Reducing negative impacts on local communities, environments, and celebrating local culture.

!Xaus Lodge, by bringing guests into the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park who pay a conservation levy, contributes directly to the conservation authority’s revenue and thus its ability to run one of the best desert parks in the world.  At the lodge itself, !Xaus operates on a ‘tread-lightly’ model. Off the grid with no cell phone, wifi or TV, guests are encouraged to have a digital detox when visiting. While there is a generator, its use is limited to 5 hours a day and funders are being sourced to convert the power at the Lodge to solar. Water is desalinated on site, as well as bottled for guest consumption, with a major focus placed on teaching guests to limit water wastage. The focus on food procurement is to avoid foods that might be imported so that the ‘’carbon footprint’’ is minimised.

!Xaus operates on a ‘tread-lightly’ model. Off the grid with no cell phone, wifi or TV, guests are encouraged to have a digital detox when visiting.

Meeting with the local community is one of the core attractions of !Xaus Lodge, and the reason many people come to visit.  The guides at the Lodge are all members of the local community, and offer guests a proud insight into their modern lives, while sharing the stories and skills from their ancient heritage.  In addition, a group of crafters have a ‘crafting village’ at the Lodge where they make crafts for guests’ purchase, and teach their youngsters their ancient skills.  Spending time at the craft village is a fascinating experience for many guests. It is a place of work where the artists will both teach the guests the skills as well as sell their crafts.

The guides at the Lodge are all members of the local community, and offer guests a proud insight into their modern lives, while sharing the stories and skills from their ancient heritage.

Crafters working at the Lodge have sold R892,400 worth of crafts since the Lodge opened.  In addition, other crafters in the area who do not work at the Lodge have sold a further R478,000 worth of good to tourists.  This access to market is critical for a viable crafting economy. Assisting the local community to create a currency from the indigenous skills and knowledge encourages young people to continue to practice their culture.

Crafters working at the Lodge have sold R892,400 worth of crafts since the Lodge opened.

A further celebration of local culture is in the focus on the night sky. !Xaus Lodge is situated in one of the best star-gazing places on the planet. With Sky Quality Measures of 21.9 out of 22 for perfect darkness, guests at the Lodge are able to see a greater depth to the Milky Way than at almost any other place.  The local folklore places a huge emphasis on the night sky, and thus these stories are retold over and over to guests at the Lodge.

The ownership model and funding.

!Xaus Lodge; the land, the infrastructure and the fittings and furnishings are wholly owned by the Mier and ǂKhomani San communities. They appointed commercial management and marketing operators, Transfrontier Parks Destinations (TFPD) on a long-term basis. TFPD have paid their Joint Management Board (JMB) a percentage of turnover as rental since the first month of operation and is in the process of transferring, free of any consideration, 17% of the shares in the operating company to the Communities trust.

!Xaus Lodge; the land, the infrastructure and the fittings and furnishings are wholly owned by the Mier and ǂKhomani San communities.

!Xaus Lodge has been set up to provide amenities and services that encourage employment. While other facilities in the park offer self-catering, and encourage self-drive game viewing, !Xaus Lodge offers full-service with local staff producing three meals a day. All walks and drives are guided. This product offering requires multiple skills, and has offered opportunities for staff to be trained as guides, in front-of-house, dining room, kitchen and housekeeping services. The policy is not to import skills into the area – rather to employ locals with the aptitude and provide the relevant training. In addition, !Xaus Lodge supports all staff who are looking for further training opportunities, be it at the SA College of Hospitality, !Khwa tuu or the Tracker Academy.

!Xaus Lodge offers full-service with local staff producing three meals a day. All walks and drives are guided. This product offering requires multiple skills, and has offered opportunities for staff to be trained as guides, in front-of-house, dining room, kitchen and housekeeping services.

Employment at !Xaus Lodge is prioritised to the local community to the point that members of the Joint Management Board approve all applications and are part of the interview process. This means that while the Lodge managers are able to ensure the ‘right person for the job,’ the community have a say in who works at the Lodge.

