The socio-economic impact of Africa’s oldest marine park

Koedoe - African Protected Area Conservation and Science

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The socio-economic impact of Africa’s oldest marine park
 
Creator Oberholzer, Susan Saayman, Melville Saayman, Andrea Slabbert, Elmarie
 
Subject Tourism management community; marine tourism; national parks; partial multiplier modelling; regional economy; socio-economic impact; tourism
Description South African National Parks (SANParks) plays a major role in the tourism industry and has three primary functions, namely to conserve biodiversity, to create tourism and recreational opportunities and to build strong community relations. These parks, therefore, have a definite socio-economic impact on adjacent communities, although little is known about this impact. The main aim of this study was to determine the socio-economic impact of Africa’s oldest marine park, namely Tsitsikamma National Park, which forms part of the newly created Garden Route National Park. This was done by conducting three surveys during April 2008: a visitor’s survey (156 respondents), a community survey (132 respondents) and a business survey (11 respondents). We found that the park has a positive economic impact on the surrounding area and that the community exhibits a favourable attitude towards Tsitsikamma National Park. The results also differed when compared to similar studies conducted at other national parks in South Arica and one of the main reasons for this was that the park is located in a touristic area. For a greater impact however, the park should expand its marine activities, while communication with the local community could also be improved.Conservation implications: Good community relations and ecotourism activities are important components of good conservation practices. This research indicates that tourism activities not only generated funds for conservation, but also benefited the local communities of Tsitsikamma National Park. The positive attitude of local communities makes conservation of biodiversity more sustainable.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor NRF and SANParks
Date 2010-09-21
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Survey
Format text/html text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/koedoe.v52i1.879
 
Source Koedoe; Vol 52, No 1 (2010); 9 pages 2071-0771 0075-6458
 
Language eng
 
Relation
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https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/879/1148 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/879/1149 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/879/1150 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/downloadSuppFile/879/552 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/downloadSuppFile/879/553 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/downloadSuppFile/879/554 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/downloadSuppFile/879/555 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/downloadSuppFile/879/556 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/downloadSuppFile/879/557 https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/downloadSuppFile/879/558
 
Coverage Africa, South Africa — 132 households and 156 visitors
Rights Copyright (c) 2010 Susan Oberholzer, Melville Saayman, Andrea Saayman, Elmarie Slabbert https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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