South Africa's Makeover

But investments in environmental protection, community development and marketing will matter little if soaring crime is not brought under control. Even with a recently announced crackdown, travelers are still a good deal safer in the wide-open spaces than in South African cities, where muggings and more violent crimes are rarely out of the news. Despite plans to clean up Johannesburg and revive its commercial heart, the country's northern gateway remains economically distressed. The Carlton, the city's main hotel, closed down last year. To avoid the dangers of the former gold-mining center, many visitors begin their stay instead in the wealthy new Rosebank-Sandton area to the north, which offers luxury hotels, office blocks and shopping malls. From there they travel to the eastern game parks of Mpumalanga (formerly the eastern Transvaal), the casino resort of Sun City or the Indian Ocean beaches of Durban, which is host to the country's largest convention center.

Cape Town, in the south, remains the country's key tourist destination, visited by more than half of all foreign vacationers. Over the past two years, 30 new hotels have opened, doubling capacity. The city holds one of the most potent symbols of the new--and old--South Africa: a 30-minute cruise away from its Waterfront lies Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent most of his 27 years of imprisonment. It is now a museum and national monument. In the nearby hinterland, the Mediterranean-style wine lands provide travelers with more evidence of change: a growing number of wineries are run by workers descended from former slaves. Such black entrepreneurship is a beacon for the travel industry and the economy. "We can benefit by using our own culture for tourism," says Paula Gumede, who runs an agency that takes visitors on tours of Cape Town's black townships. "People at grassroots level need to claim tourism for their own."