ABSTRACT
In the eyes of white explorers and settlers and their descendants, the area around Durban has been synonymous with travel and tourism for a period which began some time before the origins of the city itself. Early visitors to the area recorded in their diaries comments on the beauty of the sun-washed coast, where a subtropical forest of banana palms, cotton-woods and coastal bush swept down to broad sandy beaches, clear lagoons and a sparkling sea. The development of the small colonial outpost of D'Urban in the mid nineteenth century served, in the long run, to heighten the attraction of the area by offering the possibility of a tourist experience which combined the natural beauties and opportunities of the coast with the advantages of a growing urban area.
