Minister Van Schalkwyk tackles Crime!

There is no denying that South Africa continues to make giant strides in its preparations to host the 2010 World Cup. Most stadium construction projects are on schedule and other initiatives like the Gautrain project and the upgrading of terminal buildings at several airports are also on track.

So it is with deep concern that South Africa's tourism minister recently acknowledged that our country's reputation for crime was keeping visitors away.

In his speech to tourism industry leaders, Marthinus van Schalkwyk said about one-third of potential tourists had mentioned fears about safety as one reason for not visiting South Africa in the past five years.

"Crime is an issue we as an industry have to deal with if we want to reach our target of 10 million arrivals by 2010," van Schalkwyk said.

While praising the recent tourism boom, he also mentioned rising crime statistics and the fact that tourists are easy prey for muggers, with their expensive cameras and bulging wallets.

In order to reach our target of 10 million tourists by the time South Africa hosts the soccer World Cup in 2010, government has promised to increase spending on security and boost
police numbers from the current 152,000 to 190,000, insisting that soccer fans flooding in for the World Cup will be safe.

With a very critical international gallery watching South Africa's 2010 progress (or lack thereof) very closely, one can only wonder if the long term aim of establishing Tourism Ambassador Units in police stations can be upheld!
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Printed Africa Adventure Travel Directory 2007/2008

This year saw the re-design of our invaluable printed Africa Adventure Travel Directory. The 2007/2008 edition was launched at INDABA 2007 with such phenomenal results that stock is already running low.

With such a resounding success and the great demand for our most recent publication, Africa Adventure is considering running a reprint of the 2007/2008 publication later this year.

In order for us to achieve this, we need your invaluable help and input. All existing advertisers would need to contribute again for their additional advertisements and we would have a few selected spots available for the companies who missed out on advertising opportunities the last time.

Your comments are extremely important to us and this is an urgent request for our members to let us know what their feelings are on a reprint.
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"It does no harm once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians and criminals." - Charles Kuralt (September 1934 - July 1997) Distinguished American Journalist
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This is just a reminder that we will be closed from 13 - 17 August 2008 for renovations and upgrades to our Head Office in Plettenberg Bay.

Please note that Vanessa Betz is no longer with Africa Adventure. All enquiries must now be directed to Head Office info@africa-adventure.org or on telephone number 044 - 533 52 11.
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