Local resident and tourist safety in Cape Town Townships, South Africa
People travel to South African townships due to their association with a unique political history, culture and food, despite the areas experiencing high crime rates, with South Africa, as a result, having unofficially been labelled the ‘crime capital of the world’. Crimes that are perpetrated against South African tourists and local residents frequently make the news headlines in both the national and the international media outlets. To date, the media has, arguably, been pushing agenda-driven news coverage that has had negative implications for the travel decisions made by tourists. High crime rates tend to detract from tourism receipts, with many tourists choosing to visit alternative destinations that appear to be much safer than South Africa. Accordingly, investigating visitor safety and security is an important factor in relation to township tourism product development. The addressing of the issue of safety and security is required with all earnestness, as, otherwise, it has the potential to derail the accruing social and economic prosperity that might else be gleaned from tourism. The current study, therefore, investigated the local residents’ and tourists’ safety perceptions in the prominent tourist townships of Gugulethu, Khayelitsha and Nyanga areas, which are situated in Cape Town, South Africa. A mixed methods research approach was used in the study, due to its ability to enable the researcher to collect in-depth and robust data, so as to facilitate the addressing of the related research objectives. The researcher, hence, conducted six interviews with police officials in the townships, and also administered two sets of survey questionnaires (with one set of questionnaires directed at tourists and another at the local communities). Whereas 171 respondents completed the tourist-related questionnaires, 333 completed the local resident-related questionnaires that were usable in the data analysis. The quantitative data analysis used Stata Data Analysis and Statistical Software, version 15. The first stage of the analysis employed univariate descriptors (including frequencies, means and standard deviations), while the second stage used multivariate analysis (in the form of correlation tests, Cronbach’s Alpha reliability tests, & regression analysis) for obtaining the inferential statistics. The robustness of the models employed was validated using the R-squared statistical measure. The residuals were subjected to normality testing, in terms of validating the robustness of the data. The qualitative data collected were analysed using content analysis on the verbatim transcripts of the interviews. The study created themes and subthemes based on the frequency of responses obtained, iii with the responses within the themes being reported in terms of the highlighting of the frequencies of the responses secured. On the one hand, the key results showed the overall importance of safety perceptions regarding the tourists’ intentions to revisit the area. Many tourists who visited the townships felt so safe and satisfied with their trips that they were likely to revisit the destination, and to recommend it to others. Safety perceptions can, therefore, be of significant importance in terms of boosting tourism. Tourists’ perceptions of townshiprelated tourism development and of safety factors related to socio-political status while visiting townships have been found to have positive and statistically significant impacts on safety-connected outcomes. In contrast, the tourists’ perceptions of safety factors leading to crime when visiting the townships in Cape Town are known to have a negative and statistically significant impact on tourism in the area. Tourists’ demographics (origin and gender) have a role to play in terms of safety factors related to the visiting of townships, as well as influencing revisiting, the making of recommendations and the overall level of satisfaction attained (i.e. the safety outcome). On the other hand, the local residents’ perceptions of crime-related issues in the townships, their perceptions of safety related to epidemic diseases and food security in townships, the probability of the occurrence of incidents in townships and the likely consequences of incidents, should they happen in the townships, have negative and statistically significant impacts on the safety outcomes. The factors concerned are negatively related to the local communities’ levels of satisfaction, as well as to their feeling of safety and their willingness to stay in the townships. In contrast, township tourism development, socio-political stability and the local residents’ perceptions of the presence and activities of police officials in the townships have positive and statistically significant impacts on the safety outcome. The factors concerned are positively related to local communities’ satisfaction levels, and feelings of safety and of wanting to stay in the townships. The local residents’ demographics (gender, cultural/ethnic group, township of residence, and length of residence in township) have a role to play in terms of safety outcome. The major recommendation put forward by this study is that tourists, local communities, police and other stakeholders in the community have significant roles to play in keeping the townships safe for the local residents and tourists. The study, therefore, offers several guidelines that are directed at the different role players (tourists, local iv communities, the police, Cape Town Tourism & the City of Cape Town) in relation to the optimising of the tourists’ and local communities’ safety in Cape Town townships (namely; Gugulethu, Khayelitsha and Nyanga)
township tourism, safety in tourism, crime and tourism, media and tourism
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