Jo’burg: The Bustle, the Capitalism, the Might

Johannesburg, the financial capital of South Africa, stands for the rise of capitalism in the African continent. Though it has been seen as a stopover for getting into tourist havens like the Masai Mara wildlife park in Kenya and the Lion Park, 40 minutes off Jo’Burg, off late there has been a steep rise in the curve when it comes to spending more than a day in Jo’Burg. Couple this with the increase in cheap flights to johannesburg, and we have a rapidly increasing tourist base ready to explore Johannesburg and it’s growth curve.

One of the many tours conducted in Johannesburg, also known as the Gold City is the Gold Reef City tour. With many African countries exploiting the opportunity to make mining a tourist attraction, this tour serves as the benchmark when it comes to exploring how mining industries make their money. This is an underground tour which takes tourists 1500 steps under and there is where they can interact with the miners who have been oriented to enlighten the visitors about the trade and the manually-intensive labour which involves gold digging. Couple this with adventure theme rides and frill games, and the experience becomes the hallmark to understand capitalism-oriented tourism. The icing on the cake is the casino inside the premises which houses popular card games like Blackjack and Flash. The drinks, on the house, are an exquisite blend of liquors and though there is a lot to be done to match it to international standards, it serves as a decent chip stand for tourists.

20 minutes from Jo’Burg is the economic center point of South Africa, Gauteng. Gautrain, the seamless connecting train from Jo’Burg to Gauteng has made travel easy and hassle-free, by bypassing the bursting road travel from Jo’Burg. There are a plethora of industries bustling in Gauteng and tours facilitated by personnel in varied industries like Automotive Components, Beer and Malt, Biotechnology, Chemical Waste, Export, Film Industry, Financial Services, Food and Agricultural Processing, ICT and Pharmaceuticals. Gauteng has seen an economic boom like no other, in the past decade and that has seen a lot of business-tourism happening which has let in a plethora of related industries like hospitality and travel enablers in the zone. It is a must visit if you want to witness the economic upsurge of South Africa.

There are multiple economic touch points which facilitate a tourist to map the evolution of the African growth story. Gauteng and Gold Reef are the perfect symbiotics of a country in the winds of change and these should be lined up in every itinerary planned for Johannesburg. Flights to Johannesburg are available aplenty from ostensibly all major airports of the world which has made connectivity easier over the past decade and makes sure that people get a broader perspective about the city rather than seeing it as a cross-over point.