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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

Grant of almost R3 million from the NRF for researchers
2007-02-13

The Research Directorate at the University of the Free State (UFS) received a grant of almost R3 million this year from the National Research Foundation (NRF) for the development of young researchers from the designated groups through the Thuthuka capacity building programme. The amount of grant holders increased during the past four years from five successful applications in 2003 to a phenomenal 44 this year. The Thuthuka programme is a partnership programme in which the UFS contributes two thirds of each grant holder's funding. This year, the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the UFS is also taking part in the programme for the first time. 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are, from the left: Ms Lizelle Janse van Rensburg (grant holder), Mr Antonie Pool (grant holder), Mr Arno van Niekerk (grant holder), Ms Annelize Venter (programme co-ordinator at the UFS Directorate of Research Development), Prof Phillipe Burger (chairperson of the Department of Economics at the UFS), Mr Johan Coetzee (grant holder) and Prof Lucius Botes (chairperson of the faculty's research committee).

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