04/10/2015
It is frustrating to note that Exclusive Books has closed shop in East London. The first shop to close is the one in Hemmingways and Vincent the second. Buyers in numbers sustain a business. Bookshops are a treasure trove of knowledge once one closes, the mind is affected.
East London beach front has the potential to attract tourists who bring a lot of revenue for the hospitality industry and retail sector. A person who visits our beaches is bound to be hungry. It is rare that a person visits alone. Either a partner or the family visits. These people have to eat and have to sleep. Most of them use our hotels, bed and breakfasts and relatives to sleep. Regardless where they sleep they have to spend. This is revenue for East London. Why is it then that we do not invest in the safety of our coastal shores. These visitors should be treated like kings and queens when they arrive in East London. We should not welcome them with scary notices as you find in the beach front which says that beware of robbers. We need police presence in their numbers to patrol our coastal shores. We need to make the coastal belt to be so safe that a person can leave his or her car without locking it. We need interspersed showers of between 500 meters from each other in order for those bathers to wash off the sand. We should not see this only in Durban and not in our City. We do not have a lot of attractions in this City hence we have to harness those we have and utilise them to the best beneficial manner.
Its sad to hear about muggings, stabbings and even deaths committed to our tourists and nothing is done to quell the problem. The tourism industry should petition the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality to dedicate a team of people within its tourism sector to improve and make safe our coastal line particularly the Eastern Beach. One of the attractions in East London is "Ebuhlanti". This popular spot of love, happiness and entertainment is showcasing East London. Sadly though the ablution facilities are not up to standard. Men p*e wherever they find space to. Women, is really a pity for them. Keeping our shores safe will result to influx of tourists and our hotels will be busy 7 days a week and not only 5 days a week when fed by government.
