The global technology giant has declared that it has begun to remove from its system a route that led several tourists to the outskirts of a problematic township.
South Africa’s Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille, co-signed a collaboration with the head of Google South Africa, Alistair Mokoena, on Monday 13 November, with the aim of boosting South African tourism.
One of the key measures of the project is to remove certain routes leading to Cape Town International Airport from Google Maps, which directed travelers to the outskirts of the Nyanga township.
Google’s decision comes after a series of incidents that happened around the neighborhood of Nyanga. A few weeks ago, an American tourist, Walter Fischel, was shot in the head while stuck in traffic on the outskirts of the area, on his way to Cape Town International Airport.
Fischel’s attack came shortly after a British surgeon, Dr Kar Hao Teoh, was shot dead on his way to the airport via the same road.
In March 2023, a South African woman, Leonie van der Westhuizen, died in the same area after a stone shattered the window of her car and hit her in the head, causing a cardiac arrest.
At the signing of the agreement on Monday, Google South Africa director Alistair Mokoena said that he had been in contact with the local authorities to identify the areas at risk. These include the Nyanga district and the airport intersection, which will soon no longer be recommended by Google Maps as the fastest routes between Cape Town and the international airport.
In the press release announcing the partnership with Google, De Lille explained the advantage of collaborating with these tech companies. “In an era of digital transformation, collaboration between technology giants and government entities has the potential to reshape industries and enhance public services. There is a ‘lack of support mechanisms for the tourism sector, particularly SMMEs, to adapt to a digital future and other technological advancements,” she said.
Other key points of the partnership include digital training provided by Google for tourism stakeholders to market their activities online and the presentation of South Africa’s cultural heritage and tourist sites via the Google Arts & Culture portal, a service launched by Google in February 2011, enabling visitors to take a virtual tour of various museums or cultural and heritage projects.
The project also includes data sharing between Google and the South African government to provide an overview of tourism trends. This information could then be used by the government to target specific tourism markets and tailor experiences to visitors’ expectations, says the release.
This follows a memorandum signed on August 29 by the minister with another tech giant, global accommodation platform Airbnb, to create a national short-term rental registration system. A national database will be created to ensure market transparency. Airbnb and the Ministry of Tourism will also collaborate on a skills development program focused on spreading the benefits of tourism to disadvantaged people.
“By leveraging Airbnb’s global reach and understanding of the market, this collaboration seeks to create a positive impact on local communities, travelers, and the tourism industry as a whole. The primary goal of this collaboration is to develop a relationship between the Ministry, its department and entity, and Airbnb, to harness and drive tourism domestically and internationally. Insufficient information is available about the unregulated Short Term Rental subsector, and this hampers informed policy decision making. Access to the Airbnb data can only assist in informing better decisions,” Minister de Lille added.
In March 2020, Airbnb had already signed a partnership including data sharing with the European Commission.
“This important milestone will enable Eurostat to support public authorities around Europe that seek data on collaborative short-term accommodation services. They will in the future be able to use these newly available data for informed policymaking,” Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, responsible for Economy, commented in a press release.
The data shared includes the number of customers using short-term rental platforms and the number of nights booked.
