Contemporary Issues Affecting Wildlife Tourism: Crises and Disasters

Crises and disasters are among the most critical threats to the sustainability of wildlife tourism globally. The chapter assesses the crises and disasters that have affected wildlife tourism in Southern Africa. A thorough search of scholarly and grey literature related to crises and disasters that have affected tourism in general and wildlife tourism from the year 2000 was conducted from December 2022 to February 2023. Content analysis was used to analyse the articles. The findings reveal that although there are many crises and disasters that have affected wildlife tourism globally, only coronavirus (COVID-19) and other disease outbreaks, and natural disasters, have had a greater impact in the region. The analysis, which was mainly drawn from the impacts of COVID-19 in Botswana and cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe revealed that the net impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and natural disasters in Southern Africa have been strongly negative. These include reduced economic activity, negative tourist perceptions, destruction of infrastructure, less revenue for wildlife management, reduced conservation capacity, biodiversity loss and disturbance, reduced household income, and reduced agricultural production. Implications for policy and practice include re-establishing public perceptions of destination safety and attractiveness following a crisis or a disaster; addressing risk perceptions and behaviours of tourism stakeholders; stakeholder cooperation in formulating crisis destination marketing; creating emergency wildlife funds; providing support to key industries underpinning conservation efforts, such as tourism; introduction of conservation tax credits; as well as capacitating local communities to reduce over-reliance on nature and wildlife-based tourism. The chapter underscores the need for tourism destinations to prepare well in advance for crises and disasters to minimise negative impacts on visitors and the tourism industry at large.