Perceptions of crime among international leisure tourists to Cape Town and the marketing implications for tourist destinations

Abstract

Growth in the tourism industry has been a global trend in the past decades. People are adopting a lifestyle of travel, which led South Africa and Cape Town to welcome many visitors as recorded in the background to the study. Amid the high figures of tourist arrivals to South Africa and the City of Cape Town, there has been a continuous rise in the crime rate in the country, including destination Cape Town over the same period. However, if this is to continuously remain unaddressed or unattended, the tourism figures are likely to be affected. Therefore, the primary research objective was seeking to determine tourist perceptions with regard to crime and its effect on visitors’ decision-making processes and the impact it concurrently has on destination marketing. The study was seeking to establish whether demographic factors have an influence on tourists’ perceptions on general safety and security safety information of the destination. Furthermore, the study was investigating how tourist perceived Cape Town crime prior (pre-visit), during and post-visiting stages including their willingness to revisit the destination given their experiences. Through conducting the study, it revealed the information sources that were used by tourists before travelling as well as those used during their stay within the destination. Lastly, the study aimed to find out if there are any significant differences between demographic factors and crime related factors. A post-positivist deductive research approach was used by conducting Individual Depth Interviews (IDIs) and surveys in Cape Town’s tourist attractions. A structured questionnaire was used for the surveys, while some interview schedules were used for IDIs both on the supply and demand side. A sample size of 140 tourists was issued with questionnaires to determine the participants’ perceptions of crime in Cape Town, while 15 additional in-depth interviews were also conducted. This sample size reflected an 8.1% margin of error at 95% level of confidence. The results of this study also reflected that prior to their visit, the visitors perceived the destination to have a higher crime rate. This resonates with some tourists who witnessed instances of criminal activities in the tourist attraction centres, while others became victims of crime. Importantly, most tourists indicated that they would not be deterred by crime to visit Cape Town as a destination in their future travel plans. Therefore, tourists’ perceptions of crime with regard to their destination appear to have little or no influence on their travelling decisions.