World Cup Travel

Andrew Layman:  PCB CEO

Just this weekend past, I was told of a group of people due to come to South Africa for the World Cup which had cancelled the booking.     As a result of media reports in overseas newspapers and on television channels, these people had decided that it was too risky to make the journey.   They are not the only group to have cancelled, from what I understand.   And, of course, the original estimation of the number of foreign visitors has proved to be over-optimistic.  

One needs to consider the psyche of a person living in Europe in first-world surroundings where life is relatively ordered.   The World Cup matches will be available on the television, without any extra cost, and certainly no discomfit.   Travelling, especially to a strange country, is always an adventure and many people are not up for too much of this.  They want to be sure that they will not be stranded, they will not be exposed to criminals, the hotels will be comfortable, transport will be readily available, and so on.    Therefore, visuals of thousands of Transnet workers on strike and engaging in vandalism and violence are not encouraging.    After all, at least in the minds of people who know no better, these are the people responsible for the transport system who, within a month of the World Cup, are on strike, causing damage, and threatening to continue with the strike until their demands are met.  And what are the demands?   They want a 15% wage increase as well as other concessions.   The company has offered 11%, at least double the current rate of inflation.   The country is in debt, the good work of the past few years having been severely compromised by the recession, jobs are being lost at an alarming rate, and these workers want 15% and are causing untold damage to the country’s international image in order to reinforce their demands.    Demonstrating workers may not cause so much alarm in South Africa any longer, but to the gentle folk of Europe who have the wherewithal to travel and spend their money elsewhere, the sight of a horde of black people dancing and chanting is intimidating.    The fears are not without justification when one considers that almost all such large strikes are accompanied by allegations of violence and damage to property.   The fact that some of the strikers are carrying and blowing vuvuzelas provides an image of an unwelcome link to the soccer spectacle.

At the same time, there is the unseemly stand-off between the Youth League and the ANC and the abandoned conference of the former in the Eastern Cape where, it appeared, leaders in competition with one another could not come to terms with good order and decorum.   No doubt, too, overseas people have read of inflated prices.    Some bed and breakfast establishments in Gauteng were advertising World Cup rates at least three times their normal rate.    The truth is – I apologise for repeating this – our country has not taken care of its international image at the very time that we needed to give people confidence in the country as a host.    What will happen, I wonder, when the tournament starts and runs for a month?   By then our best national behaviour might be too late.  Perhaps, as the trends seem to show, we will be so distracted by the World Cup that normal politics will cease during this time.    But there is also chance that something very destructive could happen.  I don’t think it will – I’m optimistic by nature – but our nation’s senses of timing and sensitivity are not great, as has been shown over the past few months.  

There is a tendency to regard foreign reactions as irrelevant, or, exaggerated by a sensationalist media.    But there are many choices for travellers and many international events and if we believe, as we do, that tourism is a key to our economic advancement, we must take the global perceptions very seriously.        

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