Durban — The tourism sector is taking stock of the business impact of the Comrades Marathon, held on Sunday.
The City’s head of communications, Lindiwe Khuzwayo, said they were working on the final stats for the 2023 Comrades Marathon. However, they had projected a direct spend of R237 million and R417m in contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP).
“The projected direct spend includes hotel occupancy, cab and vehicle hire, as well as all other monies that residents, marathon runners and their families spent while in the city. We also projected 790 jobs that would have been created. Moreover, we had no incidents reported to our metro police,” said Khuzwayo.
Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa) chairperson Brett Tungay said it was a good weekend for the Pietermaritzburg and Durban tourism industry. He said occupancy was great, especially in Pietermaritzburg and surrounding areas.
“There was little occupancy in Durban. Hopefully, in the next week or two we will get accurate figures to see exactly what benefit we got,” said Tungay.
He added that no issues were reported during the weekend.
The Ultimate Human Race was run from the Pietermaritzburg City Hall to the Hollywoodbets Kingsmead Stadium in eThekwini, on Sunday. Nearly 18 000 athletes participated in the run.
MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Siboniso Duma said there were 2 354 international runners from 84 countries alongside 17 920 South African athletes.
KZN MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba congratulated the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) and the province for hosting a successful and incident-free 96th edition of the Comrades Marathon.
Mahlaba congratulated all the runners, especially Tete Dijana and Gerda Steyn, who won the men’s and women’s categories respectively, smashing records in the process. Dijana broke the Comrades record of 5 hours 18 minutes set by David Gatebe in 2019, while Steyn smashed the 34-year down record set by Frith van der Merwe in 1989.
Netcare 911, Netcare, and the Comrades medical team were fully prepared to assist participants in every eventuality, whether it was a life-threatening emergency or simply a strained muscle.
By numbers, Netcare deployed:
• 63 nurses from Netcare
• 32 ambulance staff
• 8 advanced life support rapid response vehicle paramedics
• 11 joint operations centre staff
• 8 stadium paramedics
• 8 support staff
• 4 motorcycles with EMS practitioners
• 3 members of the helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS)
• 2 advanced life-support practitioners at the finish line.
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Daily News