Download PDF (2.5MB) - Anchor Environmental

More documents

Recommendations

Info

focused on harbour trips and until recently dolphin-viewing and swimming excursions. The demand for such tours is described as static with the latter believed to have decreased substantially. This is believed to be linked to the banning of tours which allowed swimming with dolphins. No increase in the demand for marine tours, specifically for whale watching is expected by tourism agents. This was attributed largely to a lack of any marketing by tourism authorities, with much of the current focus being on beaches. Current demand could thus be expected to support a permit holder but a large potential for growth does exists and could probably easily support more permits in the future. Indeed, there is potential at Umhlanga as well as Durban harbour. The Zululand region north of Durban is based primarily on inland attractions such as wildlife viewing and cultural tours. The main centre for coastal and marine-based tourism is Richards Bay/Umhlathuze. Tourism is currently dominated by business tourists (ca. 60%) with the remainder being domestic visitors from Gauteng and other parts of KZN who are present during long weekends and school holidays. Nevertheless, there are a number of international arrivals at the airport en route to other destinations, and cruise ships dock in the harbour. There is currently only one person offering any form of marine tour in the harbour. Tourism agents claim that numerous requests are received for whale tours and these are all referred to St Lucia. It was believed that the existence of an operator in Richards Bay could capitalise on this and prove successful, as previous permit holders have demonstrated. On the whole, the majority of tourism in the area is linked to business and the scope for development of boat-based whale watching would probably be limited to a single operator. The Maputaland area is dominated by the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park and is currently experiencing a growth in demand for tours, primarily aimed at eco-tourism. The northern section around Sodwana is primarily known for its diving but the growth in numbers have seen a diversification into related tourism to cater for family groups which includes marine tours to view dolphins and other fauna. There is currently sufficient demand for at least two boat-based whale watching operators. It was however highlighted that any such operator would however depend on a variety of attractions and peak demand would be limited to school holidays and long weekends when family groups were more prevalent. Given sufficient marketing it was believed that growth in this sector was potentially high but was dependent on support from local management structures. St Lucia currently exhibits a high demand for whale watching, which can be considered one of the major attractions to the town. Demand is currently in excess of what the single operator can cater to and has supported the development of unpermitted operators. At the current stage St Lucia can be expected to support at least one more full-time operator. Thus in total we estimate that there is immediate potential to expand the boat-based whale watching industry by about six permits, bringing the total to 32 (Table 7.3), an increase of 23%. If existing, untapped or growing markets are taken into account, permits numbers could be expanded by as much as 40% in the near future (Table 7.3). Further growth is likely to be possible in other areas in future, especially if bodies such as SATOUR increase marketing of marine tourism and boat-based whale watching, but it is advisable to be conservative in the rate of increasing permit numbers and to first concentrate on maximising the value added by existing operations. Table 7.3. Summary of estimated potential number of permits, subject to consideration in terms of potential impacts on marine resources and industry standards. Region Existing number of permits Potential additional permits Potential with additional marketing* West Coast 3 - Cape Metro 3 (+1) 2 3 Agulhas 5 - 1 Garden Route 4 - - Sunshine 2 1 1 Border-Kei 1 - - Wild Coast 2 - - Hibiscus 2 - 1 Durban 1 - 2 Zululand 1 - - Maputaland 2 3 3 Total 26 6 11 *this is based on areas with large or growing tourist concentrations which could be better exploited in the near future. Note that possibilities are technically limitless, apart from sustainability constraints. 67
The increased number of permits discussed above should be seen as synonymous with an expansion in the number of boats (i.e. each permit is for one boat). There is no economic reason for this to mean that the additional permits should not go to existing permit holders. Indeed, in New Zealand, permit holders are limited to area but not number of boats (Baxter 1994), with the effect that they ostensibly have the incentive to protect their own resource base. In contrast, multiple users working in the same area would be expected to compete, which would create greater pressure on the resource, than if the same number of boats was operated by a single owner. Furthermore, the investment required for expansion could be substantially less than if new permits were issued to new operators. It is also important to note that current demand is at least partly a function of successful marketing efforts by existing permit holders. Thus care must be taken not to penalise successful operators by setting up competitors in their areas. Allowing existing permit holders to have additional permitted boats rewards these operators instead. In general, in areas with high potential that have vacant permits, existing permits should be allocated before additional permits are advertised. In areas where potential is poor, any applications for permits should be very carefully assessed to ensure that the operation would be viable. 