Kruger Day-Visitor Rules During Peak Periods

[Flutterby]

7 December 2015
Sam Smith

Cape Town - In an effort to tackle visitor access management and to dodge festive season congestion over this holiday period, Kruger National Park Management is implementing a new system to streamline day visitor access at gates during the busy period.

Day visitors can choose and book a time slot prior to arrival from one of three-time slots through the SANParks online reservations system:

Time slot 1: Arrive 0 to 2 Hours after gate opening time. (Summer months 05:30 to 07:30)

Time slot 2: Arrive 2 to 4 Hours after gate opening time. (Summer months 07:30 to 09:30)

Time slot 3: Arrive 4+ Hours after gate opening time. (Summer months 09:30 onwards).

The new system for the park is a management tool to maintain the number of visitors the park can manage, with up to 80% of Day Visitor Quota per gate bookable via the SANParks Reservations offices online.

The pre-booked visitors will have preference over non-booked day visitors at the gate.

SANParks wishes to better manage their volumes that are expected on busy days - but most importantly manage visitor expectations of what you imagine your Kruger experience to be - which does not include a day spent waiting to enter the park and enjoy a safari experience.

Busy days are expected to be Saturdays and Sundays, particularly 25, 26 and 27 December 2015 - as well as 1, 2 and 3 January 2016.

The new scheme will improve the spread of vehicles, park traffic and unnecessary waiting periods at the gates, says KNP Managing Executive, Glenn Phillips.

If you are a pre-booked day visitor make sure you arrive within the time slots as per your reservation. If you arrive outside the booked time slot you will be regarded as non-booked and no longer a preferential visitor.

Visitors who have made reservations prior to this new system will automatically be allocated to Time slot 1. Visitors are being advised to change and manage their bookings through SANParks online reservations system.

What you need to know:

Day visitor bookings are subject to a non-refundable booking fee of R36 per adult and R18 per child.

Day Visitors who have booked are still required to pay Conservations Fees or use their Wild Cards to enter the park.

In order to make the admission process flow on busy days - SANParks asks day visitors to pay for Conservations Fees in advance or make sure they have Wild Card memberships.

If you plan to use your wild card, make sure your membership is valid before arrival at www.sanparks.org/wild_new/. You will be requested to identify yourself upon admission with an SA drivers license, identity document or your passport.

Due to existing contractual arrangements with Open Safari Vehicles, their vehicles are regarded as booked for all day visitor admissions.

Open Safari Vehicles entering Phabeni Gate are allowed entry 30 minutes before external gate opening time during summer.

Gate Quotas will be applied and unbooked guests could possibly be refused admission. To make your wait in the gate queue is more enjoyable, SANParks is providing serviced toilets at points on the road during peak time.

Additionally a community initiative, selling hot and cold beverages to visitors waiting for entry, will also be available. SANParks kindly urges guests to remain patient and understanding of the new changes.

Source: http://traveller24.news24.com/TravelPla ... m-20151207

[Richprins]

This is by implication an admission that Kruger has too many day visitors...end of story!

I know they don't make much money from them/us..or do they?

The ethos is not to turn anyone away from the gate, understandably, but once they start doing so, it will help a lot with congestion!

There has to be a limit at some stage.

[nan]

it will be again and again the chaos

[H. erectus]

And they just will not admit too over utilization,...
damn hell, for they will persist in getting those
numbers through the gates,..this gesture only to
offset the number of vehicles per kilometer!!!!!

Maybe so in shortsightedness, however those
numbers will be in,....and through the gates!!!
Large amounts of monies through a single gate!!

Me beginning too hate this mentality!!!!,.

[Mel]

Being positive... it's a start?

[Alf]

Money making scheme.

Now you pay an additional amount for a pre-booking which are non-refundable and the normal conservation fee

[jb72]

Open Safari Vehicles entering Phabeni Gate are allowed entry 30 minutes before external gate opening time during summer

I just don't think this is fair. I know you have an option of entering at another gate, but why do they get preferential treatment? They are the ones causing all the problems at Phabeni, so we reward them by letting them enter the park before anyone else?

Its all about the money, money, money....

[RobertT]

Can you see them entering at 4h30 in Dec? It would mean their guests have to wake at around 3h30 to do the drives. They will still be pitching up with the plebs and going to front of queues.

This system also is elitist only allowing people with access to internet and credit/debit cards to book. Sorry for the local that they are supposedly trying to attract.

So if gate quotas are exceeded by people booking and some are for the later arrival spots, does this mean the poor guy who has been queuing doesn't get in because someone who is arriving 4+ hours after you booked online, it is just about money and has nothing to do with fairness.

[H. erectus]

Sanparks are in a bit of a catch 22 here!! They
are hellbent for the revenue derived however they
are being scrutinized with regard to numbers of
vehicles per kilometer!!!!!

Kruger gate has been a headache to Sanparks!!!!,
in the sense that with current developments and
commercialization it has become necessary to find
other means of transport systems that will be relief
to this problem,....Please take note we are talking
about vehicles here and not number of wheels!!!!


Skukuza hotel, supportive staff will be shipped in by
bus!! maybe two,..to my mind a mission that will just
never be justified,.....

Public transport utility will just become bigger , for the
per capita headcount is where the fortune lies,.

These are very alarming situations that just never get
addressed for they are free and irrelevantly unattached
to any argument per se,...

Folks be aware, world heritage is getting stripped to the
"bone" for simple greed,....

[Richprins]

Well, theoretically, nothing changes re. money if the gate quotas stay the same, but it is very difficult to confirm those quotas!


https://www.africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=278&t=6076

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