TOURISM MANAGEMENT IN PROTECTED AREAS

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CHAPTER 3 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN THE KNP

INFLUENCE OF AFRIKANER NATIONALISM

The objective of this chapter is to provide an exposition of the historical overview of tourism development in the KNP. It also explains the management structures of both the KNP and SANParks to illustrate how tourism is managed in relation to other park activities. It highlights successes and failures of the KNP tourism system to facilitate the formulation of an integrated management framework for tourism.
The creation of any national park anywhere in the world can only be understood in the context of time and place when the event took place (Carruthers, 1995). Apart from the need for formal protection of wildlife, which in South Africa was almost exterminated through hunting in the late 19th century (Mabunda et al., 2003), the proclamation of the KNP was influenced by many intertwined circumstances including political, economic, social and cultural imperatives (Cock & Koch, 1994). On the one hand there was a general acceptance that the principle of a national park was morally correct, that the viewing and studying of wildlife constituted a legitimate and desirable action in furthering the protection of the wildlife ideal (Carruthers, 1995; Pollard et al., 2003). On the other hand there were socio-political and economic reasons that are often glossed over when the story of the KNP’s success is related by ecologists.
The KNP was proclaimed during a period when an aggressive, though perhaps still nascent, Afrikaner nationalism and a search for a white South African identity were unfolding (O’Meara, 1983). This national identity was manifested in the unveiling of a new South African Flag (1928), the adoption of Afrikaans as an official language (1925), the revival of Voortrekker traditions by the Ossewa Brandwag Movement led by Dr Hans van Rensburg, the resurfacing of republican ideals and the loosening of imperial ties with Britain (Davenport & Saunders, 2000). It was against this backdrop that Eskom (the electricity utility), Yskor (Iron & Steel Corporation) and others were established as a form of state economic intervention to support the growing nationalism economically (O’Meara, 1983). In the private sector Afrikaner-led businesses such as Sanlam, Uniewinkels and Volkskas supported the Union Government’s economic policies in dealing with the poor white problem (O’Meara, 1983). The establishment of the NPB added value to the government’s programme of offering employment opportunities promote academic scientific research.

Tourism Department

• maximize (financial) contributions from tourism operations;
• create appropriate opportunities for public use, benefit and enjoyment;
• create benefits for local communities;
• create opportunities for academic research; and
• balance tourism and conservation objectives.

People and Conservation25

• improve demographics of park attendance to represent all South Africans;
• promote environmental education in South Africa;
• build good relationships with local communities; and
• build support among staff.

Corporate Services Department

• human resources management;
• finance; and
• information technology, legal services, administration, capacity building and purchasing.

Parks Department

• various operational conservation, tourism and support services of 19 smaller parks excluding the KNP.

KNP Department

• Various operational conservation, tourism and support services in the KNP (SANParks, 2002, McKinsey, 2002).

KNP in the SANParks stable

The KNP derives its mandate from the main SANParks vision and mission. The mission statement of the KNP is “to maintain biodiversity in all its natural facets and fluxes, and to to unskilled and semi-skilled whites (Carruthers, 1995). It was a precursor to the present day Affirmative Action.
South Africa was not an exception in the nationalistic interpretation of wildlife conservation in that early era. Countries like the USA had led the way by doing the same when establishing their national parks (Clepper, 1966). The reliance on nature as proof of national greatness began in earnest after American independence from Great Britain. The USA idea of national parks had nothing to do with preservation of nature but the mobilization of the American national feeling to satisfy a painfully felt desire for time- honoured traditions for the New World as opposed to the Old World (Europe) (Runte, 1987). In Australia, the sentiments of nationalism fed upon and encouraged the romanticization of the Australian frontier experience (Birckhead, 1992; Wallace, 1992). National parks appear to be connected to a certain stage in a country’s cultural evolution and help to weld together different groups. In the KNP’s case the national park status it achieved in 1926 played a crucial role in the unification of Englishspeaking and Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans despite their cultural differences and economically different orientations (O’Meara, 1983). The two groups found common ground and consolidated their interests in conservation to the total exclusion of black people from this newly found national interest (Carruthers, 1995).

