OVER PRICING FOR TOURISTS
Since South Africa abolished the famous apartheid regime in 1990 and its peaceful transition towards the first denocratic elections of 1994, tourists numbers have increased significantly.
The major motivations for them are among others the incredible icon Mandela, the scenic beauty and diversity of its fauna and flora, the diversity of cultures of the people who make what the Reverend Desmond Tutu termed "rainbow nation" without forgetting the hospitality of African people.
Tourists follow a well established web of routes taking them to various attractions and amusement centres.
They hardly discover the reality of living conditions of locals except information supplied to them across their routings in form of brochures or else their guides.
At these tourists destinations, the prices of commodities and services however are something controversial. It is simply very expensive. People believe that tourists are wealthy travellers who enjoy the weaker Rand when they change their dollars, pounds or credit cards and therefore they must pay more than locals. the result is that all those establishments are only frequented by tourists since locals can hardly afford the luxery of spending 3 times higher the normal price. To give a concrete example, it cost Rand 60 to use intenet for 30 minutes in one local popular hotel while another internet cafe around the corner charges between R5 and 10 for a full hour.
When tourists discover the overpricing for them they simply conclude that they were ripped off and the end result is their word of mouth spreading all over to say " South Africa isn't a cheap destination".
