The Joint Provincial Tourism Safety Forum has seen results since its implementation in December, with warrants of arrest issued. This shows major progress in tackling tourism safety and security issues, industry experts say. But more needs to be done.

The Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA), the Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism (KLCBT) and the South African Police Service (SAPS) Mpumalanga are continuing to work together to implement the Safety Forum.

Spokesperson of Kruger Lowveld Tourism – a division of the KLCBT – Tom Vorster, told Tourism Update that, when the KLT Victim Support Programme, was launched in July 2019, the KLT realised that the police had little training to provide sensitive support to traumatised tourists.

“There was no procedure in place at police stations, hospitals and accommodation establishments to report incidents involving tourists and they were pretty much abandoned and left to deal with the trauma, and the replacement of documents, etc.,” said Vorster.

“By implementing the strategy and sensitising stakeholders to the dilemma foreign tourists may find themselves in, we have found that, in most instances, tourists have the confidence to continue with their journey.”

GM of Premier Hotel the Winkler and Chairperson of White River Community Tourism Organisation (CTO), Simon Sutherland agrees: “It was important that we got the SAPS on board without treading on their toes. Most station commanders have welcomed our assistance, as they had no procedures in place for dealing with this.”

Sutherland says the next step is to bring on board smaller establishments into local tourism organisation, such as the White River CTO and the KLCBT.

“We are not against Airbnb and such establishments as they do bring tourists to the region,” said Sutherland. “If we can get them on board, it will greatly improve our intelligence gathering and provide a better and safer experience for all tourists to the Kruger Lowveld and South Africa as a whole.”

Christopher Harvie of Hazyview Chamber of Business and Tourism, says the province has taken giant strides to tackle tourism crime but the next step is to go national. “Mpumalanga has set up response systems to assist security agencies and to mitigate the effects of crime,” said Harvie. “Instead of every region putting out fires on their own, we should have a national response, which would make it clear that South Africa is serious about tourism and tourist safety.”