Durbs is where it's happening

Watch out Johannesburg, Durban is gunning for the unofficial title of "events capital of South Africa".

A few years ago the coastal city was the event equivalent of the other woman - beautiful but no one would commit to her.

That has slowly been changing as Durban has been rolling out the red carpet for some of the most glamorous events on the continent.

This month, the city will host the MTV Africa Music Awards for a second time and play host to the continent's biggest acts including international stars like Ne-Yo.

What should also excite Durbanites is that the days of needing to book special leave to see their favourite international artist perform in Johannesburg or Cape Town is becoming a distant memory.

The city has hosted legendary musical acts like Michael Bublé, Rick Ross, John Legend and Chris Brown. But wait, there's more.

The latest singing sensation to add his name to Durban's tourism list is Trey Songz. The Say Ahh singer will perform in Durban and Johannesburg next month .

What is the city doing right that has recently put it on the "events" map?

Durban's head of tourism, Phillip Sithole, said the city has formed local and global partnerships to boost tourism. These include partnerships with National Geographic and Eurosport.

The city had brought in more than R19-billion in tourism revenue last year, largely due to hosting conferences, he said.

"We are strong on business conferences; artists are not our number one priority. The revenue from people who attend business conferences is far bigger than artists, but it doesn't mean we are not interested in them ."

Sithole said: "If we feel they [artists] can't give us what we are looking for it's fine, they can go to Cape Town or Johannesburg. We are looking for artists that can bring value to the city and who will market Durban, [and] not just [with] a few tweets and one Instagram post."

One particularly welcome celebrity was reality star Khloe Kardashian, who attended the MTV Africa Music Awards last year with her then beau, rapper French Montana.

According to Sithole, Kardashian went "all out" to market the city.