There were fears that after the Miroshga capsized, travellers would be discouraged from visiting SA.
|||Cape Town - There were fears that after the Miroshga capsized on Saturday, claiming the lives of Briton Peter Hyett and local crewman John Roberts, travellers would be discouraged from visiting SA.
But Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, CEO of Cape Town Tourism, said due to the professional way in which the incident was managed, tourists would not be crossing Cape Town off their lists.
“I’ve heard praise from everyone, including the survivors and the family of the deceased, on how well everything was handled,” she said.
Cape Town Tourism offers visitors a support programme that acts as a band-aid when things do go wrong.
“They are in alien place, where they don’t know anyone and where to get the help they need,” said Du Toit-Helmbold.
In the case of the whale-watching vessel which capsized, spilling its 39 passengers into the ocean, the programme intervened making the necessary arrangements, such as providing counselling, accommodation and changing flight bookings.
“We can’t undo what happened but we can help them in every way we can,” she said. “We visited the survivors in hospital and brought them flowers to show them we cared and were there to help them.”
She added that while tourism was an integral part of SA’s economy, it was the lifeblood of many small coastal towns that were dependant on the surge of tourists during the summer months.
She said for this reason it was very important to mitigate any bad publicity.
Nauticat Charters owner Brenda Owen, who operates a passenger craft in Hout Bay, said business had not taken much of a hit, with tourists lining up on Tuesday to see the seal colony on Duiker Island. She said many of the other charter services were still doing a roaring a trade.
But with a difficult winter - in which rough seas put a dent in profits - now over, Owen is hoping that worried calls from travel agencies in Japan, the US and the UK, do not turn into cancelled reservations.
“I hope we don’t suffer later on,” she said. “We’ve dealt with the current situation but we will have to see further down the line.”
At a press conference held in the provincial legislature on Tuesday, Economic Development and Tourism MEC Alan Winde thanked the NSRI and other emergency services who helped pull off the “miraculous” rescue operation.
“When I got the call, images of the big boat disasters from all over the world started flashing through my head,” said Winde. “But by the time I got there everything was under control. In that moment I was proud to be a South African.”
“Unfortunately, two people lost their lives, which is two lives too many,” he said.
Briton Peter Hyett’s body is due to be transported to the UK by the end of the week. A memorial service for crewman Roberts, who drowned in the accident, will be held today at 7.30pm at the Assemblies of God in Hout Bay.
Cadet news agency
Cape Argus