Turning indigent communities into custodians of the wild
Tourism Conservation Fund has an ambitious goal: to link the survival of animals in our game parks to the livelihoods of humans on their borders
It is not possible to get more right than the Tourism Business Council’s Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa in Business Day a week ago. Tourism has become SA’s lifeblood. In one sense, it’s more important than gold ever was. Not as a bigger proportion of the economy but as crucial evidence in these moribund times that growth can actually happen. Recall: this is an industry that brought more than 30,000 net jobs into being last year. Despite severe official unhelpfulness in the form of tardy visas, complex visas, and, yet another bullet in the country’s foot, continuing confusion over minors’ visas. So while we wait, hope, pray and work for the economy to stand up and deliver, South Africans can take heart that at least a 10% sliver of it is roaring. The nature of tourism’s contribution is as important as the contribution itself. More than any other sector, tourism is founded on small businesses, is labour-intensive, includes low-skill roles, and employs women. Here is Cyril Ramaphosa’s inclusive...
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