Holidaymakers flock to the Dolphin Coast for booming festive season

Police, lifeguards and traffic authorities were kept on their toes with thousands of holidaymakers flocking to the Dolphin Coast from late December to the first week of January.

With more than 60 000 cars arriving on the North Coast on December 4 alone, the area was packed with visitors who ensured that local traders and holiday accommodation facilities were busy and fully booked.

Ilembe Chamber CEO Cobus Oelofse said the local economy got a much-needed boost.

“An overall observation is that it was a very good season for trade with the majority of business owners indicating that it was an improvement from previous years. As an overall indicator, holiday rentals and short term rentals were reported to be up from the previous year but real estate sales were quiet.

“Retail feedback was a mixed bag as to be expected but certain retailers reported significant growth from previous years with some store owners indicating a year-on-year sales growth of up to 30 percent.

“The restaurant feedback was interesting because a few of the owners said that although the patron and bill numbers were high, the total spending compared to previous years was down with the average price per a meal being below R100.”

Although the constant power outages that plagued Ballito and Salt Rock areas for most of last year threatened the success of the holiday season, few faults were reported in December.

KwaDukuza municipality media liaison officer Sipho Mkhize said while the electricity supply was stable, repairs are still underway.

“There are faults with the cables that carry electricity to the Salt Rock and greater Ballito area which are being looked at. Our electricians ensured that the supply was uninterrupted and the only outages we had was when repairs were being carried out.”

There were no reports of water interruptions.

As predicted roads and beaches were jampacked, but reports of tragic accidents were few with only one reported drowning, near Zinkwazi.

Mkhize said lifeguards and KDM traffic officers had a mandate to significantly decrease the number of tragedies in the area and they achieved that goal.

“The numbers have not yet been tallied on how many accidents or drownings took place but it was much lower than last year. Temporary lifeguards were deployed to work with our permanent staff on beaches and drowning cases were very low. Most of the accidents our officers were called to were minor in nature and there were very few serious incidents which mainly took place at the beginning of the season. Overall, the holiday season was ideal.”

Umhlali SAPS spokesperson captain Vinny Pillay said fewer than 10 people had been charged for driving while drunk in a clampdown between Christmas and New Year.

Holiday accommodation scams, public disturbances, and ATM scams were also at a low but house robberies were higher than usual.

“The most crimes reported were for house robberies. We had our administration staff out on the road as well as our usual task team because we knew it would be a busy time with roadblocks, beach patrol, mall supervision, and call outs. There were incidents of violence but these were mostly related to drinking at some of the taverns.”

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