Johannesburg - Despite South Africa being a major African tourism hub, robberies targeting tourists visiting Joburg and the rest of the country are thwarting efforts by tourism bodies to bring more people to our shores.
This follows an attack on a bus carrying Indian tourists who were targeted while travelling on the Cleveland off-ramp on the M2 on Saturday - by bogus Joburg metro police department officers. They were on their way to Gold Reef City.
Several tourism bodies say that this disturbing trend, which has seen other attacks on tourists in the past few months, is negatively affecting the country's image and could potentially scare off tourists from visiting.
“It is very disturbing and distressing, and is affecting the work done by the tourism sector to bring people here,” Joburg Tourism spokeswoman Laura Vercueil told The Star.
Vercueil said that although Joburg was not the only city in the world to be prone to crime, tourists should be vigilant when visiting.
In March this year, the City of Joburg launched the “Welcome to Jozi - Make a Visitor's Day!” campaign, designed to encourage Joburg residents to make the city's visitors feel warmly welcomed.
The initiative is also seen as an important educational campaign aimed at informing Joburgers of the tourism sector's importance, who constitutes a tourist, and how to be even better hosts.
In an interview with The Star last month, City of Joburg member of the mayoral committee responsible for economic development, Ruby Mathang, said every resident in the city should be encouraged to make our tourists feel at home.
“The Welcome to Jozi campaign aims to inform and educate Joburgers on how to make Joburg a great city, how to promote it and enhance the Joburg visitor's experience to ensure that visitors have great memories of Joburg,” he said.
“Visitors to the city make a significant contribution to Joburg’s economy, which benefits development, job creation and transformation.”
These sentiments were shared by Gauteng Tourism Agency (GTA) spokesman Barba Gaoganediwe, who said tourist-targeted crimes were a concern, especially when the industry was in recovery.
“It undermines all the hard work that role-players and members of the industry have put in to build it up. Tourism is a major contributor to the country's GDP.”
Figures from the City of Joburg show that tourism contributed R119.18 billion to the country’s GDP in 2014, while its direct and indirect contribution represented 9.6 percent of the GDP.
Police spokesman Captain Mavela Masondo explained that the robber pair pulled over the bus under the pretence of being cops.
“The men then got on to the bus and robbed the bus driver of R800, and the tourists of $700 (R10 606) and four cellphones,” he said.
The bogus officers then fled the scene. A manhunt is under way.
Last month, US tourist CJ Small, attending the South African Funeral Director and Morticians’ Association Convention, was shot in the face and robbed by gunmen on the tour bus he was travelling on in Joburg.
Small has since returned to the US and, according to his Facebook page, returned to work earlier this month.
Following these and other similar incidents, Gaoganediwe said the GTA had been working with law enforcement authorities in a bid to clamp down on crime against tourists.
The Star