Crime Crippling Tourism Industry

MEDIA STATEMENT ISSUED BY:
MS CONNIE ZIKALALA MP
IFP SPOKESPERSON FOR TOURISM

February 13, 2007

Effectively strengthening the fight against crime, as promised by President Mbeki in his State of the Nation address, is now more important than ever as we are rapidly losing out on creating new job opportunities within the tourism industry, said Ms Connie Zikalala MP, the Inkatha Freedom Party's Spokesperson on Tourism.

A new report suggests crime was the main reason for the loss of 125 000 new job opportunities within the tourism industry in 2006. This coupled with the fact that consulates are warning their citizens against the dangers of traveling to South Africa are proving detrimental. On their individual websites France, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia warn against SA's alarmingly high rate of hijackings, murders, rapes and theft.

"It has become very clear that it is fast becoming enormously difficult for the tourism industry to effectively promote South Africa abroad, especially with the bad headlines we continue to make internationally with our high crime and murder rate. This in turn is having an extremely negative effect on job creation," said Ms Zikalala.

"The IFP believes that crime is causing severe harm to our image abroad and if Government doesn't urgently come good on the promises they have made to combat and reduce crime effectively, we will be faced with a darker picture in future.

"The looming 2010 Soccer World Cup will attract close to a half a million visitors, which in turn will create thousands of job opportunities, but if tourists feel that South Africa is not safe enough to travel to, the dream of a job creation and the economic boost that we envisage, will be sadly lost," concluded Ms Zikalala.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Ms Connie Zikalala MP: 083 282 8384
Liezl van der Merwe: 083 611 7470