SCIENTIFIC CONSERVATION

From the conservation perspective, and as part of the classic paradigm of protected area management, initial philosophical views regarding the KNP were influenced and shaped by internationally reputable thinkers, philosophers, scientists, biologists, preachers and activists who developed the idea of environmentalism and its significance to the survival of all life forms (Fabricius et al., 2001). This was in response to the dramatic environmental degradation caused by the Industrial Revolution in Europe (Guha, 2000).
The responses to environmental degradation led to an ideology of “scientific conservation”.
This new ideology of rational management of resource areas brought forests and other natural resources under state control (Commoner, 1972). The growth of the wilderness idea was a direct response to the ideology of “scientific conservation”. American intellectuals such as John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau followed the examples of the likes of Shelley, Byron, Wordsworth and Keats in promoting the idea of preserving wilderness areas from the onslaught of the plough and the bulldozer (Runte, 1987). In colonies like South Africa, large areas were cleared of the indigenous people and conserved for the exclusive use of white colonizers and their progeny (Guha, 2000).
Rolston (1989), in his work Philosophy Gone Wild, exerts a great influence on environmental ethics based on homeostasis and natural laws. According to the homeostasis theory the planetary system is essentially closed and life proceeds by recycling transformation, a principle that is embraced by the adaptive management approach. The recycling of systems results into a balance of nature and energy in a dynamic evolutionary process. Rolston sees it as an ethical and moral obligation for mankind to come to terms with his environment and the resources at his disposal, promoting rather than disrupting those great cycles of nature – of water movement, energy flow and transformation (similar to the cycle stages of the adaptive management process) – that has made life possible. Mankind must seek to achieve a “steady state”. The planet is a homeostatic system of finite resources and careless use of such resources has implications of an impending tragedy.
Rolston (1989) further argues that the wilderness is the scarcest resource and is threatened with imminent extinction if drastic steps are not taken to protect it. Nature is so special to man because it yields commodity, beauty, wisdom, discipline and spiritual healing. Certain areas and landscapes are preserved for their beauty and value and should be protected from destruction by man. Wild beauty adds spiritual quality to life and therefore wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity for the protection of humanized nature and for the preservation of mental health.
The question that this study raises is how, in a developing country like South Arica where poverty prevails at such high levels, can it be justifiable to preserve natural resources for its sake alone and in total exclusion of human use or enjoyment as these early environmental philosophers suggest? Even in First World countries like the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, national parks were set aside for human recreational enjoyment and nation building in addition to wilderness preservation (Pigram & Sundell, 1997).
The early history of the KNP and its tourism growth was influenced to a large extent by these philosophical viewpoints of environmentalism. The traits of this era are still very much alive in the KNP today as it will be demonstrated later in the philosophical position and wilderness management approaches of the different epochs of management in the park. It is imperative to briefly analyse the organizational structure and functions of SANParks and the KNP to facilitate a deeper understanding of the problems associated with a lack of a tourism management plan in the KNP and how tourism has been managed in relation to other functions since 1927.

