By Quentin Wray

Over the years a lot has been written and said about the importance of tourism to the regeneration of the Transkeian economy.

From the failed spacial development initiative launched in 1998 to the tourism master plan released earlier this month, the government has tried to highlight opportunities in the area.

After all, now that the decentralisation incentives that crowded investment into centres like Butterworth have been taken away, it will be up to tourism and agriculture to raise rural incomes and create jobs.

Given that the Transkei's Wild Coast is one of the most beautiful parts of South Africa, it seems inexplicable that it doesn't feature higher on most tourist itineraries.

There are many reasons for this, including a lack of political will to deal with the difficulties of entering into binding contracts with communities, tourism education and awareness, and a lack of skills, tourism and enterprise development.

But there's a chronic lack of capacity to deal with these problems.

Ernest Booi, the general manager of marketing and development at the Eastern Cape Tourism Board, points out his organisation doesn't even know how many local and international tourists visit the province, let alone the numbers for each specific area.

It does not know how many bednights are available.

The board has established a research unit to collate the data. But it is constrained by its small budget: only R22 million this financial year to cover all its operations.

Durban's budget is R40 million for just one city.

Booi says the research unit will enable it to collect data and evaluate the suitability of products for its market. He says this will need the involvement of local structures that as yet do not exist and will link into local governments and district councils' integrated development plans.

The split between the eastern and western sides of the Eastern Cape is highlighted by the fact that in the west, which was the old Eastern Province, there are 33 local tourism organisations.

But in the Wild Coast area, there are three: in Umtata, Port St Johns and Maluti.

"The capacity is not there; we need to create it," Booi says, adding that there is one development officer for the whole of the Transkei.

Booi's office prepared the latest tourism master plan, which covers the years 2003 to 2007.

He says he is happy with it, although challenges around land tenure make it very difficult to attract local or international investment.

There is a bill coming to national parliament to clear up land tenure problems but experts say there will be a great deal of resistance to anything that is seen by traditional leaders as eroding their power base.

Chiefs feel the land belongs to them and not the government.

This issue is far from being resolved. Booi says land tenure is affecting investors, who are saying they are interested in coming into the area but, unless the issue is addressed, they will stay away.

After all, not everybody will show the patience of East London businessman Ed Batty and his consortium who transformed Coffee Bay's derelict and run-down Lagoon Hotel into the KwaTshezi Lodge.

Five years ago, when I last visited it, the Lagoon was a tip. It was filled with squatters. It smelled of faeces and urine.

The garden was full of rubble, doors had been removed and windows were broken.

It took three years for a consortium to get the community to agree to a deal that would result in R4.5 million being invested to turn the rubble heap into a top-flight, international-class hotel that would provide sustainable jobs for nearly 40 locals.

At least 30 percent of the equity has been set aside for a local community trust.

Unfortunately, this is still the exception and not the rule.

The next job on the list should be the Cape Hermes Hotel in Port St Johns, which was once a beautiful hotel but, like the Lagoon, has been left to go to wrack and ruin.

The idea of community trusts is a good one but it is flawed.

Kenny Jafta, the councillor in charge of local economic development at the Mbhashe municipality, says trusts should be in charge of social development and receive a share of the profits, but running the business should be in the hands of entrepreneurs.

He says a problem is that investors are dealing with people who have never been in business.

Once they hear what a resort manager's salary is, they all want the job. They think that if they control the resources, they get power in the community.

The answer, he says, is getting local kids trained to run the assets.

"Tourism needs to be seen as an engine for economic growth, and only once people have been educated will they be able to see this potential and start co-operating," Jafta predicts.

Enoch Godongwana, the provincial MEC for economic affairs, environment and tourism, says the Transkei should connect the Garden Route to Durban.

He says it is important to get private sector involvement in state assets, but "there has been a negative response from the private sector about doing anything in the Transkei". But, he says, perceptions are changing.

In 1999, the provincial government issued requests for proposals for the private sector to take over the hospitality function of state-owned Transkei reserves. There was a very poor response.

They issued the same requests for proposals this year, and this time the response was very good. The preferred bidders will be announced on July 7 and will include top players, Godongwana says.

"There has been a change in investor confidence about what we are doing about ... land tenure and infrastructure problems," he says.

The Transkei has more to sell than its gorgeous beaches and seaside resorts.

The provincial growth strategy emphasises community-based and heritage tourism, and there are great opportunities for this here.

The Transkei provided South Africa with much of its political leadership and inspiration - it could almost be called the hinterland for Robben Island.

It also has several sitting kings and provides a case study of the benefits and difficulties of traditional leadership in a modern democracy.

Developers and policymakers must, however, remember to balance cultural and historical offerings with good, old-fashioned comfort and hospitality.

People go to the Wild Coast to fish, hike, eat good food and chill out on the beach. They want a wide selection of places to visit; they do not want to be lectured.

They also want to spend time in a pristine environment, and everything possible must be done to ensure that this is the case - including nipping in the bud all the proposed heavy mineral mining at Wavecrest and elsewhere on the coast.

Tourism is sustainable and is compatible with both conservation and agriculture. Mining is neither. Mines have a limited life and leave an area completely degraded after they shut down.

Neil "Bricky" Branfield has fished the Transkei for three decades. He has guided fly-fishers for the past 15 years and has seen a lot of things change. He is currently based at Kob Inn, down the road from Idutywa.

Branfield says there are now "visibly" fewer fish than before. Mangrove swamps are destroyed for building because the wood doesn't rot. "We need to police the environment, otherwise all will be lost," he warns.

He says the improvement in roads over the past year has made a major difference to tourist numbers. Clearly, access is important; it's all well and good to have hotels, cultural villages and craft centres but people need to get there.

But it must be balanced with the area's environmental needs.

For example, the proposed new toll road that is expected to replace the N2 will destroy virgin forest, ruin the coast and be prohibitively expensive for locals.

It would be environmentally far more friendly to repair and upgrade the existing road network where possible.

Some say tourism will destroy the Wild Coast, but this is only true if it is not properly managed and if the infrastructure is laid out without heed for preserving the area's environmental integrity and aesthetics.

Hundreds of thousands of unemployed and poor people trying to eke out an existence from their natural world will do far more damage than visitors.

As last year's World Summit on Sustainable Development heard, poverty and a lack of opportunity make conservation impossible.

Only by putting a commercial value on the environment - via tourism in this case - will it be possible to preserve it for future generations.