City boasts new township tour
Cruise liner passengers enjoy cultural township tour at eSikhaleni.
GERMAN tourists from the luxury cruise liner MS Costa Riviera were treated to a true African experience when they were taken on an exhilarating township tour of eSikhaleni during a brief stop in Richards Bay on Monday.
The international guests were part of 2 000 passengers on board the cruise ship, which entered the Port of Richards Bay on Monday morning, departing later that evening.
The vessel was welcomed by members of the uMhlathuze Community Tourism Organisation (UCTO), who had for the first time planned a township tour for visiting cruise liner passengers.
The initiative is part of a vigorous plan by the tourism body to promote domestic tourism in the City and the township route.
The four-hour tour started with a visit to the Empangeni Museum and Arts and Craft Centre before the international group headed off to eSikhaleni.
‘They visited the Dube Craft Project before a tour of the ‘shebeen’ – Tavern 547 which also has an in-house Art Gallery. There were cultural activities planned and the tourists got a sneak preview into the preparation of maidens for the annual reed dance,’ said UCTO Coordinator Sipho Mchunu.
The tourists were then taken to the first houses built in the 1970s at J1 Section in eSikhaleni.
‘This gave them a feeling of the early township and how eSikhaleni mushroomed. They also enjoyed a visit to a local school and were treated to a Zulu dance performance and display.’
The tour ended with lunch at the popular Nembula Restaurant.
‘They were very excited after the tour and said they had experienced a new Africa. Cruise liners dock in Richards Bay, yet the passengers are taken to other areas. Therefore, we have started these initiatives to keep tourists here,’ said Mchunu.
The cruise liner season extends from November until the end of April.
