| Summary: | The South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal province contains the greatest concentration of coastal tourism amenities in South Africa. Previously, the coastal resort towns along the 170-kilometre-long coastline were administered by 29 local authorities, but are now administered by four municipalities. Three of these coastal municipalities fall under the Ugu District Municipality. This study examined 58 beaches along the South Coast and recorded the presence of 23 environmental factors and amenities for each
beach. The region was divided into six sections of equal length and the beach amenities were mapped and recorded on tables. The 23 tourist amenities were further grouped into eight categories, and each category was evaluated and the scores plotted. Of the 58 beaches, 24% achieved a score exceeding
20 points and 24% obtained a score of 10 points or less. The findings indicate that for the South Coast distance from the City of Durban is not a limiting factor, as 10 of the top 14 scoring beaches were in the southern half of the region, and there is no direct relationship between high scoring beaches and distance from Durban. While the seven Blue Flag beaches achieved an average score of 21.4, compared to an average of 14.93 for all 58 beaches, they were not the only beaches to achieve a high
score. The research suggests that there is still space to extend the tourist amenities along the South Coast, and an extension of the Blue Flag award would be one strategy for accommodating increasing numbers of tourists.
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