The granting of permits in Sanparks will be subject to compliance with the requirements of the BEE Tourism Scorecard and the Sanparks supply chain management policy.
This was announced by Sanparks executive director for tourism development and marketing, Glenn Phillips at the recent Tourism Indaba in Durban.
"Once the department of Trade and Industry Good-Practice Codes and Tourism Scorecard have been gazetted, they will be applied in full by Sanparks and the issuing of permits will be subject to the BEE status as per BEE Tourism Scorecard criteria."
In the interim, Sanparks offered an incentive to operators that meet the Tourism Scorecard BEE criteria. "Those operators that produce compliance certificates from recognised compliance evaluators that confirms their BEE status as good or excellent BEE contributor at the time of application, and not later that October 31, 2006, will be granted 25 percent discount for the permit year November 1, 2006 to October 31, 2007," says Glenn.
Glenn also announced an increase in the annual fee for open safari vehicles (OSV) operating in the Kruger National Park (KNP). The annual fee of R5000 per vehicle will be phased in over two years. "The price for OSV permits will increase to R2 500 from November 1, 2006 and R5 000 from November 1, 2007.
OSV operators will in future be able to pick up presolicited guests inside the park without additional charges and it is envisaged that OSV rates per person upon admission will remain at R120 until at least October 31, 2007," says Glenn. He added that Sanparks will update safety requirement for OSVs in line with the changing legislative and risk environment and that all OSV operators would be kept informed.
