At the recent SATSA conference held on August 21-22 in Cape Town, Alan Winde, Western Cape MEC for tourism, announced a Tourism Safety Initiative (tsi) between Cape Town Routes unlimited and SATSA.
The aim of the partnership is to enhance the Western Cape’s Tourism Safety and Support Programme and to further the objectives of SATSA’s tsi in the Western Cape.
Benefits of the partnership will include:
• The Co-operation on communications and co-branding on all materials distributed in the Province.
• Access to national networks, which include the private sector, in terms of tourism
• Utilising the Tourism the Tourism Safety Initiative’s established 24/7 call centre number and website and vice versa with the CTRU’s website.
• Access to the statistics on the Tourism Safety Initiative’s database to study trends and inform the Western Cape’ Tourism Safety and Support Programme’s modus operandi
• Exploration of the criminal justice system’s component.
“I am very pleased about this agreement, and hope that this partnership will significantly increase safety in our Province, and lead to much higher levels of tourist arrivals,” said Winde
Winde also spoke about cooperative engagement, with a view to improving the Western Cape’s offerings, a goal supported by all, and outlined the five-year plan that he wants to put in place for tourism.
“Cape Town is already a vibrant, cosmopolitan and energetic city.” he said, “and by the end of my current term, it should rank among the best places to visit in the world – on any ‘must visit before you die’ list. In order to ensure that we achieve that goal, it is vital that we address two critical issues that are holding us back: poverty and crime.
In 2004, the Provincial Government of the Western Cape (PGWC) launched its Tourism Safety and Support Programme which has operated successfully over the past five years. It offers proactive awareness seminars in all the regions; liaise with key role-players and stakeholders such as SAPS, EMS, Embassies, SATSA, FEDHASA, GASA and RTOs and LTOs; and a reactive component.
The Tourism Safety and Support Programme has responded to 35 incidents occurring throughout the Western Cape since 1 April 2009 to date. The majority of these incidents were robberies of personal effects, such as passports.