Nelspruit Meeting Day Visitors Wednesday, 22 November 2017

[Richprins]

Myself and leachy to attend....suggestions for questions?

[Richprins]

Was thinking we should suggest going back to pre-2010 Southern day-visitor gate quotas, as they put them up for the World Cup and never took them down again!

And also remove the defunct Mjejane Gate from the system, it adds 550 people to other gates per day, potentially? Clarity required.

Also make delivery vehicles and SAPS, Army to quotas. Clarity required.

Also, how EXACTLY do open safari vehicles fit into the quota picture?

All this should reduce the number of day visitors by over 40% during peak times

[Richprins]

A very pleasant touch from Liandi...extremely professional!



Good day,



Just a friendly reminder of the focus group discussion happening on Wednesday morning at 9am at the Protea Hotel in Nelspruit (30 Orchards, Jerepico St, Nelspruit).

Thank you in advance for putting time aside to talk to us.



Kind regards,



Liandi Slabbert

Manager: Tourism Research

South African National Parks

Tel: (012) 426 5000

Email: liandi.slabbert@sanparks.org

www.sanparks.org

www.wildcard.co.za

Email signature

[Richprins]

One should also ask if self-drive will be ended or not, and skip the twaddle, methinks.

If congestion is used as an excuse for that, well...SANParks have CREATED said congestion!

https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=278&t=3886

[Bushcraft]

One should also ask if self-drive will be ended or not, and skip the twaddle, methinks.

If congestion is used as an excuse for that, well...SANParks have CREATED said congestion!

Agreed

[Richprins]

Here's a direct link to Flutts' video, for newer members!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBKLLhE ... e=youtu.be

[Flutterby]

Thanks RP...had forgotten about that! Posted it on the Concerned SANParks Stakeholders FB page.

[Richprins]

Sharp, Flutts!

Well, we had a very nice meeting, IMO! This version is totally different...I've finally got to the bottom of how it works:

It does not appear to be a SANParks initiative as such, rather an idea from the Aussie squad to do useful research for university paper purposes whic SP have taken on board. The cool and ernest Liandi just facilitates and observes, no other SP bigwigs droning on, and Jo and Roy run the show very professionally and without malice or forethought.

There were about 10 stakeholders at this one, a nice size, and time was used well with the normal brainstorming of problems and solutions. Productive and to the point.

The emails were sent out very randomly as invites, it is specifically just a sample as far as the public is concerned, as the data collation that is to come doesn't need much more. However, anyone can be added to the project if they want to, just use Liandi's email address. It is not a rubber stamp business, it seems, and the Aussies were bemused at how suspicious most of us were! Dr Roy is publishing the results as his own paper in Aus, as well as presenting them to SANParks in February...so all data is safe and transparent IMO.

There are 7 or so sessions, after which all stakeholder input regarding suggestions around remedying traffic issues in Kruger will be collated and returned to participants/email list for what is effectively a voting process as to which are the best options. Two rounds of "voting", where in the first round one can still come up with more suggestions. (It is a "how strongly do you agree 1-6" questionnaire system.)

The process should be concluded by Christmas, no mess no fuss.

[Richprins]

Will put up some choice things that came up later. We could not really fight with anyone, which is also a good thing!

So for example, no point in speculating about self-drive being taken away, although the guys in charge are perfectly aware of the rubber-stamping factor, and seem very sharp.

[Flutterby]

Thanks RP.