A unifying strategy for Southern Africa
When South Africa bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, it was on the understanding that the tournament would not only benefit South Africa, but the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and the wider continent.
Following the bid, a resolution was passed between SADC countries that mandated Ministers responsible for Sport, Tourism and Information to develop strategies that would ensure the region maximises the benefits from the event.
Within much of Southern Africa, effective management of natural resources requires at least some degree of management across boundaries, as many countries were divided without taking into consideration the effect of such boundaries on the ecosystem.
In an attempt to rectify such problems, the Peace Parks Foundation– which was created to assist Governments in establishing a network of protected areas throughout Africa – sought to establish and develop a series of Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) and Transfrontier Parks (TFPs)
A Transfrontier Conservation Area is an area straddling across two or more international borders where the natural and cultural resources are collaboratively managed by the governments or authorities involved
It was agreed that TFCAs and TFPs in southern Africa had the potential to benefit from the World Cup in terms of tourism spill over as they are home to much of Africa’s unique attractions, including wildlife, beautiful landscapes, culture and history, and they have functional governance structures for international collaboration.
Therefore TFCAs were identified as the correct mechanism for spreading the tourism benefits of the 2010 World Cup in Africa through branding and marketing the region as a favourable tourism and investment destination.
Emergence of Boundless Southern Africa
A key factor in delivering the TFCA strategy was to develop a consolidated brand which was launched in May 2008: Boundless Southern Africa– nature, culture, community.
The main objective of the Boundless Southern Africa brand is to increase the tourism potential of Southern Africa by consolidating the marketing, infrastructure development and investment promotion efforts of existing transfrontier initiatives.
The strategy focuses on seven TFCAs including /Ai /Ais-Richtesveld, Kgalagadi, Limpopo-Shashe, Great Limpopo, Lubombo, Maloti-Drakensberg and Kavango-Zambezi, cutting across the nine SADC countries of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This initiative is referred to as the TFCA 2010 Development Strategy, the implementation of which is being coordinated by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) in South Africa.
TFCAs comprise of many of Southern Africa’s biggest attractions including key anchor tourist products such as the mighty Victoria Falls, the Okavango Delta, and the Fish River Canyon, making them one of Africa’s unique selling points.
The unifying brand helps to make a strong marketing model for SADC globally and will also form the basis for awareness-raising campaigns and active marketing of TFCAs.
One of the current constraints for tourism growth in the SADC region is lack of investment, due to limited awareness among the international community about opportunities in the region, and a lack of packaged and ready to go investments.
To this extent the region has packaged more than 50 investment opportunities in the various countries under the Boundless Southern Africa brand, ranging from small and medium lodge type developments to multi million rand developments such as the Kavango-Zambesi Waterfront Development.
The TFCA 2010 infrastructure and investment process aims at stimulating investment in TFCAs in both short and long term basis.
For further information about Boundless Southern Africa and the investment opportunities in TFCAs:
Contact: Deborah Kahatano, programme manager
Email: dkahatano@deat.gov.za
Tel: +27 (0) 12 310 3734
