South Africa Lures Tourists on Ivory Trade Route
6/25/98
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Title: South Africa Lures Tourists on Ivory Trade Route
Source: The Environment News Service
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 6/25/98
PRETORIA, South Africa, June 24, 1998 (ENS) - The Northern Province's
"Ivory Route," which is supposed to provide tourists with the ultimate
African experience, was officially launched during a colourful
celebration at the Mopani Camp in the Kruger National Park Saturday.
The Ivory Route is a joint project of South African Parks and the
Northern Province Tourism Board.
The route traces the tracks of ivory hunters of the past century who
exported their trophies through the Mozambican port of Sofala. The
Ivory Route is part of the so-called "Golden Horseshoe" concept,
incorporating lodges, conservation areas and archeological sites along
the province's north-eastern, northern and north-western boundaries.
"The present ivory route is the first step towards recreating the
fascinating world of our pioneering naturalists, ivory hunters and
traditional tribes," said Northern Province Tourism Board spokesman
Chris Olivier.
At the launching ceremony, Northern Province trade and industry
official Thaba Mufamadi lauded the Ivory Route project as an example
of what can be achieved through the forging of partnerships and the
involvement of local communities.
"The window of opportunity for appropriate new tourism developments in
the Northern Province is wide open. There are exciting possibilities
of moving this province out of its unenviable position of being the
poorest province into a position of leadership in the tourism
industry."
The tourism industry hopes to increase foreign tourism arrivals by 17
percent a year. But problems like crimes against tourists, the
shortage of funding for tourism, a lack of capacity at all levels of
government, and inferior international marketing have to be addressed
urgently, said Mufamadi.
In another location, the National Parks Board has plans to attract
tourists by expanding the Addo Elephant National Park 70 kilometers
(42 miles) east of Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape Province. A
steering committee was formed this week to oversee the expansion
including members of the community, farmers, industry and provincial
government.
Parks Board spokeswoman Adel Smit said the board convened a meeting in
Port Elizabeth last Wednesday. "The meeting was between all the major
role players in the region with the objective of establishing a
planning forum for the proposed development," Smit said.
The committee, tasked to inform all relevant parties of the plan, will
meet again July 16 to prepare for the first planning session to be
held in August.
The 12,126 hectare (47 square mile) Addo Elephant National Park was
established in 1931 to save the last 11 survivors of the once numerous
Eastern Cape elephants.
Two-hundred-forty African Elephants now live in the Park which is also
home to other animals: black rhino, buffalo, eland, red hartebeest,
kudu, bushbuck, Cape grysbok, duiker, Burchell zebra, black-backed
jackal, bat-eared fox, warthog, ostrich, small-spotted genet,
springhare, suricate, yellow mongoose, tortoises, and Vervet monkeys.
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