The tiny Central Karoo hamlet of Matjiesfontein could become a star in South Africa’s newly launched astro-tourism strategy.
Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille launched the strategy on 27 September, World Tourism Day, in Carnarvon, Northern Cape, which is the site of part of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope project.
Now, Bizcommunity reports that Matjiesfontein, the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it settlement of about 500 people along the N1, is well placed to become an important part of the plan.
Matjiesfontein – probably most known among travellers for the Lord Milner Hotel and Olive Schreiner Cottage, where the author of Story of an African lived for some years – is also the site of a Nasa lunar communication station being built with the South African National Space Agency.
Once operational, the station will help put the first woman in orbit around the moon, as part of the Artemis 2 mission in September 2025. It is one of three stations that will ensure continuous communication during the mission, the others being in New Mexico and Australia
Nasa astronaut Christina Koch will become the first woman to fly to the moon. She also holds the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman – spending 328 days at the International Space Station.
The other South African locations that are expected to receive a boost from the astro-tourism strategy include Sutherland – which is home to the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) and Salt, the largest single optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere – and the Cederberg, the site of the private, non-profit Cederberg Astronomical Observatory.
‘Local and rural community involvement around dark sky sites in astro-tourism will advance the tourism industry and can be used to create decent job opportunities, improve daily livelihoods and effective work-force, which will ensure economic development and long-term sustainability,’ the executive summary of the plan suggests.
The Department of Tourism’s astro-tourism strategy has been gazetted and is available for public comment.
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