!Xaus Lodge provides an opportunity for local crafters to live and work at the Lodge and thus capitalise financially on their indigenous crafting skills by selling their wares directly to the Lodge guests. Drawn largely from the local ǂKhomani San community, the crafters are paid a stipend while at the Lodge and no commissions are taken on the sale of their work. Over R892,400 worth of hand-made curios have been sold directly to tourists since the opening of the Lodge.

Over R892,400 worth of hand-made curios have been sold directly to tourists since the opening of the Lodge.

In addition to the revenue that the community structures receive, the management operators have launched the TFPD Foundation which receives income from both a community levy paid by all guests, as well as other donations. These funds are currently accumulating, and will provide capital for the community’s asset development, community education and welfare projects. Current short-term support includes support of the local soccer team, as well as funds to support development meetings in the community.

The !Xaus Lodge funding model fits into a classic public-private-community partnership (PPCP) tourism model.

• The State provides the ‘public’ support – the initial grant as well as various subsequent measures of infrastructural support;
• The operator is private and uses commercial banks for operating funds where required and
• The communities own the asset, its fittings and furnishings and receive an income from the Lodge operations, as well as an equity stake in the operating company.

!Xaus Lodge’s most significant achievement in reducing poverty among the local community

In the 8 years of its operation under management of Transfrontier Parks Destinations (TFPD), !Xaus Lodge comprising a mere 24 guest beds, and located deep in the desert of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP), has contributed more than R28,9 million (US$1,9 million) in income to the area in which it operates. This is a significant achievement for two reasons: the first that there are so few economic opportunities in the area and the second that these contributions were made despite the lodge being regarded as a ‘white elephant’ by its owners, given its locations & substantial infrastructural problems.

In the 8 years of its operation under management of Transfrontier Parks Destinations (TFPD), !Xaus Lodge comprising a mere 24 guest beds, and located deep in the desert of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP), has contributed more than R28,9 million (US$1,9 million) in income to the area in which it operates.

To understand the scope of this achievement, it is necessary to put !Xaus Lodge in its geographical and economic context and explain some of its history. The Northern Cape is South Africa’s largest province and is also the poorest. Most of the province’s income is from mining and agriculture. Mier Municipality, the jurisdiction in which !Xaus is located, is poor in economic opportunities. Unemployment is high with only 30.3% employed. Only 7,2% of Mier residents have completed schooling.

Mier Municipality, the jurisdiction in which !Xaus is located, is poor in economic opportunities. Unemployment is high with only 30.3% employed. Only 7,2% of Mier residents have completed schooling.

The local economy is also not diverse. Economic opportunities are limited to tourism, business services, salt workings and small enterprises. Agriculture is constrained by a lack of fresh water. The closest major centre, Upington, is 360km from !Xaus Lodge, over 35kms of dunes needing 4×4 vehicles, and 60kms of corrugated gravel roads.

!Xaus Lodge is located inside Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. It was built as part of the !Ae!Hai Kalahari Heritage Park Agreement, South Africa’s first land claim settlement which in 2002 awarded the Mier and ‡Khomani San (Bushman) communities access to their ancestral lands. An important provision of the settlement was that it was expected to give economic opportunities to these two marginalized communities. Sadly, the facilities built were fraught with problems to the point that when management was concessioned, initially there was no bidder. Consultants declared that the lodge could never be a commercial success.

When TFPD was awarded the management contract, the agreement was underpinned by the promise that the shortcomings would be attended to. In the meantime the lodge was made operational, despite shortcomings, and opened its doors to paying guests in July 2007.

Since then the lodge has become a stable, sustainable business and an international attraction for responsible tourists looking for extraordinary experiences and it is the only successful commercial operation arising from the land claim settlement. In addition to the percentage of revenue that the communities earn as rental, local employment and procurement is prioritized. Guests provide a significant market for local crafters.  125 individuals are supported by the income earned by 25 permanent employees and a further 112 people benefit from the income earned by 16 crafters.  This means 3.4% of the total population of the Mier Municipality are dependent on !Xaus Lodge.

125 individuals are supported by the income earned by 25 permanent employees and a further 112 people benefit from the income earned by 16 crafters.