Skip to content

Tourism

The National Parks of South Africa have 3 fundamental spheres of focus:

  • The conservation of a representative sample of the biodiversity of the country
  • To maintain a relationship of community upliftment and capacity building amongst people living in the areas in and around the parks
  • To provide a recreational outlet to the public to experience and enjoy the wonders of the parks
  • The third of these responsibilities is achieved through TOURISM and is necessary to provide the financial resources required by the organisation in order to sustain the first and second responsibility.

Tourism manifests itself in many ways but in SANParks' situation, definition involves the movement of people into the parks to interact with the park environment. Once there, visitors will use facilities and take part in activities. One specific facility type is accommodation. Park run accommodation is offered in 14 of the national parks. Those that do not have park run accommodation have privately run accommodation on the park fringes. With accommodation and activities available, one can refer to the related tariffs and reservations procedure for valid information to make a reservation.

Tourism also carries with it many focused niches and areas of specific interest. Some of these include birding, accessibility and malaria information. There is also a photo gallery that people can go to view a taste of the parks and find out how they can gain access to SANParks photographic material.

Another important part of tourism is the marketing and advertising of the parks. Some of our visual marketing campaigns will be displayed under this link.

The national parks are:

We’d love to welcome you to any one of our parks and challenge you to take a ‘walk on the wild side’ and experience nature’s splendour in a world untouched by modern civilization, where animals roam free and endless days and magical nights are filled with a mystical ambiance of tranquillity and peace…

‘Far from the madding crowd’, listen to the harmonious melody of the birds' first call and let the morning sun’s rays kiss your eyelids with the awakening of the dawn. Another day to explore and experience SANParks – South Africa’s natural heritage!