By Rebecca Harrison

Johannesburg - Crime-ridden, snarled with traffic and studded with architectural eyesores, Johannesburg is not a classic holiday spot.

But after years playing second fiddle to its elegant southern sister Cape Town, South Africa's commercial centre is reinventing itself as a must-see for visitors seeking to experience the "real" South Africa a decade after the end of apartheid.

"Johannesburg has gotten bad rap as an industrial and moneymaking place but it's a very sexy, African city," said Sam Woulidge, editor of British-based style barometer Time Out's recently-launched Johannesburg guide. "You can't understand South Africa without understanding Jo'burg."

Tourism has overtaken gold as South Africa's top foreign exchange earner following a post-apartheid boom in visitors.

Most tourists used to by-pass Johannesburg to head straight for Cape Town N famed for its imposing position at the foot of Table Mountain N via one of the "Big Five" game reserves.

The message was clear: stay as far away from Johannesburg as possible and if you must stay, make it quick.

The advice is not unfounded. The city has few tourist attractions and gangs, prostitutes and drug dealers rule the otherwise deserted downtown streets by night while more affluent residents remain closeted in the often soulless northern suburbs.

Yet as "Jozi" slowly cleans up its act, tackles notorious crime rates and revamps its seedy city centre, tour operators are starting to include it in itineraries and some guide books are tipping it as South Africa's best-kept secret.

Cash from Johannesburg's successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament should speed its makeover.

About six million people visit Johannesburg each year.

The city's chief draw so far is as a business destination, as travellers tag a day or two on to trips rather than heading for home as soon as work is done.

The local economy is firing on all cylinders, with new hotels and conference facilities springing up, and experts hope Africa's richest city will used increasingly to host summits and corporate pow-wows, drawing big spenders to its shopping malls and nightlife.

Some industry experts reckon Johannesburg is also poised to cash in on a growing trend for cultural tourism in which visitors - often backpackers and other independent travellers - seek an 'authentic' experience of a country's people and history, rather than merely ticking off a list of beauty spots.

South Africa's recent turbulent history - including the brutalities of apartheid rule and the country's rehabilitation from pariah state to multi-racial democracy N makes it an obvious choice for cultural tourism.

Guide books have started touting Johannesburg as the best place to experience the 'New South Africa'.

"If you want to see the real South Africa - and try to understand it - Jo'burg has to be on your itinerary," says the latest Lonely Planet guide to South Africa.

"The tunes Johannesburg is playing are the new sounds of a new nation," said writer Donald Reid in the rival Rough Guide.

"Foreigners are incredibly interested in what happened here and post 1994 they want to see more than the beautiful parts of the Cape," said Woulidge at Time Out.

Tourism officials point to the Apartheid Museum - where visitors are given a card on arrival that denotes them as black, white or coloured - and the Constitutional Court, built from the bricks of an apartheid-era prison.

Johannesburg ironically owes much of its nascent tourism recovery to Soweto, the sprawling township to its southwest where blacks were sent by apartheid rulers seeking to "purge" the main urban centre.

South Africa's biggest township is the region's top tourist attraction and its legacy as the heart of the anti-apartheid struggle lures backpackers and well-heeled visitors alike.

Some 10 companies offer tours around century-old Soweto including visits to the house of former president Nelson Mandela, traditional shabeen drinking dens and the Hector Pieterson museum documenting the township's 1976 uprising.

"You hear all these stories about crime in Joburg so it's always in the back of your mind," said British tourist Tom Beazley after a trip to Johannesburg and Soweto. "But you soon savvy up and this place is such an important part of South Africa that you'd be mad not to visit."

Key to tourism really taking off - and the biggest challenge for city officials - is the revival of Johannesburg's city centre, often branded one of the world's most dangerous urban environments.

Big companies fled the previously whites-only business district after the fall of apartheid, leaving a no-go urban wasteland.

Ask most visitors and many South Africans if they have ventured into Johannesburg's centre and they reel in horror.

City officials point now to the revamped Newtown cultural development, rich with restaurants, theatres and jazz clubs, a much-trumpeted 'city ambassador' scheme aimed at warding off criminals and helping tourists, and a rash of new apartments.

Tourism officials concede progress is slow, but say investment linked to the 2010 World Cup is significant.

"Billions of rand should extensively upgrade the city centre," said Deon Viljoen, head of the city council-funded Johannesburg Tourism Company.

"And once we get Joburgers going to Soweto and downtown in big numbers then the tourists will follow."