Sponsored by the Australian government fund AUSAID, the conference is a project of the Karoo Development Foundation, in partnership with the University of the Free State's Centre for Development Support.
Its aim is to forge new partnerships in the Karoo, Kalahari and Namaqualand, part of the Arid Areas programme, which focuses on socio-economic development in the underdeveloped hinterland of South Africa, Botswana and Namibia and promote tourism.
The diversity, sophistication and quality of accommodation and activities in the Karoo offer exceptional value, which holds major implications for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Soccer fans will need to travel by road through the Karoo, Kalahari and Namaqualand. The conference hosts have therefore highlighted six major Karoo Highways, which need to be marketed for this keynote event. The challenge is how to maximise the developmental spin-offs for Karoo communities.
With a common goal of working towards the Karoo Highways' "Drive the Great Karoo" pay-off line, this trans-provincial border initiative is encouraging the four neighbouring provinces to brainstorm the most creative ways to stimulate the business sense of trans-provincial border collaboration.
According to Professor Doreen Atkinson, a specialist in rural development, tourism is a key component of a holistic rural development strategy. "We need a partnership between universities, government and the private sector to identify and promote all the niche tourism advantages of our local desert - the Karoo," she notes. "Desert tourism is increasingly popular internationally and we need to build on this type of destination marketing in order to truly maximise the promotion of the Karoo as a destination.
“Tourists are not interested in boundaries, and one is able to offer them a unique, sophisticated and pristine desert environment to come discover space, solitude, serenity and soul. As with the Australian Outback, we need to appreciate the South African desert as an asset, which requires co-operation across artificial political boundaries,” she says.
To register or exhibit contact Professor Doreen Atkinson on tel +27 (0) 51 773 0324 or e-mail . Further information on Karoo on www.aridareas.co.za or the Centre for Development Support on www.ufs.ac.za/cds.
