The reasons for decline in tourism arrivals in SA

[Lisbeth]

I am not so sure about "the long run". It might be a one time incident, if everybody does their duty. All the other single , but happening very often, crimes, will go on for a long, long, long time.

[Richprins]

A lot depends on the police and prosecution response to this latest National Shame!

[Lisbeth]

The prosecution seems to be alright, the police is a completely different question

[Mel]

The long run impact is referring to the money that the latest riots will cost the country, Lis.

[Lisbeth]

Sorry, I had not understood that For sure! Many billions of Rands

[Mel]

Exactly... in a country that was struggling before already.

[Lisbeth]

The hand of extreme climate change tightens its grip on South African tourism

By Shaun Smillie• 7 September 2021


A cyclist battles against gale-force winds at the start of the world's largest timed cycle race, the Cape Town Cycle Tour, in Cape Town, South Africa on 12 March 2017. (Photo: EPA / NIC BOTHMA)

High winds, heatwaves and swings between droughts and flooding. These are just some of the extreme weather events that will become more common – and the SA tourism industry is poorly prepared for them.

About 35,000 competitors got a taste of the future scientists have long warned about when the Cape Town Cycle Tour was stopped after just a few hours in 2017 because of a 100km/h wind.

Cellphone video footage of the race showed cyclists toppling over, even a truck blown on to its side.

It was the first time in 40 years that the Cape Town Cycle Tour, which attracts riders from around the world, had to be cancelled. Stopped by an extreme weather event.


Strong winds prevent cyclists from riding at the Cape Town Cycle Tour in Cape Town in 2017. (Screenshot: YouTube)

And it is something we are going to have to get used to as the hand of climate change tightens its grip.

The Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was published last month, updating models and projections regarding the impact of the climate crisis.

The report projected higher mean wind speeds along the west coast of South Africa with increases in fire conditions.

For a country that markets its sunny skies and temperate weather to hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, climate change is set to be a killer to South Africa’s multibillion-rand tourist industry.

It is a global concern, but a major problem in South Africa is that there is a lack of data on its effect on tourism.

Jennifer Fitchett, an associate professor in Physical Geography at Wits University, is trying to change that.

Many in the tourism industry, she says, see the climate crisis as a far-off threat.

“When we interview people, particularly along the coastline, the accommodation establishments just say, ‘Oh, well, that’ll happen after we’ve retired’ or that they will have died by 2100,” explains Fitchett.

“The problem is that long before the actual model tells you are under water, you are going to have problems with flooding, water damage to property and all the rest.”

Fitchett was recently involved in a study that assessed what tourists thought of South Africa’s weather.

She and her colleagues sifted through nearly 6,000 online tourist reviews on the TripAdvisor website, looking for mentions about South Africa’s weather.

The researchers found that the weather was not generally on the minds of most overseas visitors, with only 9% of the Trip-Advisor reviews mentioning it. European visitors were most likely to comment on hot weather.

Fitchett and her associates also examined tourist climate suitability in 10 cities in South Africa. They used the tourism climate index (TCI) to score these cities.

The TCI results confirmed “current excellent suitability of the climate for tourism” in South Africa. But they did find worrying reductions in the TCI scores for Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Kimberly.

The problem is that, in the near future, this climate suitability is likely to change radically. The latest IPCC report shows that human-induced warming is happening more rapidly in Africa than in the rest of the world.

Besides high winds, there will be heat waves and swings between droughts and flooding.

The Cape Town “day zero” drought in 2018 caused a 10% decline in tourism occupancy.

By the turn of the century, it’s predicted that sea levels could rise by around half to one metre, or by as much as two to five metres. The report stressed that ice-sheet melt was still poorly understood and was difficult to model.

“We’re already experiencing climate change, including more frequent and more extreme weather events,” IPCC author Prof Ed Hawkins of the University of Reading warned. “The consequences will continue to get worse for every bit of warming, and for many of these consequences, there’s no going back.”

Such increases in sea levels would destroy the tourist towns scattered along the South African coastline. “It’s so hard to get people to wrap their heads around that all of this is caused by climate change. Many are working on an ad hoc, day-to-day basis,” says Dr Julia Giddy, a lecturer in geography at the University of Mpumalanga who has been studying the effects that extreme weather events have on adventure tourism.

The current concern, she says, is the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Another problem is that the tourism industry is so disjointed. It’s not like there’s a bunch of people trying to work together. Everybody’s working on their own,” said Giddy.

In a future of extreme weather brought on by climate change, what could also wipe out local tourism is the speed at which information travels.

This was demonstrated in late 2019 when reports emerged that Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe had dried up “because of climate change”.

Reputable news organisations carried the story. But it was false news.

“There was this specific shot of the cliff face where there is no water at that time of year and it went viral. And there was a reduction in bookings and huge repercussions for the tourism sector,” says Fitchett.

There are ways of combating the effects of climate change, Fitchett points out.

Some measures to save water are as simple as installing low-flow taps and covers for swimming pools. Heat stress can be dealt with by using air conditioning and fans.

More long-term measures include increasing vegetation density in urban settings and introducing heat-sensitive building designs.

To address rising sea levels, dolloses – reinforced concrete blocks – can be placed along shorelines.

The problem, however, is a lack of data.

Soon Giddy might be part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers that will be examining the possible effect of climate change on the Kruger National Park and the surrounding Canyons Biosphere Region.

The location of game sightings has changed in the national park, she says. It could be linked to climate change and could have an impact on tourism. But no one knows for sure.

Giddy also studied and wrote an academic paper on the cancelled Cape Town Cycle Tour in 2017.

What she found was a hint of what extreme weather will do to such events in the future: in the year after the wind, the Cape Town Cycle Tour didn’t get sold out – for the first time ever. DM168

[Richprins]

Hijack of elderly French tourists in Graskop condemned


The couple was allegedly hijacked by three men who posed as police officers.
3 hours ago
Andrea van Wyk


A hijacking of an elderly French couple in Graskop on Monday October 18 has been condemned by the provincial government.

According to a statement issued by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, the couple were hijacked by three bogus police officers.

“According to the police, the incident happened at about 17:00, when the international tourists, who were exploring attractions around Graskop, were stopped by three males in full police uniform, but driving a private vehicle,” read the statement.



The woman reportedly sustained a minor injury on her finger when she was dragged out of the rented vehicle by the three perpetrators, who eventually left with the vehicle and other valuables. The vehicle was described as a Suzuki Swift.

Vusi Mkhatshwa, the MEC for the provincial Department of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, condemned the incident in the strongest possible terms.

“Such a barbaric act paints us in a negative way and has the potential to chase tourists away. Our police are working hard to apprehend these impersonators and we can confirm that the law will take its course once they are behind bars,” said Mkhatshwa.

He said it is a serious criminal offence for anyone to impersonate a police officer or any other law enforcer, and that such behaviour will surely be punished.



“We are at a critical time in our economic space, where we need tourists more than ever before. We cannot allow thugs to harass and attack tourists in our province.”

Mkhatshwa called upon community members who might have witnessed the incident to report any information to the police that may lead to the arrest of the hijackers.

Anyone with information regarding the incident is urged to contact Sgt Xoli Mgiba in Graskop on 082 782 3033.

https://lowvelder.co.za/753232/hijack-o ... 6QCedTZ0xk

[Lisbeth]

has been condemned by the provincial government.

Did they expect him to applaud

There have been lots of attacks on foreigners around there

[harrys]

The police and their leader are useless(most of them) in this country, lots of them has criminal records and most of them are cowards and just plain lazy