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We have looked at security as a major concern to travel and tourism in South Africa before, but I felt it was worth a revisit particularly now that The United States has officially added South Africa to its travel alert list. According to a recent update from the U.S. Department of State, this is a result of rising global security threats and South Africa is the latest country to be included in the ‘Level 2’ travel alert list that already names the other African countries of Namibia and Botswana. This is nothing like a Level 4 warning though, which is a ‘do not travel to’ warning for places like Sudan and the DRC.
Should we heed this?
I do believe, however, that we should never ignore any foreign policy that paints us in a bad light and can affect inbound travel, as it would be reckless to do so, but in a time when Trump’s government are making rash decisions and just as quickly reversing them, it would also be jumping the gun to assume that this will have any long-term impact. Fortunately, most international travel bookings from the US are made far in advance and although I have seen a little slowing of new bookings there are very few cancellations of the existing ones. This, I believe, is largely because people who tend to book well in advance are people familiar with the country and who know that security warnings can often be taken with a pinch of salt Having said that, however, I do think it is prudent to take a look at what we, as a country and a tourism industry are doing about our security for travellers and in what ways we may have advanced – or not.
Mitigating security risks
From where I stand it seems to me that much has been done to mitigate security risks in this country and particularly to ensure that travellers have little chance of facing any more risk than the average citizen – or possibly even less. I do believe that the Tourism Department has made a lot of effort and I know there are programs like ‘Secure’ which offer tourists various forms of security options. As I mentioned in an article some time ago, visitors can be linked up to security companies via panic buttons from the moment they arrive here and tracked throughout their stay. It is very much in the hands of the tourists themselves to take the initiative to be protected by utilising security initiatives. What is important, however, is that all travel agencies and tour operators should ensure that their travellers are aware of any risks that they face, and never compromise this for the sake of simply securing a deal.
Of particular interest and a particularly heartening development for me is the rapid transformation of traveller transport via taxis or Ubers to the utilisation of transfers. Transfers tend to be more organised, far safer operations and I know that the corporate world has taken to this in a big way. A great BidTravel initiative, in fact, the ‘Red Stamp Club’ which supports small businesses in tourism, has seen a rapid growth of new transfers businesses. Watch this space for more on that!
Awareness saves lives!
Finally let me say, that given our crime rate and the reality that people in this country do face some security risks, travel warnings are inevitable and not necessarily even a bad thing, as awareness can save lives. I do believe, however, that we have made great inroads in dealing with these issues and it is up to all of us, not only to welcome visitors, but to make them aware of where it is not safe to be and of the precautions they can take to avoid attracting criminals. Once again, the solution lies, not only with the travel and tourism industry, but with every citizen of this amazing country of ours to continue to contribute to South Africa’s already impressive growth as one of the world’s premier travel destinations – in spite of whatever we are facing!
Lidia de Olim
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER