Word: traveled
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...years ago, whites needed official permits to enter black townships in South Africa. Now township tours are included in the travel packages of major South African cities, and visitors are invited to spend a night or two with a local family. "It brings out the entrepreneurs in the travel industry," says David Moshapalo, who runs a Johannesburg travel agency. "Bed-and-breakfast operations can start by opening up the family home to tourists who look to experience life with a South African family as part of their holiday...
Since the dramatic changes of the 1990s that brought South Africa out of political and economic isolation, the country has succeeded in putting itself on the international travel-and-tourism map. After Nelson Mandela's election in 1994, the number of regional and overseas holiday visitors increased 50%, to more than 5 million a year. Tourism and related industries, which contributed an estimated $11 billion to the country's gross domestic product last year, expect to quadruple that figure in the next decade...
While the dynamics of postapartheid South Africa are part of the country's draw, both government and the private sector are aiming to put the travel industry in the big leagues. The government, which has underfunded tourism promotion and infrastructure in the past two years, has identified the sector as key to helping boost employment, support rural communities and conserve the environment. A government-business partnership, set up in late 1998, is injecting some $25 million into marketing, with the aim of 20% annual growth in international tourism. The government's streamlined tourist board--SA Tourism, or SATOUR--will focus...
South Africa's diversity--from spectacular wilderness to civilized viticulture, from the complexities of tribal life to the ease of luxury rail travel, from exotic safaris to brassy casinos--is the key to its allure. The primary tourist attractions continue to be game parks and an abundance of spectacular scenery, which draw at least one-third of all vacationing visitors. The menu is being broadened to highlight South Africa's unique heritage of European and African settlement, tribal and colonial wars, pioneer voortrekkers and legendary explorers--and its rich cultural...
...investments in environmental protection, community development and marketing will matter little if soaring crime is not brought under control. Even with a recently announced crackdown, travelers are still a good deal safer in the wide-open spaces than in South African cities, where muggings and more violent crimes are rarely out of the news. Despite plans to clean up Johannesburg and revive its commercial heart, the country's northern gateway remains economically distressed. The Carlton, the city's main hotel, closed down last year. To avoid the dangers of the former gold-mining center, many visitors begin their stay instead...