Question NW4176 to the Minister of Tourism
21 December 2023 - NW4176
De Freitas, Mr MS to ask the Minister of Tourism
What (a) steps have been taken to deal with issues related to tourism mentioned in the World Bank report titled Safety First: The economic cost of crime in South Africa, to ensure that the challenges mentioned in the report are addressed in order to ensure growth in tourism and (b) are the timelines, deadlines and/or milestones in this regard?
Reply:
a) What steps have been taken to deal with issues related to tourism mentioned in the World Bank report?
It is the mandate of the South African Police Service to deal with all crime.
The safety of all tourists is paramount and we are determined to do all we can to ensure that all tourists have a safe and memorable experience in South Africa.
The Department continues to engage relevant Departments and implements various initiatives aimed at ensuring that tourists are safe, through the National Tourism Safety Strategy and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Department and the South African Police Service (SAPS).
I convened the inaugural, quarterly, National Safety Forum (NSF) meeting on 29 May 2023. Two subsequent meetings were held on 29 August 2023 and 12 December 2023.
The NSF comprises all three spheres of government, SAPS, Airports Company South Africa, National Prosecuting Authority, Provincial Tourism entities, the private sector and various tourism product owners.
The NSF meets quarterly and has set targets to be achieved quarterly.
The Department has also budgeted R174 Million for the deployment and training of 2300 Tourism Monitors who will be deployed at major tourist attractions and sites, including strategic ports of entry, national parks and other attractions across the country to assist with tourism and safety related information and matters.
Another aspect of the National Tourism Safety Strategy is the Victim Support Programme (VSP) running in some provinces to support victims of crime. A Standard Operation Procedure/ “How-to Guide” for the establishment of the VSP for all provinces was developed by the Department to assist provinces in setting up VSPs. Currently Mpumalanga and the western Cape have successful VSPs.
As part of the National Tourism Safety work, on 14 November 2023, I also held a Tourism Safety engagement with members of the Diplomatic Corps. The session was attended by 115 participants including Ambassadors, High Commissioners, Attachés’ as well as the embassy officials who included the locally recruited personnel.
The briefing document was sent, via the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, to the diplomatic Corps and all SA Missions abroad.
The purpose of the session was to amongst others share South Africa’s programmes, interventions and strategies towards tourist safety. The session provided prerequisite information with a view to enable the Diplomatic Community to appreciate South Africa’s efforts towards tourist safety and to further transmit the information to their citizens in countries of origin who are planning to visit South Africa in the near future.
Earlier this year, the private sector launched the Secura Traveller app and 24-hour operations center to assist tourists with a range of services they may need in the event of any incident. The private sector indicates that the app links tourists to more than 200 service providers including private security companies, medical and translation services.
(b) What are the timelines, deadlines and/or milestones in this regard?
The above initiatives are continuously implemented by the department with the Tourism Monitors programme launched in Mpumalanga on 12 December 2023. The deployment to the remaining eight provinces will take place during the festive season.