The Gateway City represents the Buffalo City Municipality which incorporates the towns of East London, Gonubie, King Williamstown, Bhisho and Mdantsane.

The East London is the economic heart of the Amathole District with the country’s only river port and plays host to a thriving automotive industry. The location of the Industrial Development Zone here bodes well for the future of this thriving town. 

A variety of cuisines, an active nightlife and entertainment scene (including night clubs, threatres and a casino), fine shops as well as a host of historical cultural activities are available.  The oldest aquarium in South Africa and its whale watching deck, a zoo, touch farm and fun park rounds off the highlights. Tours can be to the harbour, the Anne Bryant Gallery and the East London Museum to view the coelacanth, estimated to be 350 million years old and once thought to be extinct, was caught off the coast of East London in 1938 and can be seen at the .