Cape Town - Several recent bad news stories -the xenophobic violence, gender-based violence and the crime statistics - are expected to affect the number of tourists arriving during the normal busy tourist season in the coming months.
Director at the South African branch of Crime Stoppers International, Yusuf Abramjee, said: “There is no doubt that crime is going to affect tourism. Foreign tourism in particular will be hit hard. South Africa has developed a bad reputation for crime, and it is going to affect us.
“Cape Town has a reputation now of being one of the murder capitals of the world. The international media coverage will also affect tourism to South Africa. This negative reputation is not good for our country, nor the city.”
Abramjee said that they had received a number of calls recently from people abroad asking about safety in South Africa and wanting to cancel their travel plans.
He said local tourism might not be hit as hard.
Stats SA shows that the number of foreign arrivals in May this
year increased by almost 2% compared with May last year, and according to
the SAPS crime statistics, there has been a 2.6% increase of contact crimes in the country this year in comparison with last year.
Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management, James Vos, said that the high level of crime was almost isolated to neighbourhoods outside the core tourism areas visited by travellers “if one looks deeper into the crime statistics for the Western Cape”.
“However, like many major modern cosmopolitan centres in the
world, the Western Cape and its citizens are grappling with the impact of crime,” he said.
Vos said: “An increase in crime does not necessarily reflect that there has been an increase in tourist-related crimes.
“Tourists to Cape Town are very much aware of the crime situation in our city and are still visiting it. It’s an extremely challenging situation which is why our safety and security initiatives in terms of tourism are an ongoing focus for us.”
Abramjee said that foreign tourism had already been affected, and that the recent violence that occurred
in Gauteng had also affected Cape Town.
“I think we will see some effect, especially with foreign tourists during the upcoming holiday season. We know much of the crime is on the Cape Flats and in certain other areas, but it affects the reputation of the entire city,” said Abramjee.
“We all need to promote tourism. We need to ensure we make our cities safer. A drop in tourism will affect our economy and we all in turn will see the effects,” he said.
Vos said that during the Western Cape’s water crisis, there was a massive drop in tourism figures, which showed that it didn’t take much to drive tourists away.
However, Cape Town was still one of the world’s most desirable destinations, and there was reason to believe that we were not facing this juncture yet, he said.
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