Tourism Green Coast

An effective sustainable tourism model will always include three key elements, including a strong tourism economy; environmentally sustainable practices and a local community that is benefitting sufficiently from the activities. The Tourism Green Coast project was started in 2016 and focussed on a 300km stretch of coastline on South Africa’s Wild Coast. 

This project has targeted 20 sensitive coastal sites that are currently being utilized for low impact tourism and which include local community members into the tourism operations in the region. Through a partnership with the National Department of Tourism, WESSA have placed over 100 previously disadvantaged youth from the region with 30 private tourism operators for a 2-year job placed mentorship project. Each of the youth learners have also received accredited training in Tourism Guiding and a range of additional entrepreneurship and professional development short courses. The intention of the Tourism Green Coast project is to “Train for Jobs” while supporting sustainable destination development along the Wild Coast.