WILDLIFE TOURISM IN SOUTH AFRICA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

WILDLIFE TOURISM IN SOUTH AFRICA - Essay Example The international wildlife tourists however comprise of such people who are mainly keen of conducting tours inside Africa (Avitourism in South Africa, 2010,pp.12-13). The target market identified for the marketing plan presented here accounts for 21000 to around 40000 wildlife tourists visiting the region on an annual basis. Domestic tourists comprise the major chunk of the wildlife tourist population and range from 13 to 24 thousand while the international tourists account for 8 to 16 thousand people on an annual basis. These target groups accounting for making wildlife tourism in South Africa render around 1025 to 1975 billion rand to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product on an annual basis (Research and Analysis Report, 2010, p.9). The report therefore intends to provide a clear-cut plan to attract these tourists by strategies in marketing and promotion and therefore add to the economy in terms of revenues as well. WILDLIFE TOURISM IN SOUTH AFRICA – A Marketing Plan Ma rketing Plan for Promoting Wildlife Tourism in South Africa South Africa is home to a large amount of biodiversity spread along its natural parks and wildlife habitats and accounts for drawing visitors from a worldwide base. This activity of ecology based wildlife tourism in the region helps in drawing huge revenues for the South African economy. In South Africa the amount of tourists coming to visit the wildlife sectors accrue to about 79 percent of the total number of tourists visiting the region on an annual basis. In terms of economic value the wildlife tourism in South Africa account for around 50 percent of the total amount of income generated from tourism activities. To attract the tourists visiting the South African region for their interest in wildlife, the South African government has rendered space for the development of natural parks, which hosts a large number of flora and fauna. These natural parks help in hosting a large number of tourists in several rest camps contai ning both lodging and hotel facilities. An example of a national park in the South African region is the Kruger National Park, which helps hosting a large number of tourists in both caravan and camps along with other guesthouses and guest cottages. These latter ones are built to present to the visitors a huge variety of opportunities to live and enjoy their tour. These hotels, rest houses and guest camps are designed in such a fashion as to provide to the people dwelling and food based on international standards. Estimates made show that only the Kruger National Park in South Africa draws around 1.4 million wildlife tourists in the region. This national park also helps to accrue huge amount of revenue for the South African economy. Estimates made show that on an average annual basis the national park amounts to around 40 million dollars of revenue for the South African government (Spenceley, 2006, pp.652-653). It is found from the above discussion that the impact of wildlife tourism in South Africa has helped the development of the economy of the region. The marketing and promotional activities designed would help greatly in enhancing the growth of wildlife tourists in the region, which would thereby augment the revenue patterns of the economy. However the marketing and promotional activities that would be taken to enhance the development of wildlife tourism in South Africa by helping in attracting large number of tourists must be developed in an organized fashion to optimize the utilization of available resources. Thus the design of the marketing plan for developing wildlife tourism in South Africa must function on the basis of the following agenda. Firstly the marketing plan