Pro-Poor Tourism programme pilots in Southern Africa

Thursday, 19 Dec, 2002 0

Six leading Southern African tourism industry members have been announced as partners in a new Pro-Poor Tourism programme.

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 safaritour 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 two and a half 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.

For further information see www.pptpilot.org.za.
For general background on pro poor tourism, see www.propoortourism.org.uk.

Contact details:
Clive Poultney, Mboza Tourism Projects, PO Box 95636, Waterkloof 1045, South Africa, Telefax: 035 572 5239/40; Fax: 012 460 2391; Email: [email protected]

Caroline Ashley & Dorothea Meyer, Overseas Development Institute, 111 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7JD, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7922 0342; Fax: +44(0) 20 7922 0399; Email: [email protected] and [email protected].

(Please mention you read this information on TravelMole.)