A partnership between local business and tourism, conservation and community stakeholders is having a far-reaching positive impact on the development of Limpopo’s Waterberg District as a tourist destination.

Marakele National Park is considered the Waterberg’s tourism anchor but the potential for attracting tourists to the park and nearby reserves remains vastly under-realised. The bulk of the region’s economy relies on mining and agriculture.

Born from this realisation, the not-for-profit Waterberg Development Initiative (WDI) coordinates, facilitates and identifies new development projects to benefit the tourism industry and create employment.

“We have a lot of product owners, potential attractions and some activities we could offer but there wasn’t enough structure and awareness to develop it into a proper economy for our district at the time,” said WDI director and local restaurant owner Jacques Blaauw.

Invited by Kumba Iron Ore’s Thabazimbi mine, set for closure, Blaauw met officials from Marakele National Park and mine representatives to discuss the potential for tourism development. As local government is burdened with basic service delivery challenges, the private sector needs to take the reins in stimulating the tourism economy, he said.

“We decided that we couldn’t wait for local authorities to develop the local economy: we needed to start doing it ourselves. It’s up to the private sector to work with communities to ensure they buy into what we’re working on.”

Enhancing awareness

Awareness of the Waterberg’s spectacular landscapes and world-class safari offerings is currently low – even within South Africa. As an example, less than 10% of people in the country’s most populous province of Gauteng have been to the Waterberg, 28% want to visit and 70% have never heard of the region, according to the national Department of Tourism. International awareness is even lower.

To encourage joint promotion, the WDI launched Friends of the Bushveld as a platform for local small business owners to engage with tourism product owners and discuss synergies.

“This is a great way to showcase all the offerings in the area, support each other’s businesses and demonstrate that there’s no reason to compete at a micro-economic level. We work together because it makes more business sense,” said WDI’s other director Dr Syd Catton who has been CEO of two JSE-listed companies.

An online platform – events.waterbergtourism.com – was also launched to promote events in the area.

“Together we have to lobby for enabling environments, ensure we understand best practices and roll out more initiatives like this to develop the entire country – not just the Waterberg,” Catton said.

Conservation and community projects

Collaborative conservation efforts have strengthened wildlife protection across the region’s numerous reserves and game farms.

“Because of various stakeholders’ conservation efforts, the area has a huge network of cameras watching movements on the major roads,” Blaauw said, adding that these enhanced surveillance efforts helped the region become one of the safest tourist locations in South Africa.

A conducive environment has been created for the establishment of five-star luxury lodges and other tourist facilities around towns such as Vaalwater, Thabazimbi and Lephalale, he added.

The WDI has implemented multiple projects to uplift local communities. A recent example was working with local stakeholders to ensure equitable distribution of 150 mountain bikes for local children. New mountain biking trails have been created in Marakele National Park while the Laphalala Wilderness School now offers cycling as one of its activities.

Further support needed

Catton pointed out that the initiative has received extensive support from inbound industry association SATSA.

“Coming from the corporate environment, we also know that we are not tourism experts. That’s why we rely on organisations like SATSA to accelerate our learning and help us grow the sector in the area.”

Blaauw said, as funding is a relentless challenge, the WDI is lobbying mining companies to incorporate tourism into their CSI programmes.

“We are encouraging them to invest in skills development so that people can create and take on new opportunities once the mining resources have been depleted.”