Impacts of Armed Conflicts on Tourism in Protected Areas and Their Environment in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Abstract

Armed conflicts have been on the rise in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It harms the country’s destination image with respect to tourism. Evidence demonstrates that violence have a negative effect on demand for tourism. It is also documented that countries suffering from armed conflicts severely impair their economies since human life is frequently lost and growth is threatened. This research was undertaken in and around Virunga National Park and assessed the effects of armed conflicts on tourism activities. The target populations were local residents and key informants drawn from organizations operating in and around the park with a sample size of 255 respondents. This constituted 200 local residents who participated in the questionnaire survey, 40 who participated in focus group discussions, and 15 key informants. Stratified, Systematic, purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select respondents. Structured questionnaires, interview schedules, observations and focus group discussions were used to collect data. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test goodness of fit with aid of SPSS. Results using graphs and tables showed areas mostly affected by armed conflicts were eco-tourism (97.9%), Cultural tourism (1%), Wildlife based tourism (0.5%) and Agro-tourism at 0.6%. While the most affected tourism activity was Gorilla trekking at 92.7%, accommodation and ascension of Nyiragogo. Conflicts decreased tourist arrivals and tourism activities in and around the park (X2=330.0,df=4,p˂0.0001). Recommendation was to reduce the conflicts further and remove the armed groups then reduce their impacts on tourism activities in addition effective implementation of laws ensuring equality on utilization of the resources and restriction of movements in and around the park.