DECLARATION 
SUMMARY 
SAMEVATTING 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 
1.1 PROTECTED AREAS UNDER SIEGE
1.2 TOURISM MANAGEMENT IN PROTECTED AREAS
1.3 LACK OF PRODUCT QUALITY
1.4 REVENUE GENERATING PROBLEMS
1.5 LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY DUE TO TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
1.6 MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY
1.6.1 Conflict between tourism and conservation
1.6.2 Lack of social research
1.6.3 Qualifications of tourism managers
1.6.4 Previous attempts at formulating management plans
1.6.5 Lack of strategic direction
1.6.6 Aspects of tourism already researched in the KNP
1.6.7 An “implicit” management plan
1.7 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.8 RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES
1.8.1 Research aim
1.8.2 Research objectives
1.9 DELIMITATION
1.10 DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA
1.11 CHOICE OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1.11.1 Is tourism a field for scholarly inquiry?
1.11.2 Surveys used
1.11.3 Triangulation
1.11.4 Flexibility of the researcher
1.11.5 Transferability of the study’s findings
1.11.6 Interpretation and analysis of research data
1.12 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
1.13 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
1.14 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 2: TOWARDS A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK IN FORMULATING AN INTEGRATED TOURISM MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK 
2.1 TOURISM PRACTICE IN NATIONAL PARKS
2.2 INCORPORATING ECOTOURISM PRINCIPLES IN NATIONAL PARKS
2.3 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
2.4 ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT AND TOURISM
2.5 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GLOBAL MANAGEMENT APPROACHES
2.6 EVALUATION OF TOURISM MANAGEMENT IN PARKS
2.7 EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR PROTECTED AREAS
2.8 LEGAL BASIS FOR KNP TOURISM MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
2.9 THEORETICAL TOURISM MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
2.10 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 3: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN THE KNP 
3.1 INFLUENCE OF AFRIKANER NATIONALISM
3.2 SCIENTIFIC CONSERVATION
3.3 SANPARKS AND KNP MANAGEMENT STRUCTURES
3.4 ROLE OF EARLY GAME RANGERS IN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
3.5 BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OF THE KNP
3.6 ECONOMIC IMPACT OF KNP TOURISM
3.7 HISTORICAL GROWTH OF TOURIST NUMBERS
3.8 COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT
3.9 KNP OCCUPANCIES
3.10 QUALITY OF KNP PRODUCTS
3.11 PRICING POLICY
3.12 COMMERCIALIZATION AS A CONSERVATION STRATEGY
3.13 FINANCIAL VIABILITY
3.14 WILDERNESS QUALITIES AND TOURISM PLANNING
3.15 RELATIONSHIP WITH NEIGHBOURING COMMUNITIES
3.16 PARK INFRASTRUCTURE AND MAINTENANCE
3.17 MARKETING RESEARCH AND STRATEGY
3.18 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 4: SURVEYING TOURIST PROFILES AND SATISFACTION WITH THE KNP TOURISM FACILITIES AND SERVICE DELIVERY 
4.1 TOURIST SURVEY
4.2 SURVEY ON OUTSOURCING OF REST CAMP ACCOMMODATION
4.3 VALUE-LADDERING INTERVIEWS
4.4 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 5: BENEFITS BEYOND BOUNDARIES – RHETORIC OR REALITY?
5.1 RATIONALE FOR THE SURVEY
5.2 OBJECTIVES
5.3 RESEARCH METHOD
5.4 RESULTS
5.5 DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATION
5.6 SWOT ANALYSIS
5.7 COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION OF SURVEYS
5.8 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 6: FORMULATING A TOURISM MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK 
6.1 MANAGEMENT CONTEXT
6.2 LEGAL BASIS
6.3 PREPARATION OF A MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
6.4 CONSULTATIVE WORKSHOPS
6.5 MANAGEMENT PARADIGM
6.6 ADAPTIVE TOURISM MANAGEMENT PROCESS
6.7.2 Grading by the Tourism Grading Council 192
6.8 PRESSURE ON SERVICES AND FACILITIES
6.9 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
6.10 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
6.11 MARKETING PLAN
6.12 EXAMPLE OF AN INTEGRATED MATRIX OF TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL ATTRIBUTES
6.13 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
6.14 DEVELOPMENT OF A BUSINESS PLAN
6.15 MONITORING AND EVALUATION PLAN
6.16 TOURISM RESEARCH
6.17 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 7: FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND SHORTCOMINGS OF THE STUDY 
7.1 RESOLUTION OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
7.2 SHORTCOMINGS OF THE STUDY
7.3 AREAS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
7.4 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES CITED
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