Eco-tourism is booming across the globe, especially in Africa where wildlife and conservation are at the core of some of the most popular tourist experiences.
The great news is that plenty of local travel providers are stepping up for the planet, offering a variety of sustainable products, services and accommodation options with the potential to make a huge difference and combat climate change. Unfortunately, there are also a number of players who are merely paying lip service to the green revolution.
How can the trade successfully identify the businesses making a concerted effort and direct tourists to them? How can the game-changers be separated from the ‘imposters’?
This was a topic of discussion at a recent webinar hosted by Africa Travel Week on Green Tech as the next frontier for eco-tourism in Africa.
For Harold Goodwin, MD of the Responsible Tourism Partnership and adviser to WTM Africa on its Responsible Tourism programme, it’s all about asking the right questions. “Ask the operator what they are doing to have a positive impact on conservation and their policy on crowding wildlife. Do they, along with all the others, encircle the charismatic megafauna to enable their guests to get the trophy photographs?
Robert More, Founder and CEO of More Family Collection, highlighted how the trade and guests needed to learn the language of sustainability and ‘green’ tech, talking about how, in most cases, people simply didn’t know what to look for and which questions to ask. He explained that, ultimately, the trade needed to educate themselves and then turn their attention to educating their clients.
Sense of urgency
Luckily, it seems as if both the trade and travellers are feeling a sense of urgency to prioritise the planet. “We see a sense of urgency from the trade right through to the customer, and there’s a greater demand for transparency,” said Colin Bell, Co-Founder of Natural Selection Safaris.
He explained how transparency was taking centre stage in the world of eco-tourism and why it was vital for travel providers to begin separating community and conservation costs from other experience-related costs, such as accommodation.
“Make it real. Make it auditable. Make it transparent,” was Bell’s advice. He explained that the separation and transparency regarding costs was starting to help travellers understand what they were paying for when it came to their own experience and how much they were actually ‘giving back’.
“I think that transparency is going to become the next big frontier, especially in Southern Africa.” He explained that there needed to be a clear distinction between the cost of the holiday (including things like accommodation, activities, drinks etc.) and the cost of conservation. “People want to see a separation. We in Southern Africa need to embrace that more. Transparency is going to be the big future and I think we need to make sure that the next step after the transparency is making sure that the auditing is done correctly.”
A burning question for eco-tourism right now is, is the capital produced from tourism enough to be able to reverse the human effect on our planet?
“It’s a global challenge that needs global buy-in,” said More. “The growth of the eco-tourism industry is essential to the preservation of untouched land at this point in time. As a conservationist at heart, I just hope this eco-tourism industry continues to grow exponentially because, in doing that, we can protect vast areas of land and, in doing that, we can slow climate change and hopefully stop it within the next three to five years.”
Government engagement needed
Vincent Kouwenhoven, Founder of Green Safaris, agreed. “Ultimately, we need strong, well-funded organisations and government engagement to support the ecotourism industry. It’s in the hands of the tourists too. They need to see the impact of conservation and be educated on how they can do their bit.”
For Bell, the answer lies in ‘bringing communities out of the mud hut and into the boardroom’. “It’s all about reinventing the tourism industry. It’s happening, but we need to accelerate it if we are to take bigger steps forward and become the next frontier of eco-tourism.”
