As South Africans are set to enjoy a long weekend by marking Worker’s Day and the recently passed Freedom Day, South African National Parks (SANParks) has urged visitors to the Kruger National Park (KNP) to book in advance and to observe the rules of the park to ensure a safe and pleasant stay in the park.
The body managing South Africa’s national parks revealed that daily quotas will be implemented at the entrance gates for day visitors.
SANParks also said that pre-booked day visitors will get preference over non-booked day visitors at the gate but must ensure that they arrive within their booked time slots.
“Arriving outside the booked time slot, will be regarded as non-booked and therefore will not receive preference and could be turned away. These bookings can be changed as well through SANParks Reservations offices if need be,” said SANParks.
It also said that there are 3 time slots for pre-bookings to be made prior arrival, which visitors can choose from as follows:
Time slot 1: 06.00 to 08:00
Time slot 2: 08:00 to 10:00
Time slot 3: 10:00 onwards
KNP’s spokesperson, Isaac Phaahla, said they aim to better manage the volumes that they expect, as well as our visitors’ expectations for busy periods such as the holidays.
“We realise some people might extend the Freedom Day holiday to a long weekend thereby merging it with Workers’ Day holiday which is on Monday, 1 May 2023.
“We therefore aim to optimally manage the volumes that we expect, as well as our visitors’ expectations. The three different time slots are aimed at improving the spread of vehicles and, as far as possible prevent unnecessary waiting periods at entrance gates,” said Phaahla.
Phaahla also said that KNP has made plans for increased visibility of both traffic officials and visitor management personnel to monitor speeding, after-hours travelling and general behaviour on the roads.
“Day visitors are also reminded to not bring liquor with them as the alcohol ban on public areas in the park is a permanent rule which is enforced at all times. Management is urging visitors to cooperate with officials who will be on duty and to report unbecoming behaviour to the gate officials or call the emergency call centre number on the entry permits”, said Phaahla.
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