By Grant Wheatley, Novate 

TOURISM presents entrepreneurs in Buffalo City with a host of valuable opportunities.

For example, while greater Buffalo City offers the visitor natural beauty, it lacks reliable quality services for both foreign and domestic visitors who arrive in the city with a great deal of spending power.

One area which requires improvement is local hotels, which need a revamp. Most are tired and need to be improved.

Another is the Esplanade, which is ideally positioned as a tourism-centred precinct. However, the area must be made safe enough for tourists to walk to and from the hotels throughout the day.

Safety is critical and zero-tolerance should be adopted by the authorities in order to curb crime and encourage people to venture out onto the streets and enjoy our beautiful coastline. Property owners and the local authorities need to work together in order to achieve this goal.

Sport is a major driver of tourism in the city and we can do more to attract the top teams and tournaments. Hosting of the SAA Tennis Open, the Discovery Surfers’ Marathon and the Era Buffalo Regatta are huge achievements and the organisers should be congratulated and supported in their endeavours. For local entrepreneurs, this presents another opportunity to market themselves to the arriving participators, organisers and spectators.

The city has the opportunity to position itself as the leading sporting city in the country, and this should be followed up with commitments of more investment in related infrastructure. It is one way of differentiating our city from the other cities that compete for the same tourism spend.

In Novate's latest check, the number of building cranes in the city now stands at nine. The construction business in East London is booming.

Source: Daily Dispatch