Tourism & Leisure

• Addo Elephant National Park is set to grow to 360 000 hectares

The eastern cape’s strategy for growth targets tourism as a key driver. In presenting the province’s 2009/10 budget, the former MEC for Finance, Phumulo Masualle, listed tourism as one of the sectors to be promoted as part of a 10-year Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP). The PGDP will run to 2014 and has already achieved some successes.

Although the province’s tourism offering is already quite sophisticated, such is the diversity of possibilities offered by the province’s landscape, coastline, mountains, history, art and culture that potential investors still have a broad canvas to draw up and render their own plans.

The province’s tourism brand is ‘Naturally, South Africa’s best’, taking full advantage of the fact that the Eastern Cape’s natural heritage is still relatively untouched by pollution or overpopulation. The province is home to four national parks: the huge Addo Elephant National Park (Addo Park), the coastal Tsitsikamma National Park, the Camdeboo National Park in the Karoo, and the nearby Mountain Zebra National Park. There are also 13 provincial parks covering more than 400 000 hectares run by the provincial government and countless private game farms and lodges, with accommodation offerings ranging from self-catering cottages to high-end tented camps offering the last word in luxury.

Game parks industry
The last decade has seen hundreds of thousands hectares of Eastern Cape farmland reverting to its natural state. Some estimates conclude that more than a million hectares are now conservation areas controlled either by South Africa National Parks, Eastern Cape Parks or private operators. In its natural state, the land can carry far more livestock and it is game animals that are at the heart of a revolution that has taken place in land-use patterns in the province: the tourist lodge and game-farm industry is experiencing an unprecedented boom.

Farmer’s Weekly estimated that, in 2007, South Africa’s game-ranching industry was worth about R7-billion. The Eastern Cape’s share of that pie is increasing all the time as more game reserves are being established. The fact that the Eastern Cape is free of malaria is a considerable bonus. With good airline connections in and out of Port Elizabeth, where several game farms have set up linked accommodation facilities, visitors can be on game rides within hours of checking out of the airport.

Even though establishing a private game reserve can be very expensive (more than R15-million in some cases, according to a Centre for African Conservation Ecology study conducted by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University), the economic benefits are considerable. Private game reserves employ many people, partly because the trend towards offering luxury accommodation requires high levels of staffing. Most of the visitors come from the UK and the US.

At the top end of the market are establishments like the 25 000-hectare Shamwari Game Reserve, which was one of the first private game reserves to bring the attractions of the Eastern Cape to the world market. The luxury Relaix & Châteaux group runs the Gorah Elephant Camp within Addo Park, the only such private concession. Blaauwbosch Private Game Reserve and Kariega Game Reserve, which offers Big-Five viewings and a variety of chalet or lodge accommodation along Bushmans River, are other high-end offerings. Lalibela Game Reserve, on the N2 between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown, has a landing strip for small aircraft, while Oceana Beach & Wildlife Reserve near Port Alfred caters for guests arriving by helicopter.

The jewel in the crown of the province’s game industry remains Addo Park, a 164 000-hectare facility that reportedly attracts more visitors than East Africa’s Serengeti National Park. Addo Park boasts that it can offer not just the Big Five but the Big Seven: with more than 450 elephants and significant numbers of the rest of the Big Five, Addo Park now also includes a marine section where great white sharks and whales can be sighted. Plans to expand Addo Park from the sea to the Karoo are well advanced, and ultimately the intention is for it to become a megapark over some 360 000 hectares.

A large number of private game reserves and bed-and-breakfast ventures have established themselves on the borders of Addo Park, providing the full range of accommodation options and employment opportunities for locals.

Hunting comprises another sector of the game-farming industry. This tends to be a specialised activity, being offered by farms offering only hunting, but a private game reserve in the Bushmans River Valley, Kikuyu Lodge, offers a day’s hunting for prices ranging from about R2 500. Hunters can pay up to R20 000 to shoot buck like eland, so this is clearly an important part of the economy of game farming.

Conservancy
The Eastern Cape has some unique natural advantages. For example, the province covers seven different biomes (communities of plants and animals coexisting in a particular place), of which the grassland, Nama Karoo, thicket and savanna biomes are the most extensive. The Eastern Cape has three areas of endemism: Albany, the Drakensberg and Pondoland.

The focus on nature is not limited to animals. Conservation efforts in areas such as the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve are primarily concerned with conserving the natural features of the original landscape and preserving the integrity of the relevant biome. The vast Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve contains large portions of land that are privately owned, but the area is managed by Eastern Cape Parks.

Other areas where the focus goes beyond animals are at Groendal Wilderness Area near Uitenhage, the Alexandria dune fields and Camdeboo National Park. Altogether, more than 10% of province’s surface area, including marine reserves and coastal islands, is conserved in some way.

Growth areas
Wild Coast
The Wild Coast is an area that is ripe for new tourism and leisure investment. The area earned its name from the rugged beauty of the landscape and the nature of sea conditions – conditions that led to many ships foundering on the area’s shores in years gone past. A specialist agency to facilitate investment in the area has been formed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and financial-services provider Old Mutual. Potential projects identified include the development of a hotel, a conference centre and a conservancy.

