The City of Johannesburg joined Sandton Central on 14 November to welcome its new tourism kiosk at the Gautrain station in Sandton.
As an extension of the City’s Tourism Ambassador Programme, which launched at the end of May this year, the kiosk will be manned for 24 hours on a rotational basis by two ambassadors during the day and two Sandton Central security officers at night.
“The City of Joburg is thrilled to have garnered the full buy-in and support of the Sandton Central Business community; this is a prime example of a public-private partnership for the benefit of the general public,” said councillor Leah Knott, MMC for the Department of Economic Development.
“This partnership aligns perfectly with the department’s focused approach to continue supporting tourism growth in Johannesburg at one of the city’s most significant inter-modal transport hubs at the Sandton Gautrain Station.”
Knott added that South Africa currently process an estimated 45 000 tourist per day, many of which use the Gautrain as their first interaction with South Africa and Johannesburg.
The Tourism Ambassador Programme has employed 60 youths who have enjoyed supportive training by the Sandton Central management team. “The primary role of tourism ambassadors is enhancing the dissemination of tourism information in Johannesburg to enable the distribution of travellers more evenly in a geographical area.”
The programme aims to link up in a collaborative manner with JMPD, SAPS, organised community safety structures, tourism associations and Joburg Tourism to make the city a safer and more accessible place to travel to. These ambassadors have been trained by JMPD in areas of tourism information, excellence customer care and service, communication skills, conflict management, by-law education and awareness on issues such as public roads, street trading etc.
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