Six leading Southern African tourism industry members have just been announced as partners in a new programme: Pro-Poor Tourism Pilots in Southern Africa…
Six leading Southern African tourism industry members have just been announced as partners in a new programme: Pro-Poor Tourism Pilots in Southern Africa. They will each be supported by the Pro-Poor Tourism Pilots programme to develop and implement ‘pro-poor’ strategies at one of their major operations.
The six industry partners and their chosen sites are:
- Sun International, working at Sun City, the largest resort in South Africa.
- Southern Sun, the largest hotel chain in Southern Africa, focusing on the
- Sandton Sun and Tower Intercontinental Hotel, along with other hotels in the Sandton area of Johannesburg.
- Wilderness Safaris, one of South Africa’s leading safari tour operators, working at the Rocktail Bay Lodge in Maputaland;
- Spier and its expanding range of accommodation, attractions and facilities on the Western Cape’s wine route;
- The exclusive safari operator Ker and Downey, Tanzania, working across Tanzania; and
- Tribe Africa, a tour operator which services a range of tourist establishments located in the Phongolo Biosphere and Phongolo-Ntsubane Transfrontier Conservation Area into Swaziland.
Over the coming 2 1/2 years the programme will work with these six partners on site to help them to establish long-term PPT strategies that will significantly impact on local poverty and make business sense to the operator. Pro-poor tourism strategies are designed to increase the net benefits of tourism for the poor by focusing on issues such as employment and training, purchasing and sourcing patterns, resource and revenue-sharing, infrastructure development, consultation, and a range of potential livelihood benefits that can be derived from tourism. At each site, a set of strategies will be developed that are specific to local conditions.
The participation of these high profile and influential industry partners is a clear indication that Pro-Poor Tourism is gaining momentum in Southern Africa and that the industry supports the programme. ‘Information on pro poor tourism strategies, including lessons learned by the pilot partners, will be shared with the wider tourism industry during the project.
The programme has the backing of leading tourism organisations, which include South African Tourism (SAT), the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), the South African Chamber of Business (SACOB), the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (NAFCOC), Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTT, SA), the Greater St.Lucia Wetland Park Heritage Authority. and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). Information on pro-poor tourism is already being shared with the industry through networks of TBCSA and SACOB.
Cheryl Carolus, CEO of SAT launched the programme in September 2002, emphasising the importance of tourism and the value of this new programme within the strategic objectives for tourism in South Africa: ‘Economic growth per se is not enough. We put our weight fully behind this initiative. This can provide genuine growth – growth that makes a difference to the people. It is a great initiative. We all can make choices and we do – it makes business sense to take a PPT approach.’
Clive Poultney (of Mboza Tourism Projects) and Caroline Ashley (of the UK-based Overseas Development Institute) initiated the programme, which is funded by the Business Linkages Challenge Fund of the UK Government’s Department for International Development.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
