Q & A DE HOOP COLLECTION
Eco-tourism: Empowering communities
William Stephens, CEO of De Hoop Collection, shares the strategic insights and leadership driving the transformation of a remote nature reserve into a benchmark for sustainable eco-tourism.
WILLIAM STEPHENS
What inspired the creation of De Hoop Collection, and how did your background prepare you for this venture?
In the early’ 90s, I was involved in the development of the Madikwe Game Reserve, working with both syndicated corporate and commercial lodges. Flying has always been my passion, and Madikwe gave me the opportunity to combine that passion with business. Clients were flown in, leading to a seamless sales experience with a high conversion rate of clients and investors. Together with my business partner, Carl Trieloff, we facilitated investor introductions and also invested in commercial lodges within the Madikwe Game Reserve. We needed to quickly acquire the skills required to run and market tourism products, though not without a few hard-learnt quickly lessons along the way! We later established an air charter business to transfer guests into the Reserve, with our lodges offering high-end tourism experiences.
Cape Nature recognised the work we had done in Madikwe and invited us to tender for new tourism concessions in the Western Cape. We saw an opportunity to link the Big 5 experience in Madikwe to the Big 7, with De Hoop being the‘ whale capital’ of Southern Africa. Through our air charter business, we were able to connect the two reserves. The operational model for De Hoop mirrored what we had successfully implemented in Madikwe.
De Hoop Collection was the first private-public partnership( PPP) in a provincial nature reserve.
What did it take to bring that vision to life?
Our PPP was the first of its kind in tourism in the Western Cape. CapeNature recognised the need for specialists to invest in and manage tourism facilities, allowing them to focus on their environmental and conservation mandates. With increasing budgetary constraints, they saw a PPP as the most viable way forward.
While many investors shy away from the complexities of government tenders, we saw that once these agreements were finalised they would provide a solid foundation for attracting and facilitating new investment opportunities. It took several years to conclude the agreements, by which time most investors would have been ready to walk away.
Before the PPP agreements were formalised in 2009, we began refurbishing buildings under an interim agreement. These buildings, which were in a poor state and not designed for tourism, presented both challenges and opportunities. We also identified greenfield sites where we could design new facilities, introducing investors to Koppie Alleen, Lekkerwater and Bloukrans in De Hoop. Our initial focus was on repurposing old heritage buildings, preserving their character while making them fit for tourism use.
We successfully restored all the historical buildings, ensuring they were fully maintained at every stage. Many of these
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