Wildlife tourism is essentially interacting with wildlife in their natural habitat. This may include photographing, safari trips or even hunting. So if this type of tourism needed and what benefits does it bring?

Wildlife tourism certainly can help many people and some of the wildlife too in a number of ways. Often the majority if not all of the money made from wildlife tourism goes back in to the industry. This money is used to improve conservation areas, to help look after the wildlife in terms of disease etc and for scientific studies. Not only does it help create more money for the industry but it also helps economic growth by creating more jobs. These jobs are often filled by local people with a good knowledge and interest in the area.

The UN World Tourism Organisation estimates that around 7% of world tourism comes from wildlife tourism, and that this figure is growing at about 3% every year. Obviously in certain places such as South Africa, this figure is a lot higher.

On the other hand, tourism can cause an issue to the wildlife due to habitat loss, pollution, infrastructure, climate change, over-exploitation and illegal trade. If the wildlife numbers decline and we lose a large number of them, then so goes the wildlife tourism.