The Google Maps navigation system route that has led many unsuspecting travellers into Nyanga will no longer be available.
Also read: British doctor shot in Nyanga after taking wrong turn from airport
Google has begun removing a route from its system that has led several tourists into a notorious township.
Google South Africa director Alistair Mokoena made the announcement yesterday at the signing ceremony of an agreement between Google and the National Tourism Ministry in Cape Town to promote South Africa as a top tourist destination and to provide digital training and support to the sector.
Google’s revelation comes after yet another tourist, Walter Fischel, an American citizen, was shot in the face and robbed in Nyanga last Friday afternoon while driving from Cape Town International Airport.
Fischel’s attack happened three months after British surgeon Dr. Kar Hao Teoh was shot and killed after taking a wrong turn into Nyanga.
‘From a Google perspective, we have been in conversation with the Department of Tourism, the City of Cape Town, Cape Town Tourism and other role-players to figure out best the safety and security method we can introduce to address incidents such as the recent happenings,’ Mokoena said.
He stated that the multi-stakeholder group had decided on several security measures they could use through the collaborative process, such as increasing the visibility of warning signs in and around problematic areas, as well as warnings and messaging in campaigns aimed at tourists, so they were fully informed and could plan their trips sensitively.
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‘In locations such as the area around the Nyanga, around the airport and intersection, we have been receiving reports of these attacks, so what we have come up with as Google or Waze is that we have categorised some of these routes as high-risk routes or crime hot spots.
‘Based on that data, we are working with our engineering teams to no longer recommend those routes and so instead we will recommend other routes, but nobody can predict where crime is going to come from. We might assume that staying on the N2 is the safest thing to do until crime starts to move on to the N2.
‘So for now, we want to make sure crime-prone routes do not come up as recommendations, and for that, we take guidance from the authorities like the City, who as I mentioned earlier are hosting initiatives to address these incidents.’
The Tourism Business Council of South Africa launched the Secura Traveller app and operations centre in August, according to the National Department of Tourism. The app includes low-cost emergency medical responses, breakdowns, and assistance with crime-related incidents.
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It also directs visitors and tourism stakeholders to hundreds of emergency service providers in an emergency, where every second counts. The application is one of the ways the ministry announced it would address safety and security concerns during the peak tourism and summer season.
‘As Google, we will always support such work, like we will be doing with the agreement we have signed with the Ministry of Tourism today. I think we all realise that it’s particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s a need to accelerate economic recovery,’ Mokoena said.
Google, in collaboration with the South African tourism industry, will work to support the industry by providing the country with access to critical initiatives and programmes.
Also read:
Tourist robbed and shot in Nyanga plans to stay in CT for a while
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