University of Aarhus ECOTOURISM AS A WAY TO PROTECT ...

Ecotourism as a sustainable way to protect nature
• The little five: buffalo weaver, elephant shrew, leopard tortoise, ant lion and
rhino beetle.
• Birding big six: ground hornbill, kori bustard, lappet- faced vulture, martial
eagle, pel’s fishing owl and saddle- bill stork.
• Five trees: baobab, fever tree, knob thorn, marula, mopane.
• Five natural/cultural features: letaba elephant museum, jock of the bushveld
route, masereni ruins, Stevenson Hamilton Memorial Library, thulamela.
3.2.3. Tourists and their expectations
In Obua J. and D. M. Harding´s research (1996), an investigation was
carried out to find out what tourists expect from a visit in the Uganda National
Park. Tourists were asked why they chose this destination. Their answers were
as follows in order of importance: “About three-quarters said they mainly visited
the place to view the wildlife. Over one-half gave the forest and its diversity as
the second major reason. Nearly 50 % gave the tropical setting as the third
reason, and the similar proportion named the culture and the people as the fourth
reason. The peace and quite were of less significance and were given as the fifth
reason by more than half of the visitors”.
In this same research they tried to figure out what kind of people these
tourists where to be able to improve the management of the parks in the future.
The better you understand tourists, the better you can manage a national park to
offer services. The results were that tourists did not belong to one specific
profile, tourists were found from every social class, education, etc. But it was
exposed that a great quantity of them were mature people with a university
degree and at considerable knowledge about the environment.
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