Durban - The multimillion-rand Sibaya Casino reported a bumper opening month, with more than 500 000 visitors passing through Durban's latest tourism spot.
General manager Melville Vogel said the iZulu theatre, which was currently showing the hugely popular African Footprint production, had been playing to 91.2 percent capacity audiences.
Vogel said the restaurant attendance figures during the holiday period had also been higher than expected, and the A2A buffet restaurant in particular had been forced to remain open outside normal operating hours to accommodate diners.
The luxury Royal Sibaya Hotel, which has 12 suites and 24 rooms, revealed a 90 percent occupancy rate during December, which management is expecting to continue during the first quarter of this year.
A 120-room hotel with lower rates than the luxury hotel is to be completed by June 2006.
The R727 million casino complex employs 1 300 people and created an estimated 10 000 jobs during the construction phase.
Sibaya is situated on 48ha of coastal hinterland.
The development is owned by Afrisun KwaZulu-Natal and will be managed by Sun International.
Moreland Development, the property subsidiary of the Tongaat-Hulett group, awarded the road construction project to a consortium that consisted of Group Five, with 70 percent, and the Isibaya Group Consortium, which held the remaining 30 percent.
Isibaya is a joint venture between Pan African Development and Umphemi Development.
Further developments on 1 000ha on either side of the N2 are planned by Moreland Developments, for what will be known as the Sibaya Node.
Afrisun's chairman, Oscar Dhlomo, said the R40 million Sibaya interchange would not only provide safe, efficient access to Sibaya, but would also make an impact on the future development of what the city will call the Northern Corridor region.
According to Dhlomo, the interchange will symbolically open up the region for future development, leading to greater wealth and job creation in KwaZulu-Natal.