The country’s body for organised tourism businesses - Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) has said in a statement that the attacks on visitors leaving the airport remain a point of concerned.

This is according to the TBCSA, Chief Executive Officer, Mmatšatši Marobe who said the situation should be thoroughly investigated, - “more especially now that there are countries warning their citizens travelling to this country to be vigilant of gangs who may follow them and rob them.”

The countries that have issued travel warnings are the United States, Kenya, Australia and New Zealand - with the United States issuing its alert for the second time in six months.

“This is a point of concerned for us, as the effects of a downturn in tourism due to these incidents could be devastating. Already have seen how Kenya suffered a blow in their arrivals during the skirmishes that occurred after Kenya’s contested Presidential Election

in late December last year, said Marobe.

She said already the country has attracted more than nine million international visitors in 2007 and would want to built-on on this increases in an effort to reach the ten million mark before 2010. “Therefore fighting the scourge of these attacks becomes even more important – as tourism with these impressive figures remain one of the source sectors providing a basic way of life and decent wages for thousands of South Africans. On average, for every eight tourists to the country one job is created, therefore any negative event will most likely affect the livelihood of a huge percentage of ordinary South Africans.

Marobe said these acts of violence on our visitor’s are strongly condemned. “We will do everything in our power as the tourism industry to assist the police in apprehending the perpetrators as these attacks are very disconcerting and unacceptable.  “It is for this reason that the industry see this as an opportunity for an elite crime fighting unit such as ‘The Scorpions’ to take a leading role in dealing with this matter.”

She says the tourism industry is no doubting the ability of the police in dealing with this matter, however think a specialised unit would perhaps look at this problem with a different view and approach.

“We should not deny that we are having problems rather let us put all efforts in a joint manner in the quest to have safe environment. We certainly cannot afford to lose the much need jobs and capital in the hands of ruthless criminals”, said Marobe.

“As the industry is busy mobilising its members to play a central role in fighting crime head on, members of the community must also join hands to fight this terror. The time has arrived for us to declare war on these criminal elements and reclaim back our communities and public areas.”