Tourism Concession Guideline - (Endorsed Nov 2015)

There are a number of reasons that it can be useful for authorities within transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) to grant tourism concessions to the private sector. These include that the private sector:

•  has commercial tourism operations as its core business, and can be more effective and efficient in generating revenue from tourism;
•  understands how to match product design with market demand, and how to promote products, and can adapt more easily to changing markets needs and conditions;
•  can more easily raise capital and other funds, and can be transferred the risk and responsibility for commercial tourism; and
•  is (often) not constrained by as much bureaucracy as within government.

The aim of these guidelines is to provide guidance for tourism concessioning in TFCAs within the Southern African Development Community (SADC), whilst ensuring that both the conservation and development objectives of regional TFCAs are met, including rural development and community participation.
The objectives are to:

• Provide practical evidence-based guidance on a step-by-step the concessioning process that supports decision making; Ensure that guidance aligns the goals and objectives of conservation agencies and the private sector, and with the principles of sustainable tourism;
• Provide case study examples of good practice from within SADC, challenges, and tips to address them; and
• Provide simple, clear, reliable, applicable, flexible and concise information, with links to more detailed information and templates.