Who Goes There? By Lynne Duke Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, July 20, 1997; Page E01

wave of African, European and U.S. tourists in the first couple of years of its newness.

Well heeled and with time to spare, drawn by the country's curious blend of cultures and conflicts, they come for the physical beauty and adventure, but also to experience the post-apartheid uniqueness of this frightfully dynamic nation as it lurches forward from its isolated yet infamously divided past.

The tourist boom, welcomed by a people united in their desire for international approval, allowed South Africa to make giant strides in catching up with the outside world. More international airlines started flying here (56 at last count, tourism officials say). More international tour groups started operating. More hotels were built -- and keep cropping up in all the major cities, along with guest houses and bed-and-breakfast lodges.

Indeed, so many hotels are under construction -- 115, says one industry consultant -- that there are fears of a construction boom that will lead to an industry bust. Even Pretoria, that most uptight of South African cities during the apartheid era, is getting its first five-star hotel in several years, after having downgraded its luxury hotels during the dark days of apartheid when few visitors could be found.

The boon for tourists is obvious: As South Africa grows into its new tourist and travel infrastructure, this already quite affordable tourist market has lots of accommodation deals to offer, and a local currency, the rand, so weak that the dollar stretches like elastic, yielding 4.5 rands. A seafood dinner at a fashionable oceanside Cape Town restaurant costs -- I kid you not -- the equivalent of $10, not including wine. And a bottle of any of South Africa's fine wines runs about $15. A good hotel room, including scenic Cape Town views, can be had for less than $120 a night.

Though the tourism boom that initially greeted apartheid's fall has tapered significantly, South Africa's climate, its natural attractions, its physical and economic development and its cultural and political changes still allow the country to boast of tourism growth above the international average. The 4.9 million foreign visitors who came here last year represented a 10.2 percent increase over 1995's tourist numbers; 1995 brought in 22.3 percent more than 1994; and 1994 was 18.6 percent higher than 1993.

South Africa's immediate post-apartheid glow has faded, in part because of tourist fears of the rampant crime that has taken hold here, especially car hijackings in metropolitan Johannesburg -- which may account for that city's lowest cost per day of some 200 global cities for business travel.

Tourists have not been especially targeted by crime, and a South African Tourism Board survey of 2,700 foreign visitors last year revealed that only 2 percent had been the victim of a crime, though 56 percent feared for their personal safety. Nonetheless, 83 percent of the visitors said they would probably or definitely visit South Africa again.

African tourists make up the bulk of foreigners visiting South Africa. Foreigners from overseas were led last year by the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States. The United States accounts for only 10 percent of overseas visitors here, with 114,799 visitors last year, which was an 11 percent increase from the previous year. South Africa tourism officials hope to increase U.S. tourism here, especially from the lagging African American market, by touting South Africa's many cultural experiences.

While many foreign visitors -- especially those from the African continent and from the United States -- come here to witness the country's political changes, the post-apartheid dynamic is eclipsed by the natural scenery and wildlife as the major tourist draws.

Thirty percent of visitors last year said they came to ogle South Africa's scenic beauty, 26 percent came to view wildlife in the many game reserves, 24 percent were drawn by the political changes and 21 percent said they came to experience African cultures. The average visitor spent about $4,227 for a holiday last year, including air fare; most foreign visitors stay 17 days.

The major points of interest they see are in the Western Cape Province around Cape Town, an international seaside city of cafes, cultural fusion and soaring real estate that is fast becoming home to the "beautiful people" set. Cape Town has become a magnet for international modeling agencies, much like Miami Beach a few years ago.

Tour buses flock from Cape Town down to the Cape Point, an hour's drive to the south. The Point bills itself as Africa's southernmost tip, but is geographically a tad bit north of Cape Agulhas, a hamlet to the west that bears a charming grudge against the other claimant to the southernmost throne. Cape Point boasts of mesmerizing oceanic scenery from cliffs overlooking the meeting of the Indian and Atlantic ocean currents.

Table Mountain also is a huge draw to Cape Town. Once the mountain cable car and restaurant reopen in October after a year-long renovation, tourists will once again be able to venture up this flat-topped mountain that lives up to its name as it towers over the quaint city on Table Bay.

Further inland is the cape's wine country around Somerset West, Stellenbosch and Paarl, where both the wines and the scenery rival that of California. The small towns in the region boast a booming bed-and-breakfast and guest house trade.

Clear across the country, up against the border with Mozambique, there's Kruger National Park and the private game reserves that abut it. The draw is obvious: the big and plentiful game that can be viewed by day or night, with hearty or gourmet meals served in between, depending on the scale of the accommodation, which ranges from the incredibly cheap but well appointed to the incredibly expensive and luxurious.

There are plenty of other attractions, such as the Drakensberg Mountains, the KwaZulu-Natal coast, the tacky but interesting Gold Reef City amusement park in Johannesburg (complete with a trip down a gold mine shaft), antiquing, flea-marketing, trekking, camping, sailing and fantasizing that you are in a rediscovered ancient city, complete with jungles and ruins.

That fantasy is the selling point of the Palace of the Lost City at Sun City, a manmade wonder that attempts to approximate a mythical African kingdom. The exclusive leisure complex, which is close to a nature reserve, includes a world-class golf course and attracts such performers as comedian Bill Cosby and singer Tom Jones, who entertained there this year. The complex, a two-hour drive west of Johannesburg, is the redone version of the world-famous, Las Vegas-style Sun City resort that was the subject of many international entertainment boycotts of the apartheid era, but which was redone a few years ago to become the Lost City.

Because the old white governments of South Africa wanted to attract only white tourists for white areas, broad-based tourism to embrace all of South Africa has been blossoming only for the past few years. South Africa's official tourist campaigns now highlight more of the country's African-ness, along with the other cultures that make up the "rainbow nation."

Cultural-minded entrepreneurs already had taken up this challenge. In the Ndebele villages of the Mpumalanga Province east of Johannesburg, a growing, black-owned tour bus company has begun taking tourists to meet, even paint with, the Ndebele artists -- all women -- who paint their homes in the traditional geometric designs.

Walking tours of the Malay quarter of Cape Town are another example. Malays were brought to South Africa from the old Malay archipelago as slaves for the European settlers back in the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, the quarter where they once were confined is a community of chalky pastel-colored houses and Moslem mosques that climb up the hills above Cape Town.

Township tourism also is growing. Townships are the communities that were created under apartheid as mere labor reservations for the non-white majority or were communities where blacks and coloreds were dumped after being forcibly removed from elsewhere to make way for white development. Today, the bustling townships are seeing slow development, and most townships in the urban areas now have paved main roads and electricity -- amenities that were lacking under apartheid. Though they still struggle with the legacy of poverty and neglect, these communities were the home of the struggle against apartheid and remain South Africa's real heart and soul.

To get a piece of the tourism pie, a few township residents in Soweto, south of downtown Johannesburg, and elsewhere are providing bed-and-breakfast accommodation in their small houses, in conjunction with local tour operators who visit historic sites of the anti-apart heid struggle. The discerning traveler will surely witness much in the townships that smacks of fundamental change. But there is also much that fulfills the old adage: The more things change in the new South Africa, the more they stay the same.