The Department of Tourism (DoT) recently gazetted its White Paper on the Development and Promotion of Tourism in South Africa for 2024. It proposes significant interventions to boost tourism, including a specialised police unit dedicated to incidents involving tourists.
South Africa’s tourism industry is critical to the country’s economy. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), tourism’s direct and indirect contribution to the country’s GDP was 8.2% in 2023.
Regarding job creation, WTTC statistics indicate that South Africa’s tourism sector employed 1.46 million people in 2023, with the sector’s contribution expected to grow to 1.7 million jobs in 2024.
Photo Source: CGTN Africa.
“Despite its impressive contribution to the South African economy, the tourism sector lags relative to its potential,” said Minister Patricia de Lille after the Tourism Policy Review.
In response, the DoT aimed to review the 1996 Tourism White Paper.
Stakeholder consultations were held across all nine provinces, involving local and national governments. A public comment period, which began on September 1, 2023, received around 3,500 submissions, all of which were considered in refining the new tourism white paper.
According to the DoT, the new Tourism White Paper focuses on “promoting safety and security, facilitating ease of access, encouraging domestic tourism, crisis management, promoting transformation, enabling technological developments, and recommitting to the responsible tourism agenda.”
The provision for safety and security management in the White Paper has garnered significant debate.
The rise in robberies, kidnappings and murders of foreign visitors in recent years has cast a sombre shadow over South Africa’s tourism sector.
“South Africa’s image has been negatively impacted by crime involving tourists and the high crime levels reported in the destination broadly,” the White Paper stated.
“Crime-related concerns negatively affect international tourists’ desire to visit South Africa and act as a deterrent to self-drive domestic tourists.
“Current responses do not provide for the prompt resolution of crimes against tourists and make insufficient use of technology solutions for increased effectiveness, particularly in high tourist areas and for supporting visitors travelling in groups,” it added.
The White Paper emphasises collaboration among organisations, including law enforcement, to enhance tourist safety by reducing crime and providing visitor information.
The sector has partnered with the South African Police Service to develop a tourism safety strategy and a monitoring programme. This programme involves over 2,000 trained youth who patrol and report incidents at crucial tourist sites, with a budget of just under R174 million.
The Department of Tourism (DoT) believes more action is needed and, after a long stakeholder engagement process, proposes the following:
- Intelligence-Based Tourist Safety Programme: Create a national, research-driven safety programme with stakeholder collaboration and community awareness of tourism’s value.
- Active Alignment: Address crimes affecting tourists in high-traffic areas through joint efforts by stakeholders, law enforcement, the justice system, private security, and technology.
- Dedicated Tourism Safety Support: Collaborate with law enforcement to establish a specialised police unit focused on preventing and swiftly resolving incidents involving tourists.
- Hygiene Considerations: Integrate hygiene into the tourism safety and security programme in collaboration with relevant authorities.
Focusing specifically on the specialised police unit for tourists, the DoT stated that this initiative promises to bolster the safety of both international and domestic tourists while simultaneously addressing the pressing issue of unemployment.
However, some critics have argued that these attempts at dedicated tourism police units are futile if inefficiencies in law enforcement are not addressed, suggesting that “tourists should not be given precedence” when it comes to safety.
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“Tourists in South Africa will never be safe, no matter how many of these ‘tourist cops’ we put on the streets until South Africans are safe. How are ordinary South Africans supposed to feel about yet another specialised unit for special people—tourists?” wrote Justice Malala in the Financial Mail.
“It is cynical even to suggest this [and] shows you what this government is about: it is an elite project. Instead of saying I will protect and nurture the young men and women in Khayelitsha, our government thinks it is better to protect tourists.
“Fix law enforcement for everybody,” added Malala.
That’s Not What We Said
However, de Lille strongly refuted this characterisation.
In an interview with Moneyweb@Midday with Jeremy Maggs, de Lille said, “In no way does the Tourism White Paper say that the safety of tourists needs to be prioritised over the safety of all residents.”
“I’m on the record, and I’ve said many times that safety and security are mandates of the police to ensure that all South Africans are safe, including our visitors.”
De Lille acknowledged the perception that South Africa could be safer for potential tourists. To address this, the department invested R174 million last year and employed 2,300 tourism monitors, collaborating with the private sector.
She said they developed a plan shared with all embassies, consulates in South Africa, and missions abroad, which aims to reassure potential tourists, “Yes, come; this is the safety plan that has been put in place because we want people, including South Africans, to feel safe in our own country.”
The Tourism Minister said further investigations and consultations are needed, including engagement with the Minister of Police.
“The proposal that came from one of the people who participated during the public consultation was to investigate the establishment of a specialised police unit, and that’s exactly what I will be doing,” said de Lille.