From ‘Sandals and Beards to Sophisticated Urbanites’: The Opportunities and Management Dilemmas of a Dynamic Wildlife Tourism Sector

Wildlife tourism has undoubtedly come of age. If you consider it as ‘an old hat niche product’, you may think again. The last five years has seen an incremental growth in the number of different types of commercial wildlife watching activities developed, the number of tourism businesses offering these activities worldwide and the number of tourists engaging in them either as the primary motivation for travel or as a day trip whilst on a standard rest and relaxation holiday. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the recent changes in the sector and suggest the contemporary management issues that industry and academia must research and address