Abstract
M.Sc. (Environmental Management)
The tourism industry is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide and its role as a fundamental contributor to the economic sector cannot be understated. However, this growth has led to an increase in negative environmental impacts. The success of tourism rests on the quality of the natural environment where it has been developed. Therefore should the natural environment and its resources be damaged or destroyed, the very resource that attracted tourists is destroyed, and the tourism industry will eventually collapse. The worldwide drive toward sustainable development and the growth in environmental awareness has placed pressure on tourism ventures to measure and mitigate their environmental impacts. This study was initiated to investigate the current sustainable performance of two safari camps owned by Wilderness Safaris. The primary reason for selecting these specific camps, relates to the fact that they are situated on the boarder of one of the most sensitive environments on earth the Namib Desert, and therefore demand effective management in order to ensure environmental degradation is prevented.
The study engaged in the development of a list of sustainable tourism issues and their associated indicators, to assess the current sustainability of the two camps. The research also aimed to formulate baseline data for future comparisons. The camp's current sustainability was determined by applying the selected sustainability indicators, to assess the camp's environmental, social and economic impacts on the surrounding biophysical and socio-economic environments. A cross-case analysis was then conducted comparing the results of each camps performance. The results were also compared to the company's group environmental minimum standards. This was done to provide Wilderness Safaris with an external verification of their camps current sustainable performance and to provide baseline data for future comparisons.
The chosen set of sustainable tourism indicators provided a time and cost-effective means of assessing the current sustainable performance of the two camps. Site specific recommendations were made for each camp to improve their sustainable performance. Future studies conducted by Wilderness Safaris can use this study as a benchmark to compare the sustainable performance of their camps. In addition this study can also be used as a benchmark for comparisons by other tourism ventures in other developing countries around the world. The study contributes to the academic body of knowledge in the field of study surrounding the application of sustainable tourism indicators to measure and operationalize sustainable development of tourism ventures. Conclusions recounting the sustainable performance of the two camps are made as well as recommendations for further research.