Unlocking the tourism potential in Nelson Mandela Bay

As Nelson Mandela Bay gears up for peak tourist season, there are positive signals of a sector on a steady recovery to pre-Covid levels, as well as opportunities to grow the contribution of domestic business and leisure tourism to the local economy.

The area offers a wealth of exceptional experiences – including golden beaches and moderate sea temperatures; ocean and land-based adventure sport; boat excursions to view dolphins and other marine life in their natural habitat; public nature reserves; repurposed heritage buildings; live music and other events; local food and craft markets; art galleries; open spaces; game viewing within the city limits; and luxury, malaria-free safari experiences just half an hour’s drive away.

All within a compact city environment, surrounded by natural attractions and offering great value for money compared with other major centres.

Listen/read: Why invest in Nelson Mandela Bay? [Dec 2024]

The sector faces significant challenges, however.

The metro’s state of readiness is uneven – for example, the bay boasts three premier Blue Flag beaches, while other beaches face safety concerns and poor public amenities due to vandalism, poor maintenance and a lack of security for infrastructure.

These concerns are regularly reflected in visitor surveys, where tourists flag issues around crime and safety, cleanliness, lack of maintenance of public spaces and facilities, decaying and abandoned buildings, and road-related issues including potholes and broken streetlights and traffic lights.

Inadequate flight connectivity to major centres is a headache for local business travellers and also limits growth potential for both domestic and foreign tourism.

Read:
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Although passenger traffic through Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport recorded positive growth in 2024 – increasing by 6.5% for international travellers and 8.1% for domestic travellers – business travellers regularly report that flights between the Bay and Johannesburg are typically fully booked and insufficient to accommodate same-day return travel.

These issues affect perceptions and reputation of the Bay, and hamper investment by businesses looking to capitalise on the ample natural and heritage assets to deliver memorable tourist experiences.

Economic impact 

Tourism generates significant direct and indirect economic benefits, supporting one in 10 jobs nationally, with the World Travel & Tourism Council estimating a 2.5-times multiplier effect on employment arising from South Africa’s tourism sector.

In 2024, the 222 072 international tourists who visited the Bay, staying an average of three nights, spent more than R1 billion in the local economy on accommodation, dining, transport, excursions, personal services and the like.

In the same year, approximately 1.24 million domestic tourists spent in excess of R5.6 billion.

The ripple effects on the local economy are substantial, moving beyond tourism-related businesses to include spending by those businesses and their employees on local goods and services. In total, tourism is estimated to have injected more than R12.5 billion into the local economy in 2024.

Both domestic and foreign tourists staying in formal accommodation showed a slight dip in 2024, in line with national and global trends as economic pressures limited leisure travel. There is, however, optimism that the 2025 numbers will improve, largely driven by a focus on attracting business and sports events, while leisure travel is expected to remain under pressure.

Events driving growth 

This year, the Bay hosted major national and international events, including several G20 meetings, the Naacam (National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers) Show, SA Automotive Week, the Southern African Citrus Growers’ Association Summit, the Africa Bunkering Convention, the Springboks versus Italy match, the SA Masters’ interprovincial hockey tournament, Ironman South Africa and African Championship, and the Africa Triathlon Championship.

Read:
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Looking ahead, a major new event next year will be the Lifesaving World Championships in November, expected to attract 6 000 competitors and delegates, while the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) will host its Congress in the Bay in June, while the number of cruise ships docking at the Port of Port Elizabeth is expected to steadily increase.

On the back of SA Automotive Week and a four-day series cricket match between the Warriors and Boland in October this year, the Bay recorded over 70% hotel occupancy for the first time since the pre-Covid benchmark year of 2019, underlining the positive impact of hosting conferences, exhibitions and sporting events.

While foreign tourist numbers are steadily rising, reaching 72% of 2019 arrivals last year, domestic tourism is both an area of concern as well as an opportunity for growth.

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Domestic tourists staying in formal accommodation are on a rising trend, but those visiting friends and relatives (VFR) took a significant knock in 2024, dropping 38% to about 670 000 overnight visitors.

This decline may be due to belt-tightening reasons, as well as the fact that this category is difficult to measure accurately, with national, survey-based VFR data widely considered as “volatile”.

However, this also underscores the role of local residents as the most important marketers of the Bay as a destination in this category.

Residents’ perceptions and levels of satisfaction with service delivery, safety and security, the general state of the metro, and the amount of “things to do” for visitors, are a key influence in encouraging or discouraging friends, relatives and business colleagues from visiting.

The metro’s visitor surveys, which capture feedback on both positive and negative aspects of the Bay experience, also point to opportunities for entrepreneurs and tourism businesses to market their offerings more effectively or fill the gaps identified.

Notably, the Eastern Cape’s top attractions are largely located outside Nelson Mandela Bay, with a strong focus on wildlife and adventures around Addo Elephant National Park, Tsitsikamma/Garden Route, and the splendour of natural scenery such as the Valley of Desolation outside Graaff-Reinet.

For visitors to the Eastern Cape, shopping malls are the primary attraction for Nelson Mandela Bay – although, when the data is narrowed down, visitors to the Bay itself are attracted by the beaches, nature, and coastal activities, a vibrant dining and events scene, along with its heritage and cultural offerings.

This presents a major opportunity for Nelson Mandela Bay to develop and promote its assets beyond shopping malls and to encourage longer local stays.

Agro-tourism, centred around the hinterland’s citrus, wool, dairy and game farming is another opportunity that needs to be explored further.

Read: From farm gates to great escapes: The rise of agritourism in South Africa

Collaboration and the Tourism Master Plan

A positive development is the recent approval of the metro’s new Tourism Master Plan, which places a strong emphasis on collaboration and includes action plans to address issues of safety and security, cleanliness, bylaw enforcement, infrastructure maintenance, and the development of tourism attractions.

A number of projects have been identified, and business has been encouraged to engage with the metro to unlock investment opportunities.

An example of success collaboration is the Beachfront Cluster, supported by the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, which brings together leading accommodation and hospitality establishments and corporate investors in the area, cooperating with neighbourhood watches, local safety forums, the South African Police Service, Metro Police, and the NMB municipality.

The Cluster has made great strides this year in improving beachfront cleanliness, enhancing lighting of pedestrian areas, extending the network of monitored security cameras, and securing increased law enforcement presence together with private security patrols.

Looking ahead

Next year, we see opportunity to launch a Tourism Economic Development Desk, integrated with the Chamber’s geographic clusters and task teams, to ensure coordinated action in positioning the Bay as a more tourist-friendly environment.

Added to this, opportunities exist to collaborate with stakeholders and partners to create coordinated package offerings for experiential tourism.

These are low-hanging fruit, with the potential to create thousands of jobs, especially in a metro like ours, which has been experiencing a decline in jobs, particularly in its manufacturing sector.

However, there is only so much the private sector can do to help enhance public infrastructure, security, and cleanliness – a lot of what is needed is in the hands of the municipality.

It needs to get back to basics and ensure that an enabling environment is in place, so that business can put their energies into creating much-needed jobs and unlocking the potential of what we believe can truly be the Bay of Opportunity.

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