The poor have been given a substantial stake in 11 tourism sites on the Wild Coast, including development spin-offs, according to European Union (EU) spokesperson Dave Arkwright.

Arkwright said yesterday that all deals, brokered by the EU, involved large percentages of community equity in either existing or fledgling tourism operations from Coffee Bay and Hole in the Wall right up to the Mtumvuma River on the KwaZulu-Natal border.

This is the first evidence of efforts at both community involvement and grassroots tourism since the initial launch of the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) by the Department of Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism in 1998.

The deals were concluded as the EU was set to close off its ß12 million (about R100m) Wild Coast community tourism support programme, which is due to end this month.

One deal, concluded after two months of intensive negotiation, involves four hotels in the Coffee Bay area - the Ocean View Hotel, Kwa Tshezi Lodge, the Coffee Shack backpackers operation and the Hole in the Wall hotel.
The R7,6m deal gives the Tshezi community a 30 percent equity in the four operations.

"Only one, the Hole in the Wall, has title to the land and the others have all been negotiated with favourable long leases," Eastern Cape Development Corporation chief executive Kevin Wakeford said.

"An elaborate and dragged out process has led to the community accepting the four projects, of which existing owners were prepared to part with 30 percent equity for a consideration based on the business as it stands now," Wakeford said.

He added that a substantial part of the project would involve capacity building at community level and that a land rental deal had been structured for the ECDC-owned Ocean View and the Coffee Shack.

"There will be a profit share that will see reasonable returns within three years, as all the facilities are being run by experienced tourism operators," Wakeford said.

The deal has been structured so that the money used for the community buy-in will be administered by a business trust appointed by all stakeholders.

Another deal involves Drifters, an adventure tourism group which will help establish or improve six camps along the coast between Port St Johns and Mtumvuma River on the KwaZulu-Natal border.

The operations, in various stages of completion, are at Msikaba, Grosvenor, Luphutana, Cutweni, Manteku and Ntafufu.

"As the community owns the land and the access to the camps in this operation, they will be earning revenue from the outset.

It is with land and access equity that they come in as partners and receive a partnership stake of around 25 percent in each operation," Arkwright said.

"As landlords, the community will be earning revenue from the operation from the outset and a preferential employment clause should also put around R1,5m into the community in the first year," said Arkwright.

Drifters managing director Andy Dott said up to 12 projects could be kick-started soon that should take between 12 and 24 months to complete. These will be undertaken with input from the various communities and local and district municipalities.