Biodiversity, scenery and infrastructure: Factors driving wildlife tourism in an African savannah national park
Biodiversity, scenery and infrastructure: Factors driving wildlife tourism in an African savannah national park
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DOI：
10.1016/j.biocon.2016.05.036
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发表时间：
2016-09-01
影响因子：
5.9
通讯作者：
Boehning-Gaese, Katrin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gruenewald, Claudia;Schleuning, Matthias;Boehning-Gaese, Katrin
野生动物旅游是一种重要的文化生态系统服务，有益于区域经济和生物多样性保护。许多野生动物旅游目的地仍然低于其游客和收入能力。需要采取管理战略，提高游客满意度和目的地的声誉，以吸引更多的游客。野生动物旅游可以与生物多样性直接相关，但也可能直接或间接地受到其他因素的影响，如景观特征或基础设施。我们调查了游客数量和生物多样性之间的关系，沿着与其他因素，在一个主要的野生动物旅游目的地使用结构方程模型，并进一步评估游客的期望和观赏偏好。我们同时记录了大型哺乳动物和游客的数据沿着78个公路断面克鲁格国家公园，南非，并进行了采访游客。我们还收集了有关植被覆盖、能见度、景观特征和基础设施的数据。我们发现，高游客数量在样带与大型捕食者的高目击概率，而其他因素，如有蹄类动物的密度或基础设施，只有弱相关的游客数量。然而，访谈结果表明，观看野生动物是参观公园的主要原因，大型食肉动物，特别是狮子和豹子，在游客的野生动物偏好中排名最高。我们的研究结果表明，在KNP的野生动物游客主要是吸引大型捕食者。为了满足游客的期望，增加游客数量，公园管理应侧重于保护自然萨凡纳生态系统与大型捕食者和猎物种群。通过这种基于生态系统的管理，生物多样性保护可以取得成功，同时确保野生动物旅游及其收入。(C)© 2016 Elsevier Ltd版权所有。
Wildlife tourism is an important cultural ecosystem service, benefiting regional economies and biodiversity conservation. Many wildlife tourism destinations remain below their visitor and income capacities. Management strategies are needed that increase visitor satisfaction and a destination's reputation to attract more visitors. Wildlife tourism can be directly linked to biodiversity, but might also be directly and indirectly influenced by other factors, such as landscape features or infrastructure. We investigated the relationships between visitor numbers and biodiversity, along with other factors, in a major wildlife tourism destination using structural equation modeling and additionally assessed visitors' expectations and viewing preferences. We simultaneously recorded large mammal and visitor data along 78 road transects in Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa, and conducted interviews with visitors. We also collected data on vegetation cover, visibility, landscape features and infrastructure. We found high visitor numbers at transects with high sighting probabilities of large predators, while other factors, e.g. ungulate densities or infrastructure, were only weakly associated with visitor numbers. Consistently, interview results suggested that seeing wildlife was the main reason for visiting the park, and large predators, especially lions and leopards, ranked highest among the visitors' wildlife preferences. Our results demonstrate that wildlife tourists in KNP are primarily attracted to large predators. To meet visitor expectations and to increase visitor numbers, park management should focus on the conservation of natural savannah ecosystems with large predator and prey populations. With such an ecosystem-based management, biodiversity conservation can be successful while securing wildlife tourism and its revenues. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.