7.5 The importance of standards and marketing This study has found that marketing is a powerful tool that can generate substantial turnover in areas that had previously been largely untouristed. Thus the inherent attractiveness of an area for whale watching need not be the only factor determining the potential economic value of a boat-based whale watching area. With imagination, new markets can be created. For example, the West Coast resource, currently very under-utilised partly due to the paucity of tourists in the area, could become viable if marketed with complementary attractions as a unique experience. Different areas provide different attractions to subtlety different markets a fact which can be taken advantage of in marketing. The creation of a market is obviously of paramount importance: whale-watchers are created by marketing. Marketing is not only important for attracting customers to individual businesses, but at a broader level is critical for the industry as a whole. Thus marketing efforts by NGOs such as SABBWWA should yield financial returns to the operators and marketing by government should yield economic returns in the form of increased economic value generated by the industry. SABBWWA has played a pivotal role in marketing South Africa’s whale watching resources in general, something which has probably been vital to many of the smaller less marketed operators. Marketing by government has not been sufficient, however. The future potential of the industry cannot be reached without maintaining standards at globally competitive levels and marketing the resource and service. The quality of the package offered is important to ensuring the sustainability of the industry. If standards are not maintained, whale watching will not gain or maintain a prominent role in attracting visitors to South Africa, and its economic value will decline. Thus the pursuit of increased turnover should consider the long-term trade-offs involved, for example, in boat size and visitor experience, and the returns to investment in providing a high quality versus low quality experience. 7.6 Sustainability limits It is important to note that, while we have considered the quality of the whale resource as a factor that would contribute to the marketability of boat-based whale watching, and hence its economic value, this report explicitly does not address the potential limitations on numbers of permits that may need to be imposed in order to protect the resource. Thus, the future potential of an area will ultimately be limited by the need to protect the resource itself. Another issue that needs to be considered is whether boat-based whale watching should be carried out in Marine Protected Areas. Some argue that these should be sanctuaries for whales, while others suggest that permits should be concentrated in these areas where they can be better controlled. The length of coast included in protected areas has increased considerably since the permit areas were devised. Permit areas currently encroach on major marine protected areas in the Greater St Lucia 68
Page 3:
BOAT-BASED WHALE WATCHING IN SOUTH
Page 6 and 7:
owners, who felt that a smaller, fa
Page 8 and 9:
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION..
Page 10 and 11:
1. INTRODUCTION The whale watching
Page 12 and 13:
the main whale watching season. All
Page 14 and 15:
3. WHALE WATCHING: AN INTERNATIONAL
Page 16 and 17:
location. Most cetaceans spend the
Page 18 and 19:
3.2 South Africa in perspective Boa
Page 20 and 21:
Table 3.3 excludes countries where
Page 22 and 23:
west coast up to February or March
Page 24 and 25:
The designated areas also include a
Page 26 and 27: 5. PERMIT-HOLDER CHARACTERISTICS, S
Page 28 and 29: The majority of permitted operators
Page 30 and 31: Two very large boats excluded, a ty
Page 32 and 33: November. This is probably due to a
Page 34 and 35: holder, with a total of just over 3
Page 36 and 37: Based on rack rates and the estimat
Page 38 and 39: 5.12 What determines success Based
Page 40 and 41: impact along the Garden Route, anot
Page 42 and 43: 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20
Page 44 and 45: 6.2 Western Cape The Western Cape P
Page 46 and 47: Equipment and infrastructure The fu
Page 48 and 49: around 30 to 35 passengers were per
Page 50 and 51: advertising material which offered
Page 52 and 53: generally variable in their length,
Page 54 and 55: Non-permitted activity One dedicate
Page 56 and 57: Equipment, trip characteristics and
Page 58 and 59: 6.4 KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal cur
Page 60 and 61: visitors can be accommodated before
Page 62 and 63: Run on its way past Durban. Trips w
Page 64 and 65: Operators in Area 25 also offered d
Page 66 and 67: 6.5 Summary of legal and illegal ac
Page 68 and 69: 7. FUTURE POTENTIAL OF THE INDUSTRY
Page 70 and 71: Overall demand is heavily influence
Page 72 and 73: The most important enabling criteri
Page 74 and 75: The Cape Metro area is a major tour
Page 78 and 79: Wetland Park, Pondoland, the Greate
Page 80 and 81: 8.3 The permit system, conditions a
Page 82 and 83: Monitoring will also be vital for e
Page 84 and 85: 15. Data collected by operators and
Page 86 and 87: Woods-Ballard, A.J., Parsons, E.C.M
Page 88 and 89: 11. APPENDIX 2. SUMMARY OF COMMERCI
Page 90 and 91: used for whale watching must be acc
Page 92 and 93: Both the National and state governm
Page 94 and 95: effort to be controlled through res
Page 96 and 97: not is broached several times each
Page 98 and 99: 11.5 South America 11.5.1 Ecuador T
Page 100 and 101: The Dominican Republic has strict c
Page 102 and 103: 12. APPENDIX 3: NOTIFICATION OF PER
Page 104 and 105: 4. Applicants must be willing to si
Page 106 and 107: SIMONSTOWN AREA Cape Point Lighthou
Page 108 and 109: PLETTENBERG BAY AREA The Western Bo
Page 110 and 111: (iii) the extent to which the appli
Page 112 and 113: Table I. Rating of the whale resour
show all

Download PDF (2.5MB) - Anchor Environmental

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?