Does trophy hunting have a future in Africa’s tourism?

As the death of Cecil the lion, a popular draw for tourists in Zimbabwe, continues to remain international news, the event has sparked conversation surrounding the role of trophy hunting in Africa’s tourism.

While it’s easy to be overcome by the morality of the practice – which is legal in 11 African countries ­– trophy hunting in Africa has long had a place in the world of travel.

In the course of a week, news of Cecil’s death has spread across social media outlets and major news organizations, as global citizens voice their feelings against trophy hunting and also the hunter who killed Cecil.

The practice has been denounced by celebrities and public figures alike, a number of major airlines announced immediate discontinuation of big game shipments and Zimbabwe has suspended big game hunting – making international headlines with a temporary ban that may have, in a different set of circumstances, not been publicized or even put in place.

Such corporate and government actions beg the question: what kind of a future does an activity like trophy hunting have in a still-developing tourism destination like Africa?

Of money & jobs

Trophy hunting is a lucrative business and in fact, a significant industry for the countries where it takes place; according to a 2009 report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and its Resources (IUCN), the annual turnover for big game hunting in Africa is estimated at US $200 million.

However, the report also points out that hunting only represents three per cent of all tourism turnover in Tanzania; in addition, it says that Kenya, which outlawed hunting in 1977, makes 15 per cent of its GDP from tourism, having developed the sector that as of 2009, was worth US $1 billion per year – 40 times larger than the hunting sector was before it was banned.

“Clearly, big game hunters pay a lot for their individual hunts,” admits Peter Knights, executive director of WildAid, a partner of Lion World Travel and the TreadRight Foundation. “But general tourists are far more numerous, and some of them pay a lot for luxury and exclusive accommodations.”

A paper published by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in 2015 found wildlife watching now represents 80 per cent of the total annual sales of trips to Africa. 

Determining which sector generates more revenue is linked to the impact of their economical contributions, something Namibia-born tour operator Coenie Fourie, owner of Hunt Africa Safaris based in Manitoba, believes is where trophy hunting takes the lead.

“It’s a huge industry. Make no mistake – it employs a lot of people. One hunter is serviced by no less than 150 [people] on a single hunt,” he continues, citing lodge employees as well as the drivers, cooks and field guides required for a successful trip. “There are a lot of countries in Africa that rely on the income [generated by] hunting.”

According to IUCN, African game hunts are organized by approximately 1,300 businesses that employ around 3,400 guides and 15,000 local staff – low numbers, considering that 150 million people live in the eight main hunting countries, and that hunting takes up approximately 16.5 per cent of their territory.

IUCN also points out that Botswana, which recently banned hunting in favour of safari tourism, provides 39 times the employment than its hunting sector did.

Conservation

“Whether or not you condone hunting, that’s a separate issue,” Fourie says when asked about hunting’s role in Africa’s conservation efforts. “People are missing the fact that sport hunting actually contributes to bringing back species who were otherwise on the brink of extinction.”

While this was true in 1990, when Namibia’s government dwindling wildlife and tourism numbers caused it to commoditize game for hunting (thus placing value on the repopulation of certain species), not everyone is so quick to agree today.