The Eastern Cape holds immense untapped tourism potential, boasting a unique blend of natural beauty, cultural heritage and recreational activities, but these opportunities, and the countless jobs that could accompany them, are being squandered by the provincial government.

The Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA), established to effectively manage and conserve our biodiversity while promoting, sustainably developing, and transforming the tourism industry in the province, is failing miserably.

In response to a parliamentary question from the Democratic Alliance (DA) Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism MEC, Mlungisi Mvoko, revealed that runaway employee costs and abysmal occupancy rates have decimated the revenue of the 15 parks operated by ECPTA.

MEC Mvoko revealed that the parks ran at a loss of R89 million and had an occupancy rate of just 37,6% during the 2022/2023 financial year.

Collectively, the parks generated less than R12 million in revenue but had expenses in excess of R15 million and blew a staggering R85,5 million on salaries!

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While it may have secured a clean audit for six years in a row, this only means ECPTA is achieving its key performance indicators (KPIs) and is administering its budget according to financial regulations.

The MEC’s response clearly shows that the KPIs need to be amended. The ECPTA has no idea how to tap into the tourism potential of this province. It should focus on promoting the Eastern Cape to both national and international tourists. If marketed correctly, our rich cultural heritage, scenic beaches, rugged mountains, and rich biodiversity could create a tourism mecca.

Instead, like so many other state institutions, our parks have become captured, a haven for deployed cadres earning extravagant salaries with no benefit to the communities they are meant to serve.

We need to engage with private companies with the necessary skill sets to partner with the government to revive these parks, capacitate the staff, and put the necessary mechanisms in place to make them profitable.

We must engage with other departments, such as roads and transport, to ensure these parks are accessible. It seems common sense that occupancy levels will plummet if the roads are so bad that guests cannot get to your venue!

The DA recognises the untapped potential that our tourism sector has for the provincial economy and has a turnaround plan that will revitalise this sector, which has the potential to create thousands of much-needed jobs.

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