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I love our natural environment. I love the bush, the animals, birds, flora we find in our country. Like so many people I visit the Kruger Park regularly and have done so for decades - whenever I leave the park I want to start planning my next trip.
I always believed that part of the Kruger experience was to "rough it" - to get closer to nature by giving up many of our city-life luxuries. You needed nothing more than a basic place to put your head down and braai facilities - with your cooler boxes packed full with the supplies you'll need for your trip. If you did not caravan or camp, you were content with a basic rondavel with shared ablutions and a communal kitchen, and if you were styling it, you booked a unit with a kitchen and bathroom. It really was only about a place to sleep in-between driving between camps. Kruger was after all, purely about animal sightings.
I think times have changed. I think times have changed and SAN Parks have missed all the signs, the result being the Kruger Park is increasingly not providing the service it needs to.
True, park is first and foremost about animal conservation - an environment where a natural habitat is preserved with the full spectrum of life forms in that habitat protected, and on a large scale. It's an environment where scientists can perform a range of research to better understand our flora and fauna, and better conserve these. But it is also a tourist destination - for both local and foreign tourists. It needs visitors to generate funds - funds needed for conservation, but also funds for the country. Let's not forget that foreign tourists visiting Kruger contribute financially to South Africa in many ways: they might fly SAA, buy something at the airport, spend time in our cities, get transported from Jhb to Kruger, visit our restaurants, stores and other tourist attractions. We want these foreign tourists to come to SA and spend as much time in SA as possible. Crudely put, we want them to spend their money in SA.
The Kruger Park needs to be an entertainment destination. It needs to be the Disney World of South Africa. It is here SAN Parks have missed the boat completely.
All staff in the park need to be concerned with making visitors feel welcome, ensuring all their needs are met. Entering the park you deal with military-style people and sour staff in all the offices. The reception areas are awful. They are purely functional, typical government offices. Where's the educational information? Where is the entertainment value? Where are the interactive kiosks, videos playing showing what can be seen in the Kruger, drumming up some excitement?
The accommodation is shoddy. In the three camps I stayed in, where I stayed in the most equipped chalets available, I had a myriad of maintenance issues (probably no less than 10) - one was a true safety hazard - risk of electrical shock. It's all completely unacceptable. Not only are the units themselves basic to start with, they're going down-hill due to insufficient maintenance. Other regular Kruger visitors reported the same thing to me on my trip.
Rooms need to be clean, well-equipped and well-maintained. The cleaning staff did not do a good job, and were not well-educated and could not understand our requests. They hosed down the patio and braai daily - this is not conservation but simple wastage of our precious water resources. This would not happen in Disney World.
There is little to no "entertainment" in the camps - where are the snake demonstrations, the talks by experts, the engaging with youngsters? Where are the interactive digital kiosks? Where is the SAN Parks mobile phone app? The camps are not engaging people - they are "just there".
I was on one hand saddened to see that the restaurant and take away shops at Skukuza and Lower Sabie are run by Cattle Baron and Mugg and Bean respectively, since it shows that SAN Parks, who in their paper claim to be the biggest hotel in the world, cannot run a high-quality restaurant themselves, so have outsourced, but I was happy to see it since I've seen the restaurant and take away shop go down-hill year on year over the past decade to the point where it was a poor experience.
So whilst their is a new CEO of SAN Parks, I wonder if he has a vision for the parks? I wonder if this vision includes not only the conservation aspect of the park, but the entertainment angle and the "running a hotel" angle? Has he hired a head of entertainment? Is there a head of the hotel?
I somehow doubt it.
I always believed that part of the Kruger experience was to "rough it" - to get closer to nature by giving up many of our city-life luxuries. You needed nothing more than a basic place to put your head down and braai facilities - with your cooler boxes packed full with the supplies you'll need for your trip. If you did not caravan or camp, you were content with a basic rondavel with shared ablutions and a communal kitchen, and if you were styling it, you booked a unit with a kitchen and bathroom. It really was only about a place to sleep in-between driving between camps. Kruger was after all, purely about animal sightings.
I think times have changed. I think times have changed and SAN Parks have missed all the signs, the result being the Kruger Park is increasingly not providing the service it needs to.
True, park is first and foremost about animal conservation - an environment where a natural habitat is preserved with the full spectrum of life forms in that habitat protected, and on a large scale. It's an environment where scientists can perform a range of research to better understand our flora and fauna, and better conserve these. But it is also a tourist destination - for both local and foreign tourists. It needs visitors to generate funds - funds needed for conservation, but also funds for the country. Let's not forget that foreign tourists visiting Kruger contribute financially to South Africa in many ways: they might fly SAA, buy something at the airport, spend time in our cities, get transported from Jhb to Kruger, visit our restaurants, stores and other tourist attractions. We want these foreign tourists to come to SA and spend as much time in SA as possible. Crudely put, we want them to spend their money in SA.
The Kruger Park needs to be an entertainment destination. It needs to be the Disney World of South Africa. It is here SAN Parks have missed the boat completely.
All staff in the park need to be concerned with making visitors feel welcome, ensuring all their needs are met. Entering the park you deal with military-style people and sour staff in all the offices. The reception areas are awful. They are purely functional, typical government offices. Where's the educational information? Where is the entertainment value? Where are the interactive kiosks, videos playing showing what can be seen in the Kruger, drumming up some excitement?
The accommodation is shoddy. In the three camps I stayed in, where I stayed in the most equipped chalets available, I had a myriad of maintenance issues (probably no less than 10) - one was a true safety hazard - risk of electrical shock. It's all completely unacceptable. Not only are the units themselves basic to start with, they're going down-hill due to insufficient maintenance. Other regular Kruger visitors reported the same thing to me on my trip.
Rooms need to be clean, well-equipped and well-maintained. The cleaning staff did not do a good job, and were not well-educated and could not understand our requests. They hosed down the patio and braai daily - this is not conservation but simple wastage of our precious water resources. This would not happen in Disney World.
There is little to no "entertainment" in the camps - where are the snake demonstrations, the talks by experts, the engaging with youngsters? Where are the interactive digital kiosks? Where is the SAN Parks mobile phone app? The camps are not engaging people - they are "just there".
I was on one hand saddened to see that the restaurant and take away shops at Skukuza and Lower Sabie are run by Cattle Baron and Mugg and Bean respectively, since it shows that SAN Parks, who in their paper claim to be the biggest hotel in the world, cannot run a high-quality restaurant themselves, so have outsourced, but I was happy to see it since I've seen the restaurant and take away shop go down-hill year on year over the past decade to the point where it was a poor experience.
So whilst their is a new CEO of SAN Parks, I wonder if he has a vision for the parks? I wonder if this vision includes not only the conservation aspect of the park, but the entertainment angle and the "running a hotel" angle? Has he hired a head of entertainment? Is there a head of the hotel?
I somehow doubt it.
