The Robben Island Executive Team reached out to tour operators during a stakeholder meeting held in Cape Town on Wednesday. The team addressed the challenges the island is currently facing and revealed the plans for the island for the coming few years.

Robben Island Museum’s Chief Heritage Officer Pascall Taruvinga told stakeholders from the tourism industry: “We have not found each other in the industry yet; we are operating in silos. We don’t have regular meetings, we don’t share our plans, we don’t share our vision. That is why today we’re putting the cards on the table today. We need to find each other as partners in the sector. “

Taruvinga revealed ambitious plans for the island with an improved and flexible ferry service that will allow travellers to adapt and diversify their experience on the island. He explained the company wants to move away from the standard four-hour visit with a prison tour followed by a bus ride around the island. Travellers will be able to explore various sides of the island and embark on walking tours, biking tours, environmental tours, mining and geology tours or even World War II tours of the island.

Parts of the island will also be opened for the private sector to allow for private functions or conferences on the island, said Taruvinga. He added that the island would also increasingly focus on the potential of events on the island.

Robben Island Museum CEO Sibongiseni Mkhize said that he will ensure that there is proper training for all the tour guides so that Robben Island can improve the service and experience standards. He explained that the world is changing and therefore the way tours are offered should also change. “We need consistency and reliability in our service offering. We will show all our stakeholders that we are a world-class institution,” he said.

Tour operators present at the stakeholder meeting were positive about the way forward for Robben Island.  Angela Aschmann, Digital Editor at Go2Africa, told Tourism Update: “We are certainly very hopeful that the visitor experience will be upgraded in the very near future – it is a national asset with much potential and one that could offer visitors with varied interests, whether maritime history, political history, geology, spirituality, and even fauna and flora, a rich and meaningful day out.”

Operations to Robben Island are also expected to improve following the successful tender for privately owned ferries to service the tourism attraction.

RIM released a tender which called for three boats, one 130 -to 150-seater and two smaller 60 -to 75-seater passenger ferries to operate on behalf of Robben Island Museum’s (RIM) own ferries, Diaz and Susan Kruger, which are out of the water for repair.

Thembekile is being used on an adhoc basis in the interim. Joining Thembekile is Naughty Cat, usually operated in Hout Bay, Sea princess, operated by Ferry Charters (Pty) Ltd for RIM, and owned by Waterfront Charters, and Thandi, a smaller ferry owned by Esa Yacoob.  Furthermore, the island will still make use of Tigger 2, a smaller cat if needed during tourist season.   

“Due to the fact that both our current ferries are going through extensive maintenance, Robben Island Museum will for the foreseeable future make use of private vessels which the museum charters on an ad-hoc basis, if and when they are required,” Quinton Mtyala, PR and Communications Manager at RIM confirmed last week.

“Tour operators need to know that their clients will no longer get lost,  fear for their lives or take hours to and from the island,” said a tour operator that tipped Tourism Update off about the new development. “All the boats are privately owned and in excellent condition and ferry woes [are] a thing of the past.”

In terms of moving forward, Mtyala told Tourism Update that operating requirements in the future will determine whether RIM goes ahead with the current arrangement where existing ferry services are augmented with private charters on an ad-hoc bases.

What do you think of Robben Island’s plans? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Dorine Reinstein and Caro Malherbe

This article has been updated after Robben Island Museum clarified that it has not yet issued a tender for a boat as initially reported.