Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
105
5.1.4. Critical Success Factors in Resilience of South African Tourism
Despite the negative publicity surrounding the economy and certain actions by the South African
government, the outlook for the tourism sector remains reasonably optimistic. A 2015 business
review supported the country’s position as the leading destination in sub-Saharan Africa
(Oxford Business Group, 2015). The principal factors in its resilience appear to be:
 A competitive place in the market due to its natural and cultural attractions.
 Good tourism infrastructure and experienced destination managers, partly as a legacy
of the 2010 World Cup.
 Attractive and efficient convention centres in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban,
enabling the MICE sector to host over 100 major conferences and other events per year.
 Effective marketing strategy which has helped build the country as a brand.
 Active and diverse business sector, from large hotel companies and safari operators to
micro-entrepreneurs.
 Strong government involvement in building capacity to create products and engage in
tourism, especially in peripheral regions (Malan, pers. comm., 9 May 2017).
 The favourable exchange rate with the Rand for people from most source markets.
In line with industry-wide trends, social media has become an important promotional tool and
SAT has official channels on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and GooglePlus, amongst
others. The #MeetSouthAfrica and #WowSouthAfrica hashtags are used in traditional and
digital advertising campaigns. The aim is to engage prospective visitors, encourage the social
sharing of travel experiences in South Africa, and help enhance the country’s brand identity.
These channels are certainly effective to some extent. For instance, there are fewer actual
concerns about personal security than the perception of South Africa would suggest, as
illustrated by discussions in the 3 months to May 2017 on The Lonely Planet’s social media
forum for independent travellers ‘Thorntree’. The majority of topics (32 out of 36) were about
suitable itineraries, travelling by bus or finding a travel companion, while only 4 intending
travelers expressed anxiety about personal security. They asked about (a) the advisability of
driving at night (the advice was not to do so partly because of the danger of running into wildlife
and partly because hijackings are more common at night); (b) walking alone in cities and
national parks as a solo female (it was generally said to be safer to join a group and avoidwalking
at night in the larger cities, but there were no real concerns in the daytime); (c) using public
transport (generally said to be safe but Uber was advised in the cities); (d) walking around
carrying cameras, etc. (the advice is to put expensive-looking goods in a plain bag, but that
reports of ‘rampant theft’ were exaggerated and that South Africa’s cities are no more dangerous
for tourists than cities anywhere else in the world).
5.1.5. Weaknesses and Threats to South African Tourism
The World Economic Forum’s 2017 assessment of the competitiveness of South Africa’s tourism
industry in relation to other countries concluded that its overall world ranking had slipped from