The tourism sector in Mpumalanga has warned that renaming the Kruger National Park will lead to substantial costs of rebranding and potential loss of international goodwill.

[LISTEN] Storm brews over proposal to rename Kruger National Park

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The Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism says the move could undermine one of the country’s most vital economic engines.

The provincial Legislature has adopted a motion to change the name to the Skukuza National Park. The chamber’s CEO Linda Grimbeek says the name change will cause a marketing nightmare.

“The Kruger Park has been in existence for over 100 years. You can just imagine all the marketing that went into such a brand internationally, so a name change would have a significant negative impact. It’s not about the name being changed but the fact that is it such an old brand and so much money has been put behind it,” says Grimbeek.

She says it would really be a nonsensical decision in terms of business.

The Mpumalanga Legislature says renaming of the Kruger National Park is not a foregone conclusion.

“The matter would be referred to the whip’s forum and subsequently, to the committees of the legislature and it would then end in the local government. It must start at the local geographical names committee and there must be processes and also public participation to engage the communities on how they feel about this name change. It would then go back to the provincial geographical names committee and at the end it would be processed nationally,” says the Speaker of the Provincial Legislature, Makhosazane Masilela

[ON AIR] @MpumalangaEff MPL Rhulani Qhibi introduced a motion to rename the Kruger National Park to Skukuza National Park, arguing that retaining Paul Kruger’s name glorifies colonial and apartheid-era legacies. The proposal has polarised the nation, with supporters framing it as… pic.twitter.com/jUQR3LLeLo

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