Mobiguide brings you an extract of a very interesting and amusing article by Jeremy Clarkson of “Top Gear” fame on Johannesburg and how locals help to sustain its image of the most violent, gruesome city on earth.

I think we could all learn from this, especially in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

From The Sunday Times, March 1, 2009

I dare you to visit Johannesburg, the city for softies

It’s the least frightening place on earth, yet everyone speaks of how many times they’ve been killed that day 

Every city needs a snappy one-word handle to pull in the tourists and the investors. So, when you think of Paris, you think of love; when you think of New York, you think of shopping; and when you think of London – despite the best efforts of new Labour to steer you in the direction of Darcus Howe – you think of beefeaters and Mrs Queen.

Rome has its architecture. Sydney has its bridge. Venice has its sewage and Johannesburg has its crime. Yup, Jo’burg – the subject of this morning’s missive – is where you go if you want to be carjacked, shot, stabbed, killed and eaten.

You could tell your mother you were going on a package holiday to Kabul, with a stopover in Haiti and Detroit, and she wouldn’t bat an eyelid. But tell her you’re going to Jo’burg and she’ll be absolutely convinced that you’ll come home with no wallet, no watch and no head.

Jo’burg has a fearsome global reputation for being utterly terrifying, a lawless Wild West frontier town paralysed by corruption and disease. But I’ve spent quite a bit of time there over the past three years and I can reveal that it’s all nonsense.

If crime is so bad then how come, the other day, the front-page lead in the city’s main newspaper concerned the theft of a computer from one of the local schools? I’m not joking.

Look Jo’burg up on Wikipedia and it tells you it’s now one of the most violent cities in the world . . . but it adds in brackets “citation needed”. That’s like saying Gordon Brown is a two-eyed British genius (citation needed).

Honestly? Johannesburg is Milton Keynes with thunderstorms. You go out. You have a lovely ostrich. You drink some delicious wine and you walk back to your hotel, all warm and comfy. It’s the least frightening place on earth. So why does every single person there wrap themselves up in razor wire and fit their cars with flame-throwers and speak of how many times they’ve been killed that day? What are they trying to prove?

Next year South Africa will play host to the football World Cup. The opening and closing matches will be played in Jo’burg, and no one’s going to go if they think they will be stabbed.

The locals even seem to accept this, as at the new airport terminal only six passport booths have been set aside for non-South African residents.

At first it’s baffling. Why ruin the reputation of your city and risk the success of the footballing World Cup to fuel a story that plainly isn’t true? There is no litter and no graffiti. I’ve sauntered through Soweto on a number of occasions now, swinging a Nikon round my head, with no effect. You stand more chance of being mugged in Monte Carlo.

Time and again I was told I could buy an AK47 for 100 rand – about £7. But when I said, “Okay, let’s go and get one”, no one had the first idea where to start looking. And they were even more clueless when I asked about bullets.

As I bought yet another agreeable carved doll from yet another agreeable black person, I wanted to ring up those idiots who compile surveys of the best and worst places to live and say: “Why do you keep banging on about Vancouver, you idiots? Jo’burg’s way better.”

And so, if you are thinking about going to the World Cup next year, don’t hesitate.

The exchange rate’s good, the food is superb, the weather’s lovely and, thanks to some serious economic self-sacrifice, Kruger is still full of animals. The word, then, I’d choose to describe Jo’burg is “tranquil”.

To read the full article, please click on the title. I'd be very interested to know what you think of the article, so please feel free to comment on the blog page.

Amanda

Summit TV invited me to participate in a panel discussion on e-Tourism on Friday the 27th of February, the last day of Meetings Africa, South Africa’s premier conference and event exhibition in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Hearing the word ‘panel’, I assumed that there would be a number of interviewees, but when I arrived at the studio, I was informed that there were only two of us: William Price, Head of e-Tourism at South African Tourism, and moi!

e-tourism is the use of new technologies for activities in the tourism sector, such as on-line hotel or car-hire reservations and tourist destination portals containing interesting and useful information for travelers, such as Mobiguide.

For those interested in e-tourism, the first African e-tourism conference was held in Joburg last year (September) and another Pan-African e-tourism conference is planned for mid-2009. Exciting stuff!  

I was so delighted to share the spotlight with William Price, not only because he was representing South African tourism, but also because he is so knowledgeable on the subject. He’s also cool as a cucumber in front of the cameras and his calm, friendly presence made it easier for me to relax and make the most of this incredible opportunity.

After a few questions to William about e-tourism and how SA Tourism is using it, the presenter asked me to explain what Mobiguide does and why it’s a good example of e-tourism in South Africa. What a great opportunity for us! What great exposure! And all this time, the Mobiguide website was projected on the screen behind us.

But the best part of the interview came a little later when the presenter asked William how important companies like Mobiguide were to SA Tourism and its e-tourism efforts, to which the reply was: Hugely important! South African Tourism can’t do everything on its own and people like Amanda and Mobiguide play a very important role.

As he said the words, I knew that the time had finally come when South African Tourism understood and acknowledged the contribution that a company like Mobiguide can make to the tourism industry and the economy in general and I look forward to working closer with them in the future to provide multilingual information on South Africa to the largest number of travelers and prospective tourists possible.

The benefits of collaboration between SA Tourism, Mobiguide and other homegrown technology companies for the 2010 FIFA World Cup are also undeniable. Through e-tourism technology we can access millions of tourists at a time, providing them with fast, efficient information in their mother-tongues. As I said at the end of the interview: “In past World Cups, organizers have relied on volunteers from universities and technikons to help visitors overcome the language barrier, and while this is a fairly good solution, Mobiguide hopes that South Africa will show the world that it can take things one step further by using cutting edge technology to bring them the information they need, in their mother-tongues, through internet or sms download”.

The interview will be aired in two weeks. We’ll give you the dates as soon as we know them, and we’ll post the video on our Facebook page.

Hey there Fans!

I just wanted to thank all you wonderful people who have called, e-mailed and smsed us over the last few months to compliment us on our blog and the quality of our posts. We try to post interesting articles that are really entertaining to read, so it makes our day to know that you're enjoying what we write.

I would like to encourage you to keep the comments rolling in, but this time, perhaps you could comment on the actual blog site? That way, others can share in the conversation and perhaps give valuable input to some of the comments that have been raised via e-mail.

I have also realised that some folk are not fully aware of how useful our blog posts can be. Have you noticed that some words in the text are highlighted in red? For the nubies out there, this means that you can click on the word and it will take you directly to the website of the place in question or to a website containing further information on the topic. If you're looking for more information on some of the places and sites we've mentioned in our blogs, these quick links could save you a lot of time and take you directly to the information you seek.

Just another way we're trying to be great guides and promotors of tourism in South Africa!

Happy reading and looking forward to hearing from you on the Blog!

Amanda