Abstract
Africa as a tourism destination is seen as a wildlife tourism hotspot that contributes significantly to job creation, community upliftment, and conservation. Wildlife tourism is based on encounters with non-domestic animals that can occur in either the animal’s natural environment or in captivity. The interaction with the animals includes activities that are historically classified as consumptive and non-consumptive. This research aims to determine the environmental impacts of wildlife tourists (consumptive and non-consumptive) based on their behaviour as perceived by senior staff managing a game reserve in Namibia. The study applied qualitative research, namely interviews, to encapsulate in-depth information. From the results, it can be concluded that, although both consumptive and non-consumptive wildlife tourists impact the environment at the game reserve, the behaviour of non-consumptive wildlife tourists seems to be more negative than that of consumptive wildlife tourists. The study further found that hunters behave in an eco-friendlier manner towards the environment and tend to be more concerned about their own impact on nature. Key words: Wildlife tourism impacts; environmental impact; natural area tourism; protected area tourism; wildlife tourism.
Highlights
Throughout the 20th century, the increasing desire of tourists to experience and interact with the natural environment had stimulated significant growth in wildlife tourism, with Africa being one of the most affected continents (Backman and Munanura, 2015; Reynolds and Braithwaite, 2001: 32)
Sustainable tourism can be defined as the type of tourism that is developed and maintained in an area in such a manner and at such a scale that it remains viable over an indefinite period and does not degrade or alter the environment to such an extent that it prohibits the successful development and wellbeing of other activities and processes
A game reserve in Namibia was selected for the study; it is large in size and offers both consumptive and non-consumptive wildlife tourism products
Summary
Throughout the 20th century, the increasing desire of tourists to experience and interact with the natural environment had stimulated significant growth in wildlife tourism, with Africa being one of the most affected continents (Backman and Munanura, 2015; Reynolds and Braithwaite, 2001: 32). This resulted in higher visitor numbers to the protected areas (Rodger et al, 2007:162; Sadikin et al, 2017), adding more pressure on the already over-utilised protected resources in Africa, which jeopardises the sustainability of nature-based products in protected areas (Newsome et al, 2005). All three pillars are fundamental to sustainable wildlife tourism, but this research focuses on the environmental management indicators thereof
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