The province of KwaZulu-Natal is considering introducing tourism police to make sure that each visitor to KwaZulu-Natal has a safe and crime-free visit to the people of heaven, which is what the word “Zulu” means, newly appointed KwaZulu-Natal provincial minister for arts, culture and tourism Narend Singh told delegates at the 2004 Tourism Indaba in Durban.
The indaba is now in its 22nd year and is the largest travel show on the African continent and one of the top three such shows in the world.
Research by German-based Tourism Intelligence International showed that peace and political stability are the sine qua non for any successful tourist destination, although having that does not guarantee success.
South Africa is perceived to be crime-ridden, with the National Geographic magazine, for instance, running a story, “Johannesburg: City of hope, city of fear”. The very first sentence reads in part that “South Africa’s boomtown also remains a violent divided city”.
Violence and mayhem do not necessarily spell the end of tourism, although in the words of South African Tourism CEO Cheryl Carolus, “nothing kills tourism faster than a dead tourist”.
Ireland, for instance, which was involved in a bloody civil war for more than a quarter of a century with many acts of violence shown on television worldwide, still manages to project an image of friendly welcoming people.
In the same way, South Africa has managed to increase its foreign visitor numbers tenfold to 6,5-million over the past 10 years, despite having rape and murder rates more than 10 times higher than many European or Asian countries.
This perception of a crime-ridden country has been actively countered by various initiatives at national, provincial and local level.
Some of the initiatives include metropolitan police to supplement the South African Police Service, tourism buddies at local level and equipping many central business districts with closed-circuit cameras to discourage petty crime such as pickpocketing and purse-snatching.
Provincial tourism police would be merely the latest initiative to combat crime where tourists are the victims or potential victims. — I-Net Bridge