Pretoria - Revered by international and local tourists for its enchanting quaintness, the small town of Wupperthal, located in the scenic Cederberg Mountains in the Western Cape, has added one more attraction to its array of tourism offerings - the Cederberg Donkey Cart Route.
Speaking at the unveiling of the third phase of the project on Wednesday, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said it will give visitors to the town, which is also well-known for its Rooibos and Buchu production, an authentic cultural and nature experience deep in the majestic Cederberg Mountains of the Cape West Coast.
The project entails the development of a three-day tour through the Cederberg mountain area and Heuningvlei, and a donkey trek route through Heuningvlei with accommodation facilities for overnight visitors.
The initiative, which is part of the Department of Tourism's National Rural Strategy, aims to create a community-driven bed and breakfast operation, catering for international and domestic tourists.
It also promotes tourism in the Cederberg area, which will ultimately assist in the community's development and poverty alleviation.
This will go a long way in addressing some of the challenges being faced by the tourism industry in that area such as funding for rural areas and limited involvement of local communities.
Van Schalkwyk said this phase of the project will seek to absorb a minimum of 234 beneficiaries, exposing them to experiential job training, social upliftment programmes and tourism industry awareness activities.
Through the project, the department also aims to create a platform to develop opportunities for rural development and to create an enabling environment for rural tourism development to stimulate job creation.
"An emphasis of the strategy is the understanding that the development of rural tourism can make a powerful contribution to poverty alleviation in areas that are often characterised by poverty and under development," Van Schalkwyk said.
The West Coast has also been identified as a node for tourism development. Other nodes are the Karoo, Maluti Drakensburg, Bushbuckridge and Vhembe nodes which, according to the department, present a high potential for trade, accommodation, cultural products including world heritage sites.
"This strategy is also in line with the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS), which highlights the issue of seasonality and geographic spread as challenges that make it difficult to spread the benefits of tourism.
"In supporting the geographic spread of tourism with more emphasis on supporting tourism growth in rural areas and enhancing the supply of rural tourism products, the department will focus more weight towards supporting tourism in rural areas, with the involvement of rural communities," Van Schalkwyk added.
The department, through its Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) budget, has allocated R20 million for the third phase of the project.
