THE Eastern Cape Centre for Investment and Marketing's sector manager of tourism, Tembela Zweni, has singled out infrastructure and land issues as the two most important obstacles to tourism investment along the struggling Wild Coast. She told Travel Now that many investors had shown interest in the area but were not willing to commit themselves until the infrastructural backlogs had been addressed.
This supports a number of major concerns that - voiced strongly by local tourism stakeholders - threaten to jeopardise regional tourism.
Tour broker, Rina Verbaan of Reservations Frontline, firmly believes that the "disgusting" state of the roads in the Eastern Cape's Wild Coast region is seriously hampering tourism development in the area.
"I've been specialising in tours to East London and the Wild Coast (previously Transkei) for 14 years now and all I can say is that the roads are getting progressively worse and I feel compelled to discourage my clients from taking these roads," she told Travel Now.
According to her, the potholes, erosion, washaways, gravel roads and broken or non-existent road signs are also one of the main reasons that most of the hotels and guest houses in the area are only reflecting a 20% occupancy rate.
"The government's apathy about this situation needs to be addressed, too. They've got to realise that if they want to attract international tourists and create jobs and other opportunities for the community, they have to upgrade the infrastructure to international standards."
Bus operator, Springbok Atlas, has also indicated that it "simply can't" use the coastal roads, including the road between Port Elizabeth and East London which is in a "very bad condition", according to the company's Eastern Cape representative, Isabella van der Merwe.
"It's a pity because there is huge tourism potential in all those coastal towns and we certainly have had several enquiries from people expressing interest in travelling there, but the state of the roads is inhibiting the growth of tourism."
Springbok Atlas does travel through the Wild Coast area during the day, but takes a long detour through Bloemfontein in the Free State at night. "It's just not safe at night when you can't see the erosion on the side of the road, the farm animals wandering along the roads or the great, gaping potholes," says van der Merwe.
Clive Berlyn, chairman of the Wild Coast Hotel Association, also maintains that the provincial government is not taking tourism infrastructure "seriously enough".
"They acknowledged last year that the roads were in a state of disrepair, allocated money for repairs and invited tenders, but to date no tenders have been awarded," says Berlyn.
As regards low occupancies, Berlyn believes it's "a bit of a mixed bag". "We had an extremely good festive season, and now I must say that while some establishments have shown a considerable drop, others have had an increase in occupancy."
Following extensive floods in the Eastern Cape areas, the roads have now reached an unprecedented state of disrepair.
After completing a three-day tour of the flooded areas in the province last week, a delegation of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) recommended that the Eastern Cape be declared a disaster area.
NCOP chairperson of public works, transport and housing, Penny Majodina said: "Rural Transkei has basically collapsed following many natural disasters and 20 years of zero infrastructure renewal."
Marketing manager for the Eastern Cape Tourism Board, Judy van Vuuren acknowledged that the roads in this region are "not as good as the rest of the country", but said that that since the respective tourism authorities in the area began lobbying to get the roads repaired, quite a bit had been done.
Wiseman Luma, publicity officer for Eastern Cape Tourism's Wild Coast region echoes this and says that the organisation has been "working closely" with the government to address the situation.
"However, funds are always a consideration and people should be aware that roads cannot all be repaired at once. For now, peo
