist to come to the city.
Service providers,that’s a joke,you lot can’t even fix roads properly or keep the waterworks in a working condition… seriously! Once a week we as tax and rates payers are sitting with out water..you lot are fast to cut our electricity when one is just a day late by accident..but you can be lax on service delivery,what a cheek you have to say you are sufficient on here!Shame on you ,how can you lie to people like that?have you no shame?!!oh I forgot politicians doesn’t have a conscience!!!!!
The Newcastle municipality is a plain mockery to it people.. they don’t like putting out facts and this is a fictional movie thats been said on this article. The tourism industry is non-existent in newcastle. Point blank!
B&Bs and the hospitality industry directly get its clients through the private business without tourism playing any significant role.
We all know that newcastle has a nitch of its own and tourism is not one off them. Newcastle is a developing city. This alone has become a valuable carency in our city and it shouldn’t be taken lightly.
If tourism was serious about gaining awareness and attraction they should be teaching us about the significance of our beloved town. The roles and historical events that took place. I’m 33 year old man and my age and as a citizen of newcastle and some of us have no idea of our towns heritage. Educate our people about their town.
This will require people with strategic events coordinators experience in the field. We don’t need another fruitless festival or even. We need corporate events with significance strong purpose to gaining fruitful results.
There is too much that need to be said about in the tourism sector and so for that i rest!
If you really need to promote Newcastle and surroundings, fix the road between Newcastle and Normandien Police station so tourists can come and enjoy the real macoy