Living outside the fence: Opportunities for neighbouring communities to supply products and services to the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa

Abstract

An evaluation was undertaken to understand opportunities for stimulating local enterprise development within the tourism supply chain, linked to a private game reserve in South Africa, the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, which neighbours the Kruger National Park. The study focussed on understanding the market demand for local products and services from commercial lodges, and the current local supply from enterprises and entrepreneurs in local communities. This article quantifies the value of current procurement spend by lodges on local products and services and estimates their potential future expenditure. The study matches these responses with the availability of products and services in the neighbouring communities. It also provides insights into relationships between private lodges, game reserves and local communities in South Africa. It concurs with previous research on tourism supply chains in rural South Africa, and also makes recommendations for the development of local businesses with higher technical capacity development.

Keywords: Tourism; communities; business development; South Africa, Sabi Sand Game Reserve, market study, supply study.