Shale Gas Development in the Central Karoo – Impacts on Tourism in the Karoo
Shale Gas Development in the Central Karoo: A Scientific Assessment of the Opportunities and Risks
Chapter 9: Impacts on Tourism in the Karoo
Author: Daan Toerien
Contributing Authors: Gerrie du Rand, Caroline Gelderblom, Melville Saayman
Publication: The CSIR led a large interdisciplinary team to analyse the potential impacts of shale gas mining on the Karoo.
Date: 2016
Abstract
Experience indicates that mining and tourism invariably end up in conflict with each other. The impacts of shale gas development (SGD) in the study area might, therefore, result in risks for its tourism sector.
The tourism sector in the study area is important. Currently it houses about 830 enterprises, the most of any business sector. It employs between 10 100 and 16 400 people and annually adds between R2.3 billion and R 2.7 billion (2010 Rand) to the regional gross value added (GVA). The tourism sector in the study area has diversified considerably in recent years, which has dispersed tourism activities throughout the study area, also into the rural areas. Some towns of the study area have much stronger tourism sectors than others and their sensitivity to impacts is probably higher. Consequently locations with very high sensitivity are distinguished from those with high sensitivity and those with medium sensitivity.
Accompanied by an Appendix (click here).
This document, as well as the full CSIR report can be accessed at http://seasgd.csir.co.za/scientific-assessment-chapters/
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