Cape Town – Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom is set to launch the Stony Point Eco Centre in the Overstrand today.
The facilities were built by the Department of Tourism in collaboration with the Overstrand Municipality.
The department said the centre was an initiative solely owned by the Mooiuitsig community and was intended to attract domestic and international visitors.
The tourism department promoted the growth of tourism products that were funded under the expanded public works programme.
With funding from this programme, the tourism department had facilitated the construction of Stony Point Eco Centre, which included a visitor information centre, a tearoom and a heritage site of whaling history.
”The project will create employment, develop a vibrant, equitable and sustainable tourism economy that will (let) the local community share the benefits of tourism,” the department said.
Stony Point, near Betty’s Bay, has become an important breeding site for the threatened African penguins, which have set up a colony there.
African penguin numbers have plummeted from their high numbers at the beginning of last century, from a variety of causes including disturbance from guano collectors, commercial egg collectors, habitat destruction and diminishing food sources.
The Stony Point colony attracts local and international tourists, as does the colony at Boulders on the peninsula.
Cape Times