Framework for Sustainable Recovery of Tourism in Protected Areas
Open Access
- 5 March 2021
- journal article
- review article
- Published by MDPI AG in Sustainability
- Vol. 13 (5), 2798
- https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052798
Abstract
Tourism in protected areas was a fast-growing segment within the global travel and tourism industry prior to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. As a development pathway, tourism generated foreign exchange for countries endowed with natural assets (protected areas, pristine landscapes, forests, oceans, wildlife), contributed to conservation revenues, and provided local development benefits for communities. However, the spread of COVID-19 and its associated travel restrictions severely impacted this sector. In this review, we describe the main challenges preventing the sector from achieving its development potential. We propose a framework to steer tourism in protected areas as a green recovery initiative, so that it may rebound sustainably and continue to support biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development.This publication has 38 references indexed in Scilit:
- A global assessment of the social and conservation outcomes of protected areasConservation Biology, 2015
- Walk on the Wild Side: Estimating the Global Magnitude of Visits to Protected AreasPLoS Biology, 2015
- The performance and potential of protected areasNature, 2014
- Targeting global conservation funding to limit immediate biodiversity declinesProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013
- The role of tourism employment in poverty reduction and community perceptions of conservation and tourism in southern AfricaJournal of Sustainable Tourism, 2012
- Best Practices for Tourism Concessions in Protected Areas: A Review of the FieldForests, 2011
- Putting leakage in its place: The significance of retained tourism revenue in the local context in Rural UgandaJournal of International Development, 2008
- Poverty and biodiversity: Measuring the overlap of human poverty and the biodiversity hotspotsEcological Economics, 2007
- The worldwide costs of marine protected areasProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2004
- The socio-economic and environmental impacts of tourism development on the Okavango Delta, north-western BotswanaJournal of Arid Environments, 2003