Music brings millions to city
Durban Tourism head states music events have brought in a huge income to Durban.
THE world renowned John Legend, All of Me World Tour and the Legendary 7th Crown Gospel Music Awards are set to bring in more than R24 million direct visitor spend into the local economy of the City.
The John Legend ticket sales were sold out in just six days, totaling 16 500 tickets for the one day concert. The city predicts almost 14 per cent of the fans to came from outside the province.
Head of Durban Tourism, Phillip Sithole said, from a tourism perspective, international concerts such as John Legend brought more visitors into the city, while creating positive economic spin offs, benefit to the hospitality industry and job creation for Durban.
The 7th Crown Gospel Music Awards have become a premier event on the calendar of the gospel music industry and has grown into being the best gospel awards extravaganza in Africa, attracting nominees and performances from artists from Nigeria, Mozambique, Kenya, and Swaziland.
“An event of this magnitude is essential to promote our city to potential new markets and we are especially pleased with the live broadcasting of the event on national television. The awards bring an influx of visitors from other provinces, predominantly from Gauteng and this event has an economic contribution estimated at over R21 million with direct and indirect spend within the City. In 2013, a total 4312 guests attended the awards, of these 55 per cent were overnight visitors who stayed for two nights on average. A total of 5500 bed nights were generated at local establishments,” said Sithole.
