tourist-protection-blog

Need to improve regulations of staff at tourist facilities.

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:17:31 +0100

Do you have unfairly treated, abused, disrespected, unappreciated, disgruntled employees?? Most bosses say no... without knowing or caring what their staff is saying about them every night when they get home.

Some of our major resorts have very bad IR/HR practices and do not comply with simple fair misconduct procedures despite having huge HR departments or qualified managers. Like in most situations the leader of the organisation will determine the harmony between the workforce and in the reverse they say a snake rots from the head down. This without a doubt sums up every society on the planet.

Simularly will the leaders of our Tourism facilities determine the level of "risk control" during the world cup and beyond. It unfortunately cannot be secured in the few weeks thats left if there is a long standing hatred between workers and management.

It is these staff members that provide robbers, fraudsters and other perpetrators with the information they require . It is they who misappropriate company property and guest or client property, that create labour issues etc, etc. There is a definite need to regulate staff working at tourist facilities just as employees at security companies are regulated to some degree. Audits need to be carried out on HR practices to ensure bad apples that are roaming the rooms of international tourists are being dealt with.

Casino robberies.

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:21:25 +0100

It leaves me dumb struck that the companies cannot combat the armed robbers that move from industry to industry and have basically formed effective terrorist units. Various "suppose to be corrections of the past" actually benefit these thugs such as affirmative action for one. In the Casino and some other industries Executive managers and CEO's first replaced white security specialists with people of colour thats skills could not match the guard that worked for the industry a few years ago. Why ?
AA TARGETS ARE STILL BASED ON COLOUR FOR A SECURITY POSITION.
You cannot play with colour where a position exists solely to prevent loss, injury and death. It must be based on skill!!! This is a potential for civil liability. If guests get injured or die and the positions responsible for the prevention were appointed not on experience and skill there a good chance of a massive claim. Ala Mumbai.

Senior executives are to blame. To score some benefits in the BEE they compromised the position they thought and still think requires the least amount of mental capacity/skills. In the process lives are put at risk and various other serious problems have been created in the work situation. Take the casino industry. Sol Kerzner hand picked his security members from the elite of the South African special forces and other forces. Compare what he had to what the industry sits with today.!! (Overall) Off course there are highly experienced Security managers left in the odd Casino. We Then held annual and bi annual inter-unit competitions in fire teams, evacuation drills, explosive dog units, narcotic dog units, Health and Safety competitions and much more.
We had a group practical shooting competition where we practiced every second day for the duration of the year. We held competitions against the elite of the SA Police force every month...and we always beat them. We built practical courses mimicking casinos and reconstructed hostage situations.
We had our own ambulances, fire brigades with full time employees and could search our own casinos for explosives. Every half an hour a bomb search was done in every casino in the group . Dummy explosives were hidden and if an employee did not discover it on his patrols he could be terminated.
We brought in more VIP's than any other tourist facility would in the next decade ...and we personally protected them. Many Profile celebrities like Dolly Parton, Rod Steward,etc etc relied on us and some even invited some of security members back to their countries.
We ran hotels while every other businesses were burning around us...... profitably I might ad..!!In a time of war. We were on the Hit lists (targets)of many Terrorist groups and they never succeeded.
Today theres a gaming board that regulates every movement of the industry and audits every action of the Surveillance departments. We had hundred fold less scams and losses than today. We could on "body language" detect scams without being locked up in surveillance rooms with 3000 % less cameras.
Despite controlling the casino industry the "Gaming Boards" have done little to curb the spate of robberies that have been crunching the casinos and scams have definitely not decreased. Despite this, robberies continue because  it is waiting for skilled security staff , and effective countermeasures. Unless the gaming boards addresses this crime and dictate standards, the casinos will not spend money as with all the other useless countermeasures proposed by them that are geared only to maximize the governments revenue irregardless the safety of the people..
Nor Provincial gaming boards auditors nor internal auditors are skilled to address this problem.let alone that they never audit these crucial plans.
Armed response company's with a c,b grades only are contracted to respond to armed robberies or emergencies without having a clue of the emergency procedures of the casinos let alone having the slightest knowledge of the business processes.etc etc etc.
In extreme emergencies we evacuated our hotels including General managers and ran them profitably with only security and skeleton staff for up to a week such as the Bisho massacre, Bop over throw, Many military coups in the Ciskei and Transkei etc.
Only a few skilled security members remain on the top level in casinos (larger ones)
Bring back the skill.
A company like Sun International does not even have a security professional on a group level like any other company of its size in the world to dictate and Monitor security standards.
Talk About.. Governance.!!
I was the last one on group level in Head Office and gave my position up for an AA person that was terminated before he could fill the position.?? While they don't have such an important position vacant (or filled with experience) in such a violent society is negligent to say the least. The importance is just not understood. Scams occur continually as has happened over the past few weeks where Security / surveillance departments of one unit did not communicate the modus operandi to others in the group, similar incidents reoccurred. Event management at a top level is thus non existent.
Because of all the attention and money spend on surveillance departments, the security departments have been left in the dark..literally!

