As global tourism begins its slow recovery, there is more and more pressure on the relevant organisations and authorities to optimise South Africa’s reputation as a responsible, sustainable destination.
The latest IPPC Report on Climate Change didn’t pull any punches. The world is fast-approaching a point of no return – and this reality is going to mould perspectives on all global environmental challenges, including biodiversity, extinction risk assessment, conservation practices and programmes, right down to how people travel.
According to Sherwin Banda, President of African Travel Inc., who is committed to ‘matching the right Africa with the right client’, travellers are interested in uplifting local communities and promoting wildlife conservation – and are actively asking questions around conservation and community when making the decision to travel.
“Research shows that up to 82% of travellers in the United States are now choosing to buy travel experiences from brands that have a proven and vested interest in sustainability. They are seeking out experiences and companies that are focused on making a positive difference,” he says.
“Currently, the top two travel motivators are eco-tourism and wildlife conservation. In short, ‘sustainability’ is no longer just a buzzword. It’s driving a conscious awakening and significantly influencing buying decisions for travellers.”
Andre du Toit, Director at SATIB, agrees with this sentiment, highlighting how as many as 85% of consumers who are buying travel insurance are also clicking on the accompanying ‘donate’ button to donate to an important cause within their destination country of choice.
“It’s clear that travellers are making far better decisions nowadays, all of which are based on sustainable and regenerative practices.”
Making travel matter
Shannon Guihan, Chief at TreadRight & Sustainability Officer for The Travel Corporation (TTC), is responsible for leading the TreadRight Foundation, the group’s not-for-profit dedicated to supporting projects under the foundation’s three pillars of Planet, People and Wildlife globally. The Foundation is the brains behind the ‘Make Travel Matter’ movement and Shannon insists that it has quickly moved beyond being just a policy, and is now part and parcel of the brand’s core proposition.
“We are dedicated to eliciting change. Unfortunately, the enhanced discussion surrounding sustainability is both good and bad. While there are lots of people talking about it, not quite as many are putting in the work to back it up. Our responsibility is to help the consumer navigate the evolution and many twists and turns without becoming disillusioned in the process,” she explains.
SATSA is another body that has dedicated itself to achieving this goal and shouldering this responsibility. Keira Lee Powers, Bsoc.Sci & PDM focused in Political Science, Environmental & Geographical Science and Business Management and Director at SATSA speaks passionately about the development of the SATSA Animal Interaction Guidelines, in particular.
“We tried to put together a collection of accurate information backed up by statistics in a simplified way that would be useful to everyone, from travel suppliers and policy makers to travel agents and even travellers themselves.”
This led to the birth of the Decision Tree tool, a PDF containing six critical questions leading into one another, that make it easy for readers to, through a process of elimination, identify relevant exclusion zones when it comes to captive wildlife tourist attractions and activities. The tool has received critical acclaim, but SATSA is now facing the challenge of ensuring that everyone – especially tourists who are embracing direct bookings and making decisions without any expert support or guidance – know of both its existence and importance.
Younger generations driving change
Sherwin highlights how it’s the younger generations who are driving change regarding sustainability and who are actively looking for reliable resources to help them in this endeavour. They want to be educated, and they want to make the right decisions. Further to this, it’s becoming apparent that parents are raising their children with a stronger emphasis on being accountable caretakers of the earth and passionate change-makers.
Keira agrees, stating how in most European countries, evidence shows that the children are playing a much bigger role in making decisions regarding holiday destinations and activities based on their knowledge and what they’ve deemed as the most important considerations.
Sherwin adds, “Younger, more enlightened consumers will, at minimum, expect conservation to be a priority when buying travel experiences – not an after-thought. They want to spend their money and tourism dollars on supporting sustainable and responsible travel. This desire is definitely on the increase and all of the right questions are being asked.”
Regulation vs. self-regulation
There is currently a huge divide amongst authorities within the conservation space on whether there needs to be strict regulations and accreditation programmes in place going forward into the future. However, the vast majority are insisting that self-regulation amongst travel agents and consumers is the only way to go.
“The whole point of sustainability is inciting behaviour change and encouraging suppliers to make the necessary adaptions, as opposed to banning or turning our backs on them,” comments Keira.
“It needs to be up to the agent and consumer to make the decisions, and up to us to empower them to make the right ones. A good analogy is that you can go ahead and put a guardrail on a mountain slope, but it’s still important for travellers to watch their step and to take the time to choose which mountains are the safest to climb with caution and through proper, ongoing research,” she adds.
And it’s not just wildlife that matters … but the people who protect it
Up until now, the primary focus of conservation efforts was on the protection of wildlife. However, as Andre highlights, our rangers play a critical role in conservation efforts.
“We also need to be turning our attention to our rangers – the people who underpin what we do. Since July last year, we’ve lost 86 rangers in Africa due to harsh working environments and the fight against poaching. Their wellbeing is not just a basic human right, but pivotal in establishing a solid foundation upon which we build our conservation and tourism economy. They are essentially the guardians of our wilderness, upon which our tourism communities are dependent.”
SATIB is working tirelessly to prioritise ranger wellbeing and has created a new type of insurance policy in partnership with the Game Rangers Association of South Africa, known as Ranger Protect.
“The policy now offers protection to thousands of local rangers and has since inception saved the lives of many – as well as provided families of fallen rangers with financial support following the death of a loved one in their ever-challenging field of work,” says Andre.
Keira feels equally strongly about boosting ranger wellbeing and also calls the attention to the other ‘elephant in the room’.
“We need to be looking to the local communities, too. For example, making sure that the economic value chain goes further into the broader communities around the national parks, enhancing profitability outside of the fence in order to ensure that what’s inside the fence is protected.”
All in all, it seems the industry is making notable progress in its conservation efforts and in optimising reputation and traveller confidence. What’s most important is to help stop suppliers from feeling paralysed under the pressure to make the right and necessary changes.
Sustainability, in fact more importantly “regeneration”, is a journey, an evolution. It doesn’t happen overnight. At the end of the day, if all consumers, authorities, and suppliers focus on taking incremental steps in the right direction, the world, the industry, and the African continent will look a whole lot better tomorrow than it does today.
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