Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
103
publicity. Even in mid-2017 several vacationing families per week were being turned
away from South African airports on arrival (Saunders, pers. comm, 11 May 2017).
 Industry commentators interviewed for this study remarked on the weak enabling
environment for business provided by the government.
 Domestic tourism is also negatively impacted by the weak economy. According to the
2015-20 National Tourism Strategy, household debt-to-income ratio stood at 78.5% in
2014, characterised by payment defaults and consumers under debt review. Domestic
consumers are further experiencing erosion of their relative wealth because of the
weakening currency (the Rand), which results in increased food and fuel prices and
higher electricity tariffs, with further pressure from high interest rates. South Africa’s
unemployment rate of 26.5% contributes to the unaffordability of holidays. The growth
in middle-class wealth and aspirations which is a pre-requisite for a robust domestic
market is therefore absent. Partly as a consequence of the weak economy and partly
because of increasing racial tensions, many younger South Africans from white ethnic
groups are seeking new lives overseas by emigrating.
 According to several informants, the biggest issue affecting tourism to South Africa is
‘crime’. Reports of shootings, hijackings, muggings, rape and other forms of violence
create negative publicity, even though it appears that much of the violence is directed
against migrant workers and residents rather than tourists. The National Tourism
Sector Strategy (2011-20) admits that “the country has a real problem with crime and
safety” (Dept. of Tourism, 2017) but stresses that incidents involving tourists are rare.
Despite this, there is clear concern by visitors and potential visitors about personal
security and safety, reinforced prior to arrival by advisory warnings from source market
foreign offices, and when in-country by advice from accommodation and other tourism
business owners not to walk around alone, especially after dusk.
 A further perceptual issue is that “Africa is seen as one country” (Nwokedi, pers. comm.,
10 May 2017) so that when a crisis affects one Sub-Saharan African country, visitor
arrivals to all of them contract. Thus, the terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping
centre in Kenya in 2013 and the Ebola disease outbreak in West Africa in 2014 put
downwards pressure on visitor arrivals – even though “Freetown [where the Ebola
outbreak was centred] is closer to Paris than it is to Johannesburg” (Nwokedi, pers.
comm., 10 May 2017).
Many of these issues date back several years. In 2000 it was already apparent that the hoped-
for growth in tourism to South Africa after the end of the apartheid regime was failing to
materialise, with publicity given to violent crime and bombings effectively keeping tourists
away: “the challenge for the industry is to allay tourists' fears that they will be shot for their
cameras” (The Economist, 2000). The situation improved to some extent after an international
spotlight was thrown on the country during the 2010 World Cup, but according to industry
commentators the two biggest challenges remain the perception of crime levels amongst
overseas markets and the failure of government departments to consult with the industry.