Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa – Investment and Employment - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 247

Madikwe revisited
If the exchange between researchers and policy makers in tourism needs to be
underpinned by a comprehensive and collaborative research framework such as
the one outlined by Mitchell and Ashley (2007), Madikwe is certainly providing
visible benefits to a poor area of South Africa, even if the economy of the reserve
is not comprehensively researched. This research study looks at labour income
effects covered by category (1) enumerated by Mitchell and Ashley above.
In 1992, the newly established protected area had provided only a few
marginal employment opportunities in agriculture. Planning ahead, Davies et al
(1997) provided some economic scenarios which included an employment
estimate of around 1200 tourism jobs at full development.The employment figure
in Madikwe is an important one from the poor household perspective. Much of
the local (direct) benefit goes to people who reside outside the reserve and occupy
formal employment positions within. Little is known about the multiplier effects
of their spending within the local economy but the anecdotal evidence suggests
that there may be a high level of leakage to more distant urban centres and metro-
politan service providers.
In Madikwe, cash benefits from formal employment constitute a dominant
proportion of total economic benefits associated with this destination economy.
Relly (2004a, 2004b) conducted a review of investment and employment in 2003
and some of these data have been augmented by recent developments to June
2007.
There are five chosen categories of employer in the Madikwe area: commer-
cial lodges, corporate lodges, peripheral tourism enterprises contiguous with the
reserve, small and micro enterprises (SMMEs) providing goods and services to
the aforementioned and finally NWPTB being the provincial wildlife authority
and protected area manager. Collectively they are referred to as the Madikwe
'Cluster' being a geographically and thematically linked group of inter-connected
enterprises in and around MGR.
Two categories of employer were reviewed and updated: 'Commercial
Lodges' and 'Corporate Lodges' The 2003 study has been used as a baseline for
earnings increases and employee profiling. Profiling refers to the categories
mentioned above: female, local and previously disadvantaged. Where indicated in
this study, 2003 employee earnings figures are brought forward unchanged from
that study and show nominal earnings in 2003 US$.
Investment figures (at cost) from 2003 have been inflated at 5 per cent per
annum in the base currency (SA rands) to obtain nominal parity figures for all
investment amounts in June 2007, and then converted to US$, the reporting
currency. Table 12.1 shows the total investments made to June 2007 in US$ and
provides a backdrop for other data within the reserve (US$ figures converted at
the exchange rates on 30 June 2007 at 7 SA Rand to 1 US$).
The total investment in the reserve amounts to around $93 million.
Government investment has attracted private sector capital in a multiple of 2.34,
that is, private sector investment at $65.14 million is 2.34 times the $27.85 million