Editorial opinion

the minister missing the point? IT is all very heartening to see Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Mohammed Valli Moosa, getting much needed publicity for SA tourism by making high-profile visits to Johannesburg International Airport, handing out - as part of the 'Welcome' campaign - local goodies to arriving international tourists together with the information that for every eight of them that grace our shores, one job is created. However, they are on holiday - do they really care about this fact, however laudable? The problem appears to be that the very people who do desperately need to know this apparently remain in the dark. If the man in the street isn't getting the message, what's the point to such seemingly hollow gestures to arriving guests? For given the unacceptable number of attacks on tourists in recent months, the message is very obviously not getting through. The question needs to be posed: 'Aren't showy trips to the airport - however well-meant - a waste of the Minister's valuable time at this point in the scheme of things? Isn't he taking token messages to the wrong people? Surely he would be more profitably engaged spending a little more time taking the message to where it would have the most impact - to domestic grass-roots level - the very place at which the campaign was initially aimed and the very place at which peer pressure might initiate additional, meaningful impact? International tourists don't need to be told that they are being made welcome if the campaign is working - that will become obvious as they make their way safely around the country, being made to feel genuinely welcome by everyone they come into contact with. They just need to know that when they hit the highways of this beautiful country, they are going to survive unharmed to return to their home countries and spread the message to their friends and family that South Africa is a "must-see" destination, where the people are as warm and sunny as the weather. This will carry far more weight, and have far more value, than the millions of rands currently being thrown away in advertising bursts in the country's key markets, only to have the spend almost instantly negated by regular widespread coverage of nightmare scenarios experienced by compatriots. It seems that the minister does have plans somewhere in the pipeline to take the 'Welcome' message to local communities, according to a spokesperson at his Pretoria office, but details of this appear somewhat vague at the present time. It is accepted that this country is not alone in experiencing crime against tourists, but South Africa has - like it or not - become associated with crime and violence. It is also accepted that the majority of tourists return home having had a wonderful time. But it is also a fact that, despite the best will in the world, South African tourism has no hope of ever reaching its full potential unless and until the country first puts its own house in order - and is seen to be doing so. (Elizabeth Sheridan)