Page 49 - Estimates of Public Entities Revenue & Expenditure 2023

PROVINCE OF THE EASTERN CAPE ESTIMATES OF PUBLIC ENTITIES REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE 2023/24

ECPTA’s participation in the world’s first Wildlife Conservation Bond is a testament to the high levels
of skill and commitment among ECPTA’s men and women in green to protect the province’s
endangered black rhinos. The project is financed through a grant from the Global Environmental

Facility (GEF) and is administered by the World Bank. Involvement in the project will further sharpen
the internal skills base, provide much-need resourcing, and expose the province to international

standards in project management and financial administration.

Through significant funding of the Tourism Recovery Plan by the Eastern Cape Provincial
Government, ECPTA was thrust into a leadership role in guiding the provincial tourism sector through

the Covid 19 pandemic. ECPTA moved decisively to take advantage of digital technologies to roll out
Smart Marketing, this entails maximising impact by building sentiment and response tracking
intelligence into the marketing efforts. This approach has resulted in the province securing large gains

in the domestic tourism market, while successfully positioning the province alongside its national
counterpart on the international stage.

In the third quarter, almost 6 million domestic tourists visited the Eastern Cape. This was over 700

thousand more than the previous year and almost three times more than in the year preceding the
pandemic. Domestic tourism contributed R8.656 billion to the provincial economy in 2022, while
international tourists added R3.116 billion.

7.2 Key challenges

• ECPTA’s ability to plan, and to deliver on plans, is negatively impacted by the shrinking fiscal

envelope and shifting government priorities resulting from the impact of the coronavirus response.
ECPTA will continue to pursue opportunities offered by programmes of national government and
private funders to augment the organisation’s budget.

• The continued impact of the pandemic on the tourism and biodiversity economies requires
additional measures (both internal and external) to rebuild these sectors.
• In a number of instances, land restitution awards have included protected areas, meaning that

the beneficiaries of restitution communities are the owners of that land. ECPTA is appointed by
the provincial government to co-manage those reserves with the restituted community. However,
community tensions stemming from incomplete land rights restitution processes, specifically non-
receipt of settlement grants, and unmet (unrelated) service delivery expectations of government

pose significant challenges to the successful co-management of protected areas.
• The condition of access roads, electricity and water supply still are a major impediment to the

ECPTA’s ability to drive its commercialisation strategy, which includes concessioning facilities
and activities on provincial nature reserves in order to improve the revenue potential of these
endowments. Private sector partners are reluctant to invest in developing tourist attractions, and
thus enhance the province’s natural endowment, if there is no realistic prospect of concomitant

investment in public infrastructure such as roads and bulk infrastructure services. Investment in
infrastructure needs to be revitalised to prevent further damage to the provincial tourism brand
and realise positive returns from investments in marketing activities, in tourism facilities and in

conservation infrastructure.

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