General discussion on proposed hotels in KNP

[Bushcraft]

You have hit the nail on the head Penny

[Richprins]

This is a brilliant summary, straight from the heart, Penny...and exactly what AW are working so hard against!

Thanks so much for your guts!

The concessions will revert to SP one day, but they have their own road networks, by and large, and use their own facilities. They are struggling...which proves even further that these luxury hotels are ill-conceived.

[H. erectus]

With Malelane project incognito,... homework done,

Skuks up next for scrutiny!!!! sniffle, sniffle,...

[Richprins]

One big factor that SP misses, in its drive for money, is that overnighters spend tens or even hundreds of times as much compared to day visitors.

An example:

As day visitor, with wild card, I enter the Park for free, (Although some of my WC money goes to SP).

I take in my own food and sit at every sighting and picnic spot...maybe even taking my own skottel, and use the toilets at the restcamp should it be required. I don't need to shop...I would have eaten the same food at home anyway...but I can contribute to the worsening queue at the shop just to buy an ice-cream.


I can go ten times a year if I'm a local, covering my WC costs, and obviously don't need to buy petrol either, although I may fill up in the Park to make sure.

So theoretically a thousand of us could enter Southern Kruger on any given day, without the Park making a cent!


On the other hand, you have your old regular overnight visitor, often spending R2000 per night or more on accommodation alone, paying conservation fees as WC is not worth it for the yearly or maybe twice-yearly trip, filling up on petrol and visiting the restaurant, using the shop etc.

And then the regular or even new foreign self-drive visitor, paying even more in duties and transport.

The above two categories then end up having paid many thousands of Euros and Rands and Dollars (On the way to Kruger, never mind after that)...to be met by no parking, no toilet, no space at picnic spot, shortages/queues at shops, restaurants under renovation, poorly maintained accommodation....and above all sitting in a traffic jam at a lion sighting while getting later and later for Camp!


There will come a stage when the actual "taxpayers" so to speak, will seek other destinations! (In fact some have already)

Once sufficient word spreads that Kruger is no longer acceptable, it will be a financial catastrophe...effectively like the stock market!

[H. erectus]

Kruger is no longer acceptable

And beckoning it is, people are beginning to sense the hypocrisy
at the deed!!! It is no longer acceptable what happens there!!!

[Lisbeth]

Thank you Penny

Actually there is nothing new in Penny's report on the deficiencies of Sanparks. The scandal is that many of us have been complaining about the very same things for years and Penny proves that NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE apart from the prices which have been raised.....again!

As the proposed hotels are not my cup of tea, actually I am fiercely against them, I doubt that Kruger will ever see me again. 2 years ago I started staying outside the park, but that does not satisfy me either, because you are too limited in your movement. Yesterday I started organizing my next trip...........to Botswana

[H. erectus]

Cool it Liz, do not cut off your nose to spite your face!

[H. erectus]

Penny made some good remarks in her post here and elsewhere and
in time these will become prominent issues. Time will tell, believe me,
if only for the betterment of these national parks.

[Richprins]

Just remember, Malelane lodge and Skuks hotel are two entirely different animals..


SANParks are footing the bill for the Skuks Hotel, and still paying off on the Conference centre...with ballooning budgets in both cases.

In August 2010 an SP spokeswoman stated in local media that the Conference centre would use existing Skuks accommodation, so no need for concern. A lie.


The Malelane fiasco is, IMO, a trial run for the further peripheral hotels envisioned around Kruger's Western boundary...Shangoni being a prime example. The real "thin end of the wedge"...


"Privately" funded.

[Toko]

Source: 2013/14 Annual Performance Report and Financial Statement