Review article

https://doi.org/10.37741/t.69.1.6

Last Chance Tourism in South Africa: Future Research Potential?

Gijsbert Hoogendoorn orcid.org/0000-0001-7969-7952 ; Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract

Last Chance Tourism (LCT) is defined by tourists' urgent visits to landscapes and seascapes, natural environments and places of social and cultural importance/heritage before they disappear. The obliteration of these environments is attributed to the rapid and destructive effects of global environmental change and globalization. These influences are leading to the demise of natural systems and biodiversity, including in polar regions and coral reef systems. Furthermore, cultures and traditions are also being lost. Scholarly investigations to date have reflected on the contention between the experiential gain in visiting destinations before they disappear on the one hand, and the losses to, and demise of, those very destinations through such visits. Despite above-global-average rise in temperature, increasingly frequent droughts and flooding, as well as rapid globalization, the South African experience on LCT destinations remains under-investigated. This paper uses secondary sources to explore current and future destinations where cultural groups are threatened, fauna and flora are on the brink of extinction, and landscapes are changing for the worse. Future research opportunities are identified and conceptual concerns are discussed.

Keywords

last chance tourism; research opportunities; tourists; South Africa

Hrčak ID:

254693

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/254693

Publication date:

27.3.2021.

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