by Anthony Ham (Post Pandemic Travel Feature)
Covid has, for many of us, made the world a smaller place. The limitations imposed upon international travel by the pandemic has us dreaming of exploring the world – particularly the natural world – with newfound longing for the far horizon. Returning to Africa remains one of my most closely held dreams for a post-Covid world, as it does for many.
But the cost of Covid has been about so much more than postponed travel and safari dreams.
The cost in lives lost is devastating, but these figures tell only part of the story of suffering Covid has inflicted upon people across Africa. At the macro level, safari and wildlife tourism contributes an estimated $29 billion to African economies, and employs more than 3.5 million people. At the micro level, entire communities depend upon the income generated by safari-goers. They work as guides and drivers, cooks and cleaners, quite apart from the benefits that ripple out across a community to shopkeepers, craftspeople, and others.
Covid Hits African Safari Operators
When Covid hit in early 2020, most safari operations shuddered to a halt. The main safari season in most African countries runs from June through to September and the 2020 season was catastrophic for many operators and their employees. A trickle of visitors returned in 2021, but numbers remained at a tiny fraction of pre-Covid numbers.
Some of the larger operators, such as Asilia Africa and Great Plains Conservation were able to keep their safari properties open, or at least keep all of their staff employed, and continued to support a number of their conservation programs. But these were undoubtedly the exception. Many small-scale operators went under. Staff were simply laid off.
The Benefits of Tourism
Tourism is often derided as a negative force, and it can be. But safari tourism, when done right, can be an overwhelming force for good. It can help to slow the exodus of workers from rural areas to the cities. It can encourage communities to maintain traditional forms of knowledge, from artistic expression to connections to the land, its stories, and its wild creatures. And yes, it provides communities with economic foundations that are very difficult to replace.
For example, a study centred on Namibia in March 2021 found that communal wildlife conservancies alone could have lost $US10 million in tourism revenues, placing 61 tourism ventures and 2400 jobs under direct threat. As the report noted, with no income to tourism to provide salaries, some locals had already turned to the natural environment – the killing of animals for bush meat and much-needed protein, the chopping down of trees for cooking – for survival.
Further afield, the same report found that “More than 70% of African countries reported reduced monitoring of the illegal wildlife trade as a result of the pandemic. More than half reported impacts on the protection of endangered species, conservation education and outreach, regular field patrols and anti-poaching operations.”
Issues for Safari Tourists
For all the benefits that safari tourism promises in a post-Covid world, travels in the age of the pandemic require careful considerations of ethical questions. Most of the principles of responsible and sustainable travel will, of course, be more important than ever.
But a whole new set of questions arise as a result of Covid. Some of these, such as the issue of whether vaccinated travellers should travel in countries with largely unvaccinated populations, have been canvassed already here at Round Trip. These are not hypotheticals; they’re real-life concerns. By one estimate, for example, 0.6% of Tanzania’s population has been fully vaccinated at the time of writing.
Other issues, related to safari travel, go to the heart of making sure that local communities are protected. Many of these are the same issues that you face as a responsible citizen in your home country. If travelling among vulnerable, unvaccinated communities, travellers should be vaccinated. They should also wear masks, social distance where possible, and use anti-bacterial hand sanitizer as a matter of course.
Being a Responsible Traveller in a Post Pandemic World
Before you sign up for their tour, any prospective safari operator with whom you are considering going on safari should be interrogated about the protections they have in place for their employees and the communities they live among, Are guides and drivers and cooks and their families vaccinated? Are they required to wear masks? What is your policy for safari visitors when it comes to Covid-safe protocols? By asking these questions, you’re not only helping to protect the people you may be traveling with. You’re also doing your bit to encourage best-practice across the safari industry as a whole.
If operators don’t take your concerns seriously, take your business elsewhere.
After all, a safari is more than just a memorable experience. A good safari celebrates and helps to protect the natural world and traditional cultures, as well as providing a livelihood for people with no other economic safety net. With that celebration has always come a responsibility: to care for the world through which you’re passing, to make a positive contribution where you can, and to do no harm as a bare minimum.
Covid has changed so many things about our world. But as fundamental principles of responsible safari tourism, these are responsibilities that we as safari travelers should always have been aiming for.
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