Southern African Tourism Update published a letter about the poor state of Robben Island and the tour experience for visitors to our city from Cape Town tour operator Francoise Armour of Tours du Cap late last year. More than 30 comments were received in response to the letter, most echoing her sentiments.  It has taken a month for Sibongiseni Mkhize, the CEO of Robben Island Museum (RIM), to respond.

His reply below reflects some willingness to hear and accept the negative feedback, but also finding excuses as to why the problems exist, by highlighting what has been improved (no more funds mismanagement or staff strikes) and blaming most of the problems on the ferries used to get one to the island, rather than focus on the island and the former prison experience.  He acknowledges that his operation may have been poor at communicating with the tourism industry to date!  He is particularly defensive about the state of the island, saying that it has improved considerably since Robben Island Museum took over its maintenance from the Department of Public Works. Hilarious is his reference to the ferry breakdowns not being due to mechanical reasons only, but also due to ‘sabotage’, without explaining this outrageous allegation!

Reading his reply does not give the tourism industry the confidence that anything will change on Robben Island in a great hurry.  Robben Island is a top tourism icon (or should be), but increasingly tour operators cut out the island from their tour itineraries due to its poor tourism impression.

‘I would like to sincerely apologise for the delay in responding to the letter from the tour operator who had a bad experience while on a visit to Robben Island. Her concerns, observations and comments are being taken seriously by the management of the museum. It is through comments like these that the museum will be able to improve its customer service. I have also taken Continue reading →