You might also like:
A bid to create a tourism access point between Mapungubwe National Park and Maramani, if successful, is expected to ease tourism movement across the South African and Zimbabwean parts of the park.
Discussions are at a high level in the creation of a tourism access point. Roland Vorwerk, Marketing Manager: Boundless Southern Africa at the Department of Environmental Affairs, said the creation of a tourism access link would also aid in developing tourism in a part of Zimbabwe that did not benefit from much tourism at this stage.
The tourism access point would be modelled on the access facility in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, explained Vorwerk. The Twee Rivieren access point at Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park allows tourists to access two areas of the park, with South African immigration officials on the one side and Botswana immigration officials on the other.
He highlighted that the key issue in establishing and maintaining transfrontier parks was bureaucracy. “You’ve got different governments with different departments with different legislation and different ways of doing things,” said Vorwerk. “You have to first find a common reason for working together and after that you’ve got to then to find ways of engaging constructively across those boundaries, stakeholder groups and government departments.”
One way in which the department encourages cross-border engagement is through cross-border events. Mapungubwe National Park currently plays host to the Nedbank Tour De Tuli, a fundraiser for Children in the Wilderness, as well as the Mapungubwe Transfrontier Wild Run. Vorwerk said that events like these allowed different stakeholders to work together on one project, and they were able both to see and own the success of the event. “The positive feedback helps to inch the bigger project on.”
Sourse: tourismupdate.co.za