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19 March 2019 | Story Dr Cinde Greyling
Dr Mutana and Prof Mukwada
Many people enjoy spending time in the mountainous Drakensberg region. Prof Geofrey Mukwada’s involvement with the UFS Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) sparked an interest in sustainable tourism in the area. Pictured here are Dr Sarudzai Mutana with Prof Mukwada.

Not only is the Qwaqwa Campus situated in a beautiful region – its researchers also contribute to keeping the area pristine. Recent research by Prof Geofrey Mukwada and his PhD student, Dr Sarudzai Mutana, focused on indicators monitoring sustainable tourism development in the Drakensberg region.

Dr Mukwada is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography on the University of the Free State (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus. 

Our majestic mountains are fragile

Many people enjoy spending time in the mountainous Drakensberg region – either as adventure seekers exploring the many trails, or just relaxing and reconnecting with nature. Prof Mukwada’s involvement with the UFS Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) sparked an interest in sustainable tourism in the area. “Mountains are fragile but attractive environments which continue to attract tourists,” he said. “Tourism is one of the major business sectors in the Drakensberg region, with promising growth opportunities and proving to be an anchor of green economy in the future – if practiced correctly.” Unfortunately, the issue of monitoring sustainable tourism has not been widely researched in African mountains. 

According to international standards

“We specifically looked at the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC), which is an international best-practice framework to help destinations monitor and ensure that tourism is developed in a responsible manner,” Prof Mukwada explained. “South Africa’s Manual for Responsible Tourism was designed according to some of the recommendations of the GSTC. But we found that, while the tourism and hospitality operators in the Drakensberg region appreciates the need to monitor and ensure sustainable tourism in the area, there is limited use of indicators as a tool for monitoring.” 

Forward together

There are competing demands between land-use and development practices and alternatives in the region – unless the focus shifts to sustainable practices, the short-term gains could be followed by dire consequences. “We suggest an integrated monitoring of tourism development, with a pro-poor focus that involves more local community leaders. Going forward, we would like to see the industry adopt the indicators proposed in our study.”

News Archive

"May Month of Compassion" for UFS staff
2011-05-04

 

From the left: Louis van Wyk (Central Region, Events Coordinator of ER 24) and Prof. Gert van Zyl, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences
Photo: Gerda-Marie Viviers

The Health and Wellness Centre of our university has kick-started the “Action of Compassion” which is aimed at promoting physical health for staff members of our university. This initiative is done in collaboration with Medi-Clinic and Pathcare who will be offering medical screening tests from 3 May 2011 until 13  May 2011. This forms part of the “Wake up to your Wellness – Take Control” programme of the Health and Wellness Centre. The tests will be done at 27 stations across our Main Campus. On 16  May the Wellness Centre will be at the South Campus and the date for a visit at the Qwaqwa Campus is to be established later. “The reason why we are doing this, is to conduct a research on Staff Wellness, give the staff feedback on their health and to create a database using the information we receive, so we can evaluate the health of our staff members and have them view their own status over time and whether they are making the right wellness choices,” said Dr Annette Prins.

This is a once-a-year initiative. Last year an estimated 1 100 staff members participated. This year the Health and Wellness Centre hopes to increase the figures. The medical screenings will include services like blood pressure, weight, height and BMI which will be conducted by Medi-Clinic and the cholesterol and blood glucose screenings will be conducted by Pathcare.

 

4 May 2011

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