August 21, 2006
By Neil Fraser
I've written before that, from the outside, the tourism sector in the country appears to be quite dysfunctional. It is always easy to point fingers at the established institutions, but at the end of the day we also need to look at ourselves.
Mike Alfred, who has featured in Citichat previously, has the following observations in regard to tourism and Joeys.
"Johannesburg, despite mighty efforts, is not yet a great tourist city. It's a world city but from the tourist industry's viewpoint, it's not London or Rio or New York or, dare one say it, Cape Town. It's paradoxical, because it pulls many, many visitors who come to shop, to receive medical treatment, to conclude business deals, to study, to work for international companies, to visit the family; but our city hardly attracts the general tourist. For them Johannesburg is but a staging point for South Africa's great outdoors.
"There's one exception, however. Tourists in transit, stimulated by our miraculous political transition, are drawn to spend a day visiting the staging ground for apartheid's overthrow: Soweto, the Hector Pieterson Museum, Regina Mundi, and the Apartheid Museum. Alas, the rest of the city remains a closed book.
"And it has such enormous tourism potential. It offers visitors a trove of prehistoric archaeology, flora and wildlife, an abundance of art, of music; African, jazz and classics, dance, a profusion of architecture, swathes of urban renewal, great hiking, theatre and cinema and many good eating places.
"Potentially stimulating is our turbulent history. This embraces the ultimate flowering of the Victorian era in the greatest gold rush of all; war; the demise of British imperialism and colonialism; a bitter, bloody clash between socialism and capitalism; the 'enslavement' of black labour; the rise of Afrikaner and black nationalism; the tyranny of apartheid and recently, the triumph of Liberal Democracy.
Becoming guides and ambassadors
"Johannesburg offers its own unique microcosm of 20th century history. It's an asset we hardly exploit. Joburg can offer as much, if not a great deal more than, other favourite tourist cities.
"So why aren't tourists beating a path to our door and once here, extending their stay because Johannesburg proves to be so stimulating?
"To attract more tourists, several barriers need to be swept away:
"One gains the impression that our own citizens believe tourism happens somewhere else. It starts when they board their plane at Joburg International for Rome and hike through the Tuscan hills. Of course this applies to the citizens of any city who travel on holiday.
"But it would be grand if Joburgers were also not only tourists, but tourist guides, in their own city. How many know their city really well? One is led to believe that locals know more about the history of Florence than Fordsburg. Our citizens entertain foreign visitors to braais round their pool. Wouldn't it be great if they'd walk them through Newtown or introduce them to the Standard Bank Mine Shaft, or take them to architect Hermann Kallenbach's ingenious Dutch Reformed Church in Fairview, or show them Sir Herbert Baker's magnificent, stone-clad St John's College?
"Our crime has not yet been accepted as normal. On TV, we watch crime story after crime story in New York and Los Angeles. We read thriller after thriller featuring tough New York or London cops and we obtain enjoyment from contemplating the eternal conflict between criminal activities and justice. We accept that in Paris and Rio, cities we love to visit, crime is part and parcel of the everyday, an inescapable aspect of the social fabric. In other words, we consider it normal and take our chances.
"In Johannesburg we see it as abnormal. We project our city as more crime-ridden than any other. And the media enhance the feast. It simply isn't realistic. But our anxieties travel the world and prevent aspirant visitors from making normal tourist choices. Worse still, our fears prevent us from exploring our own city; prevent us from becoming guides and ambassadors.
"Our history has been truncated. For very understandable reasons, our tourism operators and marketers appear to be happier promoting the triumph of post-apartheid Johannesburg, than emphasising its previous decades. Some people would be forgiven for thinking that the city's history started in 1976 when that searing photo of the dead Hector Pieterson horrified the world. But we can't disown the past even if it was diabolical. Our rejoicing should not obscure the whole story. London acknowledges the political brutalities of the Elizabethan age; they're part of the heritage.
Joburg: a microcosm of 20th century history
"The simply breathtaking capitalist exploits of the Randlords must be acknowledged; where is our intriguing Gold Mine Museum which documents the giant lives of Cecil John Rhodes, Lionel Phillips, JB Robinson and Ernest Oppenheimer, to name but a few? And where in that same non-existent museum is a memorial wall displaying the nameless names of the thousands who perished digging gold deep in the earth? Where do we follow the manoeuvrings of the Anglo Boer War, Battle of Johannesburg? Where's our museum that shows us that the ideology that drove the Russian Revolution flared here in Johannesburg for nearly 20 years. The clash between capitalist mine owners and militant trade unionists ended in serious bloodshed on several occasions. Few people know the role Mary Fitzgerald played in those clashes. Few people know that the buildings on Fordsburg Square were demolished by artillery fire in the near civil war of 1922, or that the strike leaders committed suicide there rather than be captured alive. Johannesburg has never been a backwater. Our history is far too precious to be ignored and forgotten.
"Last, but by no means least, in this list of tourism killers, we assert that Johannesburg's public transport system is a disgrace. Ordinary citizens despair, while a tourist wishing to independently explore this, one of the most stretched-out cities in the world, doesn't stand a chance. What gives the tourist such pleasure in London? It's hopping on a bus, riding the underground and then, yes, freely walking around, being one's own explorer, extracting one's own joys from the city. Such a concept in Johannesburg seems frankly ridiculous. Where are our guidebooks, where are our guide maps, where does one find such things? Where are the enterprising black taxi owners whose vehicles clog the city during off-peak hours, with their organised tourist shuttle linking major attractions? Little wonder that being a tourist in Johannesburg means subjecting oneself to a highly frustrating, largely mysterious, obstacle course.
"More citizen knowledge, enthusiasm and involvement, together with improved transport, could go a long way to making Johannesburg a much more popular tourist venue. "
Cheers,
Neil
Permission to use web site material
Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as:
- Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website
(www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency
(www.joburg.org.za)";
- If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original
article on this website;
- The name of the article's author is acknowledged;
-
The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill
in this brief online form).
Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 |
