ABSTRACT
Urban tourism in contemporary Durban has expanded beyond the turbulence of the 1990s, when grime and avoidance by white tourists were linked to racial constructions in the media and elsewhere. Rumblings of discontent expressed by media reports and letters complaining of beachfront, grime and threats to personal safety, coupled with declining domestic tourism and tourism revenue, have prompted extensive research funded by the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Authority. This means taking a critical look at the principal tourism drivers that authors identify as the natural and built environment, globalization, tourist demand, policy-driven imperatives, and public-private partnerships. The nature and success of existing and emergent destinations in the city then needs to be assessed. The chapter discusses certain types of tourism spaces. These are, initially, urban tourism sites that have been planned, developed, or orchestrated into spaces that are ordered and controlled, finally, potential tourism spaces that are avoided by tourists because of dysfunctional social conditions and perceptions of insecurity.
