Issued by: The Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
MEDIA STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE ARTICLE "THIRD FORCE INTENT ON SABOTAGING TOURISM", THAT APPEARED IN THE STAR ON 18 MARCH 1997
The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Dr Z. Pallo Jordan, is aware of specific individuals who are deliberately spreading very negative publicity about South Africa. This includes a security company operating in Cape Town, who portray South Africa using irresponsible terms such as the "murder capital of the world" on their web site on the Internet. They warn foreigners about bringing their children to South Africa and urge visitor to hire bodyguards for their visits.
We have also received a complaint through the North American SATOUR office from an American tourist, about a certain tour guide from Welcome Tours and Safaris. According to the tourist, the tour guide, Ms V. Freitag lectured the tourists on the deterioration of South Africa for a full hour over lunch, criticised government Ministers and made racist comments about Black people in the country.
Another visitor to South Africa wrote to the Minister about an announcement he heard during an SAA flight: "We are about to land and this ends the safest part of your journey. In a moment we will arrive in the land of muggers, thieves, rapists and hijackers. We will be arriving in Johannesburg or Hauteng or whatever they call it these days".
According to Minister Jordan, research statistics show that the majority of travellers have not taken these misleading reports seriously and tourism figures in South Africa have been on the steady increase. Since the initial boom in tourism, four years ago, there has been an average annual growth of approximately 20%.
This growth translates into more than 100 000 additional overseas tourists to South Africa in 1996, bringing the total number of overseas visitors up to October 1996, to about 1,25 million. Together with visitors from the rest of Africa, a total of 4,7 million people visited South Africa between January and September 1996.
However, according to Minister Jordan, the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is not at all complacent about the level of crime in the country. As a token of the Ministry's commitment to safe-guarding tourists, a whole range of steps were implemented last year and will be intensified and expanded during this year. Examples of steps taken included the wide distribution of a Tourism Safety Tips brochure and the Tourist Ambassador Project to assist tourists at airports.
Minister Jordan said that there is a need for crime against tourists in South Africa to be put into perspective. There are other countries with a very successful tourism industry, despite having a far worse crime record than South Africa. Our country is certainly not exceptional in this respect.
ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM, 20/03/97
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