Final stretch to World cup events

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:50:06 +0100

As expected the President did at last take a stance against hate crimes and defused the situation to a degree. Malema has been silenced. I think he is very scared of what would have happened to him if he carried on with his "killing of white songs".

Racial tension goverment strategy

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:34:16 +0100

It is my opinion that the goverment in collaboration with the intelligence agencies that represent interested parties in South Africa from a economical/strategical point of view have carefully planned the racial tension currently led by the ANC youth party and followers. It is what you call a "ventilation project" that ensures cropped up emotions that can lead to violence/ war/instability are popped before a specific critical period. In other words the indicators were there that could have caused problems during the World Cup. Racial tensions in South Africa has been more surpressed than anywhere on the planet due to the historical vs.recent events in our transitional politics.
An successfull strategy by "Effective" governments has always been to cause some huge flashpoint to 1- expose those that in a later stage could have caused terror without been detected to blow up in a stage where the logistics are set up to detect those elements.(THE REAL RISKY INDIVIDUALS HAS ALREADY EXPOSED THEMSELF ON FOR INSTANCE FACEBOOK /TELEPHONE/BARS/WORKPLACE ETC) 2. Thus ensure a reduced risk during a critical period such as elections/ major events such as the world cup etc. 3-The APLA attacks at the time in the SA politics when all parties were reaching a joint solution is one example. Theres many others led by the CIA throughout the world. 4- All of a sudden Mugabe is also visited to reduce the risk he has on the world cup, acting as if South Africa could follow his example with land reform. It is indeed all a act by the South African Goverment. 5- the most important result (positive) of such a staged problem is that it does cause the majority of people to ventilate cropped up feelings. The problem person however goes over into action. And he can be removed before the critical period becaurse lets face it..SA can illl afford serious incidents during the world cup.
The reasons are clear. Zuma and the Government has not condemned the call to killing of whites becaurse they want it to reach absolute boiling point. Mandela has not said anything. etc. In a few weeks time they (ANC) will play their cards and will defuse the tensions-..they will think.
It will have the opposite long term effect. Young white have now been made racists as well as blacks. Many moderate white have now been changed into racists. And rightly so. It is natural to hate someone that call on a group to kill you.
The problem is if the only sane leader in South Africa, Mandela would pass away in the next few days (and of course he wont) we have real trouble on our hands.
Normally when this type of planned eruption occurs and is streched out like the current one, is that all the media attention is diverted from some other poitical/security manouvre. The attension is removed from the real risk--hope you know who this is..?? It is also a good reason to pick them up by the joint international security services...becaurse of the cover or excuse of the security situation..

"Kill the whites"

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:23:45 +0100

Mr Julius Malema the leader of the ANC youth organisation and the breeding ground for the future leaders and his racialy inspired songs and sentiments has stirred up sentiments to boiling point in the country And there is a definite potential for voilence of huge porportions. Naturally white tourists or what they call setllers are not safe in the country . The fact that the goverment stay absolutely silent on the hate speaches reflects and increases the likelyhood and consequence levels of murders. Whites not even supporting the Right wing AWB are now supporting the cause and would feel good about retaliation of whites in any form. Besides the fact that the ANC leaders support the stance of Malema they dont have the competencey to handle matters if it blows out of porportion. The other indicator that South Africa dont have a very good future if the ANC or leadership of this country is elected based on colour and numbers instead of intellect and wisdom.
If one takes into consideration that the police have been hugely abusing powers over the past year as shown in TV documentaries and that Malema is visiting Mugabe to get tips on land distribution spells danger.
The symptoms of the past months sentiments between whites and blacks will not be cured. Instead the ANC will callm the situation by playing politics. It will explode in the near future. FURTHERMORE FARM MURDERS HAVE INCREASED over the past few months. How do you talk this scenario away.?

Sexual harrassment

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:25:11 +0100

Testosterone driven socccer fans that will visit our country is the largest group of lots of single travelling male tourists with a passion for adrenaline. It is the largest group of tourists that has one single simular interests that has ever visited our country and the largest in the world. The OLYMPIC GAMES HAVE SEVERAL EVENTS THAT ARE DIFFFERENT so have different spectator profiles. Anyone that studied these groups of male driven sports supporters during such events will know that security will be particularly problematic. Im not talking about crime that make the the media now as the majority of the events will not be reported or even investigated by the Police and that is the problem we will be faced with in the country. Denial of levels of crime will be weapon no. one. The guest houses, lodges and hotels female staff needs to be educated in advance in how to treat or handle difficulties regarding harrassment. It is my educated knowlege that Hotels that have teams booked in or expect large sums of money will not be too supportive when the room maid complains about sexual harrassment of a guest. Let alone a senior or important guest. Sexual harrassment policies need to be in place (legal requirement) as well as training female staff in tactical communication or non verbal judo etc.
Safework procedures need to be drafted if not in place to safeguard employees. Sexual harrassment procedures are mostly excluded from the Safety plans at this stage. A entity's security plan or sophistication levels could thus as far as I m concerned, be measured at this stage I would say by this very aspect. Every one worries about the crime on the tourist but it's going to be other way around with this specific incident type and some others.

