As we enter the dawn of a new year, the Tourism Tattler January 2014 magazine looks at the trends that we could expect to shape travel and tourism during 2014 (see pages 10 -13).
We also look at some amazing Festivals that are held annually in Africa and provide the anticipated dates for each during 2014 with hyper-links for more information (see pages 18 – 22).
The final part of our series on Off-Road Driving concludes in this edition with tips and advice on offroad tyre selection and repair (see pages 28 – 30).
Wildlife conservation and the protection of Africa’s natural heritage will continue to be an important editorial subject in the Tourism Tattler during 2014, and in this edition we feature the erudite columnist and author, Ivo Vegter’s opinion on hunting (see page 14).
In past issues of the Tattler we have regularly reported on the plight of Africa’s rhino population. According to the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa Rhino Initiative, the current rhino poaching death stats in the country for 2013 is 946, with just 330 arrests associated with rhino poaching having been made.
The arrest figures are a slight improvement against 2012, when 267 poachers were apprehended – this against 668 rhino deaths in that year. In just four years, a total of 2395 rhino poaching deaths have been recorded with 994 arrests having been made over this period – that’s a conversion rate of just 41%!
Solving the rhino poaching scourge is by no means an easy task. There are proponents for legalising the trade of rhino horn (mostly by those who have stockpiles of horn accumulated through natural deaths of rhino), while others favour dehorning, dying or even poisoning the horn to curb the trade.
Some conservationists believe that reducing demand for rhino horn consumption by making it unfashionable in the end-user markets is the way to go, but others argue that the cost of mass marketing would be inhibitive and take so long to change mind-sets that Africa’s rhino population would be depleted before this objective could be achieved.
Looking at the table alongside, it’s interesting to make a comparison of political events in the country at the time when rhino poaching escalated from 2008 onwards. South Africa’s president Zuma officially took over from Thabo Mbeki on 18 December 2007 – merely a coincidence?
We trust that you will find the content in this edition to be of interest and hopefully, of benefit to your business.
Please do let us know if you have any particular subject that you would like to see featured in future editions of the Tourism Tattler Trade Journal. Suggestions may be emailed to [email protected]
Yours in Tourism
Des & Bev Langkilde
