THE urgent need for a safety intervention in and around Nelson Mandela Bay’s tourism hot spots has become a top priority.
One Voice, a tourism collective representing member-driven tourism bodies in the Metro, recently protested on the beachfront and handed a memorandum to a representative of the Speaker’s office of the Nelson Mandela Municipality.
The protest saw 200 members of the tourism industry gather to demand that the negative spiral affecting the Metro’s second-largest employer be elevated to a top priority and addressed within weeks.
According to the Bay’s “Tourism Coach”, Shaun van Eck, safety concerns are the largest obstacle hindering efforts to reach the tourism potential in the Metro and are the main cause of the extremely poor international visitor recovery since COVID-19.
“The Metro’s recovery percentage is half of the national average, leading to the loss of thousands of jobs and the closure of many businesses. Extraordinary measures are required to restore the confidence of tourists, visitors, tour operators, event organisers, and all those involved in bringing tourism to the Metro. An urgent and coordinated response is needed to maximise the focus of people, resources, and partnerships to address the current situation,” he said.
The One Voice group of tourism member-based organisations in Nelson Mandela Bay petitioned the Speaker’s Office to acknowledge and lead an intervention. The group strongly believes that a tourism crisis exists and will worsen unless an urgent action plan is created, declaring tourism safety as the top priority for the municipality and its law enforcement agencies.
They emphasised that there are both community and economic aspects to safety and acknowledged the dire social need for the deployment of safety resources to community areas of the Metro. However, they believe that the economic impact caused by the tourism crisis raises this issue to the top priority for the Metro.
“Tourism is the second-largest employer in Nelson Mandela Bay, and these jobs significantly affect the well-being of communities. One tourism job is created for every 18 international visitors, and tourism is the most significant pro-poor sector, with the majority of those employed in tourism coming from community areas. Every rand spent by tourists generates another R2 of spending in non-tourism businesses throughout the Metro. Nelson Mandela Bay’s recovery percentage from 2019 is little more than half of the national average for international visitors, costing the Metro thousands of jobs and resulting in further job losses due to the downward spiral of visitor numbers,” Van Eck revealed.
The main contributor to the sluggish recovery and continued job losses, he added, is the safety and security incidents in tourism areas.
Every mugging, hijacking, and scam of tourists results in damaging social media posts shared thousands of times, affecting the perceptions of potential future visitors. In the minds of these prospects, perception equals reality, and the tourism tour operators share the same view. The positive or negative reputation of a destination gathers momentum, causing more job and business losses. Nelson Mandela Bay is currently in this negative spiral.
Organisations such as the Beachfront Safety Forum, Neighbourhood Watches, Discover Mandela Bay, the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, tourism establishments, and others have made a significant difference with initiatives like monitored cameras, solar lighting, and MOUs between national, provincial, regional, and local authorities.
“The Metro is rolling out cameras, and SAPS is doing its best while awaiting a dedicated SAPS Tourism Unit that is nationally funded. The 2022 Summer Season Safety Initiative demonstrated what could be achieved when tourism is prioritised, with not a single tourist incident reported during those six weeks. This level of safety could be maintained throughout the year.”
“Despite these initiatives, incidents continue to occur, such as the stabbing of five delegates from four recent conferences. Social media spreads news of these disturbing incidents, turning delegates and their contacts into detractors rather than promoters. This situation is exacerbated by the likelihood that conference and event organisers will not bring events to the Metro again.
“The tourism industry’s appeal is to dramatically escalate the urgency and prioritisation of tourism safety in the Metro’s hotspots. The City Manager needs to drive a strategy where extraordinary and unconditional actions are implemented by the end of October and continue for 12 months each year.
“The tourism business has demonstrated its willingness to work with government partners and be part of both the planning and implementation.”
The One Voice message from this demonstration was that communities need to keep their jobs, and others need employment. The downward spiral of tourism in the Metro involves the potential loss of thousands of jobs. “A concerted intervention from the City Manager and various Municipal departments is essential to solve this problem.”
