tourists - The African Mirror

Nov

2023

Tourists are returning to South Africa – but the sector will need to go green to deal with the country’s electricity crisis

FOR the past 16 years South Africans have dreaded rolling power cuts euphemistically dubbed “load-shedding”. These are caused by the ailing state power entity Eskom’s crumbling infrastructure and its over-reliance on ageing and poorly maintained coal-fired power stations. Load-shedding has worsened in 2023, with some areas experiencing power cuts for up to 10 hours a day. This crisis affects every aspect of the country’s economy, including its vibrant tourism sector. Tourism is a vital contributor to the South African economy. In 2019 the country welcomed over 10 million foreign visitors. The sector contributed up to 6.4% of the gross domestic…

Oct

2023

By MANUEL SILVESTRI

At least 21 dead after Italian bus carrying tourists falls from Venice overpass

WORLD

AT least 21 people died on Tuesday and 18 were injured after a bus carrying tourists to a campground crashed off an overpass near Venice in northern Italy and caught fire, city officials said. The bus veered off the road and fell close to railway lines in the district of Mestre, which is connected to Venice by a bridge. The cause of the accident was unclear. Venice city councillor Renato Boraso said one line of enquiry was that the driver, a 40-year-old Italian who was among those killed, had been taken ill before the crash. "It's an appalling tragedy, the…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Ghana’s plan for a grand new national cathedral is controversial – but will it attract pilgrims and tourists?

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

FREDERICK DAYOUR and FRANCIS KOFI ESSEL THE building of Ghana’s spectacular $400 million national cathedral designed by famed architect David Adjaye has stalled amid an economic crisis. The plan has drawn sharp public criticism but the president says it will be a significant tourist attraction and should go ahead. We asked two experts: Frederick Dayour heads his university’s department of tourism and hospitality where Francis Kofi Essel lectures in tourism. Essel is also a registered tour guide with intimate knowledge of Ghana’s religious sites and their tourism potential. What will be on the proposed new site and who will visit…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Voodoo dances, rituals wow tourists at Benin festival

NEWS

PULCHERIE ADJOHA and SERAPHIN ZOUNYEKPE ON Benin's national voodoo holiday, performers dressed as guardians of the night swirled in costumes resembling technicolour haystacks, delighting worshippers and tourists alike. Over a thousand people gathered in the small Atlantic coast town of Ouidah on Tuesday, once an important port in the slave trade, to watch the elaborate annual rituals of dance and drumming to honour the 500-year-old religion's panoply of gods and spirits. "They come in increasing numbers because voodoo is no longer considered sorcery, it is no longer considered barbarism," said voodoo spiritual leader Daagbo Hounon Houna II, adorned in colourful…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Chinese scammers enslave jobless teachers and tourists in Cambodia

WORLD

MATT BLOMBERG FOREIGN workers and tourists stranded in Cambodia during the COVID-19 pandemic have been trafficked and forced to work in sophisticated Chinese-run online scams, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation has found. In interviews, nine trafficking victims said they were lured by social media adverts promising well-paid jobs in call centres. Instead, they ended up in shuttered hotel casinos and guarded compounds where they had their passports confiscated before being put to work online. The victims, mainly from Africa and Asia, said they were ordered to create fake profiles on Tinder, WhatsApp and Facebook to entice people into fraudulent investment…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Russians ‘tourists’ detained in Chad desert

NEWS

A group of Russians detained by the police in a part of northern Chad where the army has been battling a rebel invasion from Libya said that they were tourists who had come to sightsee in the Sahara Desert. The roughly 10 Russians were picked up last week by the police near the town of Faya Largeau because they were in a military operational zone, according to national police spokesperson Amane Issac Azina. Azina said they had not broken any laws and had not been arrested, but rather evacuated to the capital N'Djamena for their own safety. "We decided this…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Namibia eases coronavirus restrictions to attract tourists

NEWS

NAMIBIA has further eased restrictions for international tourists to try to prevent the collapse of a sector hit by the coronavirus pandemic after the country closed its borders in March. The Tourism Ministry has announced that tourists could go to their pre-booked destinations and take part in activities for up to five days, after which they will be tested for the virus. If they stay at their pre-booked destination for less than five days they can proceed to another destination without a test. In rules introduced in July, tourists had to quarantine at their first destination for seven days, which…