Cultural tourism
The Eastern Cape was the site of conflict for many years, illustrated by the name of one of the tourist regions, Frontier Country. The diversity of culture brought together by history now offers the tourist an unusual and fascinating insight into the events and people that created the modern era.

Several giants of the struggle against apartheid were born or educated in the Eastern Cape. The Red Location Museum in Port Elizabeth is an awardwinning site that focuses on the struggle for equal rights. The Steve Biko Garden of Remembrance in Ginsberg, just outside King William’s Town, is a reminder of the sacrifice that characterised the era of resistance to apartheid.

Potential projects identified in cultural tourism in the Eastern Cape include the development of township tours; guided tours to frontier-war sites; development of sites of British, German and Xhosa settlement; and a heritage park in the Mzamba-Umtamvuna area consisting of an African-themed lodge and a conference facility in an environment that celebrates local heritage. National government has allocated R5.6-million to get the last project off the ground.

Small-town successes
The development strategy that promotes tourism also insists that the industry creates employment opportunities. In some parts of the Eastern Cape, tourism has gone a step further, reviving the economy of small rural towns. In recent decades, several small towns and villages reliant on a particular industry have shrunk with the collapse of that industry or with the closing of an important railway link. Alicedale is one such town, having been rejuvenated by the influx of primarily local weekend tourists from Port Elizabeth, just over an hour’s drive to the south.

The Bushman Sands project is a multifaceted approach to tourism that has not only built and developed a splendid four-star hotel and a championship 18-hole golf course, but has also involved the local community and created employment in the process: the Cultural Xhosa Village and craft centre ensure that visitors are exposed to local culture while spa treatments and boat cruises create a luxurious ambience.

Another Eastern Cape town, Alice, west of King William’s Town, is home to a crafts project that is creating employment and offering tourists something uniquely local. Not being on the main tourist route has drawbacks, but the Tourism Enterprise Partnership has helped Ashwin Ramhith market his woodturned crafts to a wider world. In a similarly creative vein, the Due South Craft Route aims to draw together and expose the traditional skills of the region, including Xhosa pipe-making, beading and the weaving of delicate mohair products.

Business tourism
Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality is the capital for conferencing in the province. Strategically positioned for investors, business tourists and conference-goers, Nelson Mandela Bay metro has many venues capable of hosting conferences, company functions and corporate events. It has even established a conference bureau to assist and ensure that every conference is a success. Larger venues cater for up to 1 400 delegates, but smaller venues are also available. These are situated in the city, surrounding game reserves, seaside resorts or luxury hotels. One particularly fetching venue is the Feather Market Convention Centre, a successful adaptation of a Victorian building for modern use and is used to host gala dinners, exhibitions, product launches and concerts.

The bid that won Emfuleni Resorts the right to run Port Elizabeth’s Boardwalk Casino and Entertainment World for another 15 years (the first licence expires in 2010) includes a proposal to build an international convention centre. Emfuleni, which also runs the Fish River Sun, will spend close to R1-billion on a new hotel and various improvements at the popular Boardwalk, which has attracted 24 million visitors since it opened in 2000.

ONLINE RESOURCES
Karoo tourism research, Centre for Development
Support: www.ufs.ac.za./cds
Dikeni Crafts: www.dikeniartsandcrafts.co.za
Due-South Craft Route: www.duesouthcraftroute.co.za
Eastern Cape Parks: www.ecparks.co.za
Eastern Cape Tourism: www.ectourism.co.za
Feather Market Convention Centre: wwwfeathermarket.co.za
National Arts Festival: www.nafest.co.za
Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism: www.ibhayi.com
South African Tourism: www.southafrica.net
Tourism Enterprise Partnership: www.tep.co.za

Annual events
The National Arts Festival is the cultural event most closely associated with the Eastern Cape. Drawing up to 50 000 visitors every year to the educational centre of Grahamstown, the National Arts Festival is an institution, attracting aspiring and established local and international artists. But arts aside, there are events to suit every taste.

• Buffalo Regatta, Buffalo River (February)
• Bathurst Agricultural Show, Bathurst (April)
• Nelson Mandela Bay Splash Festival, Port Elizabeth (April)
• Addo Elephant Trail Run, Addo Park (May)
• Kirkwood Wildlife Festival, Kirkwood (June)
• National Arts Festival, Grahamstown (June or July)
• Billabong Pro international surfing competition, Jeffreys Bay (July)
• The Washie 100-mile race, East London to Port Alfred (July)
• Biltong Festival, Somerset East (July)
• Citrus Carnival, Addo (August)
• Addo MTB Challenge cycle races, Addo Park (October)
• Fugard Festival, Nieu-Bethesda (October)
• Bedford Garden Festival, Bedford (October)
• Fish River Canoe Marathon (October)
• Steytlerville Rainbow Festival, Steytlerville (October)
• Harbour Festival, East London (November)