2005/2006 - SANParks

2006South African National ParksThe Eden Athletics Club has been recently established and is using theEbb & Flow Rest camp as its base with time trials taking place everyWednesday evening in the camp.Environmental EducationPeople and Conservation was mainly involved with the Kids in Parksprogramme. Schools were identifi ed in George, Wilderness and theSedgefi eld area. The Kids in Parks fi lm was recorded in the park on 2March 2005. There were more than 2,330 kids hosted in the park. Severalprogrammes were successfully planned and implemented for schoolsaround the national environmental theme days. All signifi cant culturalheritage resources in and around the park were audited and recordedPublic RelationsThe park shared a stand with George Tourism during the Tourism Indabain May. Relationships were fostered with the local tourism bureaus andthe park’s Regional Marketing Manager is a member of the ExecutiveCommittee of the George and Wilderness Tourism. Advertising wasdone in various publications and many editorials were done by traveljournalists who visited the park.A successful 50% off campaign was run during the months of Augustand September. The park together with the other parks in the regionwon a Best Stand Award at the Cape Outdoor Expo. The park was alsonominated as one of the Top 100 caravan and camping resorts in SouthAfrica by the readers of Caravan and Outdoor magazine.Educational programmes were held for various tour operators and tourismbureaus. A national media tour to the park was hosted in conjunctionwith Knysna Tourism. The park also hosted journalists from the Getaway,Country Life, and Out There magazines and various other publicationsas well. The annual Island Lake Sports Festival took place in December2005 and was a great success.A photograph of the park was chosen to be on the front cover of theannual Great Outdoor Guide. More than 40 articles were published duringthe year underview. Of the articles published there were, two negativeand the rest were positive.59