Millions around the world see SA as a destination of choice for rest and recreation. Upon their arrival they are greeted by smiling faces and they get to experience a diversity of cultures that in their evolution were also shaped by a complex history of colonisation and resistance.
International and domestic tourists who choose to walk along our sandy beaches on the coast, swim in our oceans, climb our mountains and visit our heritage sites to marvel at the history of humanity and civilisation look to us South Africans to remove all obstacles to make their journey restful and peaceful.
More than any other economic activity, the success or failure of a tourism destination depends on being able to provide a safe and secure environment for visitors.
Tourism safety has been consistently identified as a challenge that threatens tourism growth and therefore foreign direct investment, visitor spend and employment.
International tourism trends indicate that personal safety and security issues are of high importance in a potential tourist's choice of a destination.
Incidents of crime directed at tourists and tourism products create a negative perception about our country and in turn impact on both the visitor experience and visitor numbers.
Despite the few isolated incidents of crime that paint SA negatively, our country remains a preferred destination for weddings, honeymooners, lifestyle and music and cultural events, as well as for the film industry, with most of these drawing significant numbers of female travellers.
Recent incidents of crime directed at tourists have been very concerning and for us every incident is one incident too many. Within the national department of tourism, work is under way to ensure that we address the safety and security of our tourists.
In collaboration with security agencies, community policing forums and other community initiatives, we are working to identify, address and mitigate risks, challenges and threats impacting on tourist safety. Goals include:
- Identification and analysis of key tourism hot spots;
- Establishment of a database of crime against tourists; and
- The joint implementation of an optimised policing and security strategy in the tourism environment.
The areas of collaboration are informed by the objectives of the community policing strategy to enhance community policing partnerships in the fight against crime through a multidisciplinary approach of:
- Public education;
- Building community resilience to crime;
- Community policing and public order; and
- Capacity, capability and resourcing of community policing and private-sector-driven initiatives.
We are confident that through the efforts of numerous partners our countermeasures in the immediate term will ensure safety for tourists as we consolidate our tourism safety strategy.
As part of the strategy implementation we will fast-track the adoption of practical measures to promote the safety and security of travellers and tourists. These will include, among other things:
- The gathering of comprehensive statistics and research that results in reliable information and data suitable for risk assessment by decisionmakers and policymakers;
- The training and education of travel employees and private and public sector service personnel in their role as guardians responsible for protecting the basic right of safe travel by all citizens of the world;
- The development of private sector/public sector partnerships in the facilitation of safety-conscious travel and in ensuring the growth of the national economy;
- The implementation of programmes of emergency services for travellers and tourists in need, in order to assist them and, in the event of crime, to permit the successful prosecution of offenders at the least possible burden to the victims; and
- The allocation of adequate resources to the courts, the police and public and private security forces for the protection and general wellbeing of travellers and tourists.
The majority of South Africans, in the spirit of Ubuntu, are always ready and happy to welcome guests who in their travel need places to sleep and eat, helping us to create new businesses and jobs.
Let us all make it our responsibility to protect tourists and isolate the few who want to distort our reputation as a peaceful and welcoming people.
• Kubayi-Ngubane is the minister of tourism
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