Durban’s uShaka Marine World celebrates 19 years of existence
|Published
People walk near the swimming pools at uShaka Marine World. Visitors at uShaka Marine World. The marine theme park celebrated 19 years in operation on Sunday. File Picture: Leon Lestrade African News Agency (ANA).
Durban - uShaka Marine World, one of the biggest theme parks on the continent, has attracted 15 million visitors since its inception.
Buhle Malunga, uShaka’s marketing executive, revealed this as the entity celebrated its 19 years in operation on Sunday.
“Looking back we are proud of how far we've come as an entity, over the 19 years we have welcomed at least 15 million guests to the park, we have created jobs and given opportunities to service providers in the city and the province, we have seen quite a lot of milestones that are worth us celebrating,” she said.
She said the entity had given the Point Precinct in Durban, a home of entertainment, adding that their presence had given investors confidence to invest in and around the area.
She attributed the theme park’s success to its many attractions.
“We have the biggest aquarium in Southern Africa and we have the highest water slides in Africa,” she said.
A report tabled before the council a few months ago revealed that the entity had around 800 000 visitors annually, which, the report said, was a significant number when compared to other theme parks that attracted around 1.5 million people annually.
But the entity has battled to stay afloat over the past few years, and a few months ago it was given about R60m in funding from the city. And prior to that, it had received other financial packages.
The problems have been so severe that there have been calls from some councillors for council to cut its losses and sell the entity.