Few months of horror at Sun City

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:25:37 +0100

A few days before the FIFA medical deligation started their conference at Sun City The Public relations manager have allegedly been murderd in her flat on the Sun City Complex by strangulation. If not enough the Sun City complex have been robbed by armed men a few days before the murder of their PR manager and people allegedly injured in the crossfire.

"The FIFA conference will begin on Friday and will run until Sunday. It is expected to be attended by, amongst others, the physiotherapists of all the 32 teams taking part in the World Cup in South Africa. The conference will be followed by a team workshop (also at Sun City), which will be attended by the national teams' coaches.

Fifa did not want to comment on the murder on Tuesday night.

Sun International said on Tuesday afternoon that Van Eyk had worked for the company since 1992"

"Johannesburg - Sun City casino in Rustenburg was robbed of an undisclosed amount of money by 10 heavily armed men on Thursday night, North-West police said on Friday.

"They entered the casino at 23:50 and ordered the cashier to give them money from the till and a small safe... they then fired two shots and fled," spokesperson Wilmarie van der Merwe said.

A security guard barricaded the exit, but the men managed to drive through.

They allegedly shot at another security guard on a motorcycle, wounding him."

Sun City has been in the news for the past few months as the Sun International strikers demanded serious restructuring of management behaviour and allegations of Rasism and unfair labour practices have been exposed at the property. A HR/IR manager have been removed from the premises and the security company providing a service at the complex have been on the red carpet for aleged rasism.

The problem is that South africans have been getting used to these type of crimes that would have rocked European countries 113 dys before they would have hosted the world cup soccer tournament. Money waves created by the Soccer tournament will unfortunately surpress many simular incidents for the next few months. The other problem is that it exposes the smaller resorts/guest houses as they are 1000 fold easier to be penatrated as Sun City that must have one of the largest percentage security expense as a percentage of overall expenses on the continent. In otherwords -tight security!!

RiskSolve LT

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:50:06 +0100

RiskSolv LT

1. RISKSOLV LT Event Manager

The RISKSOLV Event Manager is a basic risk reporting mechanism and database that allows for logging of events, analysis, correlating, tracking on a re-active basis, and assist in requesting dispatch of contractors or departments to activities that require immediate remedies such as VCR’s, Cameras faults and other regulatory responses.

Event Manager includes additional features like:

1.2. Incident reporting to fit current business processes and compliance (not real time as with RISKSOLV)

1.2. Customizable real-time reports for analysis, forecasting, etc

1.3. Storage of photo/picture with incident

1.4 Charts relavant to reports amongst others

RiskSolve Software (Event Management)

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:49:12 +0100

RiskSolv

· Improve surveillance, gaming and security efficiency and cooperation

· Assist in more accurate budgeting

· Incident reporting linked to asset register

· Improved equipment management in surveillance

· Indicate productivity of surveillance and security staff

· Near real time incident reporting of incidents to gaming management, executive management and gaming boards

· Detailed incident summaries and reports with the click of a button.

· Manage service level agreements

· Measurement of countermeasure efficiency

· Track overview of audits inter and intra departmental

· Log training overview

amongst others
http://www.touristprotection.net/event-management-software.php

Electronic Event Management Solutions

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:46:45 +0100

Electronic Event Management Solutions for Casino's, Hotels, Resorts, Guest Houses and the Tourist Industry.

RiskSolv is the first and only web-based electronic incident reporting solution for casino security on the continent. Due to its strict regulatory environment successful Casinos, maybe more so than any other organization, require fast and easy access to the right information at the right time. The casino industry has reports, registers, procedures and other regulatory controls that make it extremely difficult for departments such as surveillance, slots and gaming security to focus on critical activities on a live and proactive basis. The aim with this software is to reduce costs, streamline business processes and to improve customer service and service level agreements between compliance departments in the Casino. RiskSolv delivers a solution that allows Casinos to tap into critical information required to improve legal compliance of not only gaming but also all other legal liabilities and it empowers them to plan and improve on operational efficiencies. RiskSolv helps you to log incidents easier, more consistent and accurate to provide accurate and useful data in a much shorter period of time compared to doing it manually.