Eastern Cape eco-tourism offers steady climb for employment rate

Eastern Cape has the potential to earn a large part of its income from the tourism industry. With a current unemployment rate of 28 percent, the provinces tourism industry is marked as a key area for growth in the current economic recession.

The province accounted for a large portion of domestic trips in 2008, coming second only to KwaZulu-Natal. At the launch of the Visitor Information Centres in Port Elizabeth this month, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk confirmed the Eastern Cape as a leading domestic tourist destination and predicted the wild coast would be the next successful tourism region in the Eastern Cape.

A recent eco-tourism success in the province has been recognised by the National Development Agency (NDA) in the Mehloding Community Tourism Trust, which represents more than 25 rural villages in the northern area of the Alfred Nzo district municipality.

NDA provided funding of over R2 million to Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA) to implement its programme Strengthening Community Tourism for Sustainable Local Economic Development. FTTSA has a longstanding relationship with the trust, and through this project Mehloding Community Tourism Trust has received support to help improve their service standards through a number of capacity and skills building activities.

The trust wholly owns and runs a traditional guesthouse and a nearby adventure trail that includes five chalets built and staffed by the surrounding communities. The infrastructure for the trail and guesthouse was built using national poverty relief funds, which provided short-term job creation and skills development through labour intensive activities. To date, more than 20 local people are employed by the Trust through their guesthouse and trail.

Web Newswire, 09 January 2010