Wildlife and other (non-human) animals

Scroll down for posts that have been tagged with “wild­life and oth­er (non-human) anim­als” as they relate to travel & tour­ism des­tin­a­tions and industry stakeholders.

Tags are inform­al. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog tries not to get bogged down with ter­min­o­logy and defin­i­tions. You may dis­agree with tags applied (or not applied) to a post. Feel free to com­ment on any post you think has been incor­rectly or insuf­fi­ciently tagged. “GT” encour­ages good-faith debate and discussion.

Elephant tourism: The harms of received wisdom

June 26, 2017
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john roberts elephant tourism

The “received wis­dom” about ele­phant tour­ism that keeps con­scien­tious trav­el­lers away from ele­phant-based attrac­tions is doing more harm than good, accord­ing to ele­phant expert John Roberts in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. UPDATE, May 2021: “GT” asked Mr Roberts wheth­er he would like to update this “GT” Insight from July 2017. In light of the circumstances […]

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Ecotourism & wildlife: To feed or not to feed?

June 18, 2017

1024px Black bear with salmon

A 71-year-old New Hamp­shire, USA artist wants to devel­op an “eco­tour­ism” product based on feed­ing bears and moose, accord­ing to an art­icle in the Sen­tinel Source. Richard Whitney’s concept is simple: Find a remote, wooded area, cre­ate a con­trolled feed­ing site to attract wild­life and charge vis­it­ors to watch. Whit­ney and his part­ner were them­selves charged […]

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Kenya tourist lodge shuts after land invasions, wildlife killings


Elephants fight in the Laikipia region of Kenya where Sosian lodge is located: Source: Sosian

A lodge owned by a murdered Brit­ish ranch­er in Kenya’s north­ern Laikipia region announced its clos­ure on Monday (June 5). This comes after the ranch prop­erty had been over­run by her­ders for months and ahead of August polls in which some politi­cians have made land reform a cam­paign issue. Tristan Voor­spuy, a Brit­ish army vet­er­an, was shot […]

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Sri Lanka & Thailand slapped on biodiversity day

June 6, 2017

Yala leopard. Source: Amila Tennakoon https://www.flickr.com/photos/lakpura/15654125258

The former Dir­ect­or-Gen­er­­al of Sri Lanka’s Depart­ment of Wild­life Con­ser­va­tion (DWC) ques­tioned wheth­er Yala Nation­al Park can sus­tain tour­ism num­bers skyrock­et­ing more than 1,000% in sev­en years – from 48,368 vis­it­ors in 2008 to 545,007 in 2015. Dr Sum­ith Pil­ap­itiya was tack­ling over-vis­it­a­­tion and its con­sequences on biod­iversity at an event to mark the Inter­na­tion­al Day for […]

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Could a primate be driven to extinction by “ecotourism”?

May 26, 2017

Could the endangered red-shanked douc langur ('Pygathrix nemaeus') be pushed to extinction by ecotourism? Source: GreenViet

Sci­ent­ists have warned that an endangered prim­ate may be pushed into extinc­tion by the devel­op­ment of con­crete build­ings for, iron­ic­ally, a “lux­ury eco-tour resort com­plex”. Some 237 herds of red-shanked douc langurs (Pygath­rix nemaeus), com­pris­ing more than 1,300 indi­vidu­als, are liv­ing in the Sơn Trà Nature Reserve in Đà Nẵng, Viet­nam, reports VNS. The Da […]

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Apo Island, Philippines to levy new fees on tourists

May 25, 2017

Sea turtle 'pawikan' off the shores of Apo Island. Source: Wikimedia / Jun V Lao

The famed dive des­tin­a­tion of Apo Island in Dauin, Negros Ori­ent­al, Phil­ip­pines, will levy new fees for tour­ists, accord­ing to the Phil­ip­pine News Agency. The fees, agreed upon by the Pro­tec­ted Area Man­age­ment Board (PAMB), would include moor­ing fees for boats used by tour­ists; for diving, swim­ming, snorkel­ing and oth­er activ­it­ies. Jose Bry­an Arranguez, Community […]

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