‘Wildlife tourism is now becoming part of everyone’s bucket list rather than just the rich and famous’
Wildlife tourism has showcased year-on-year growth in India, mirroring many countries. Presently, the growth is reflected in the increase of domestic visitors in many of India’s protected national parks and birding areas. The many Indian states, hospitality, and adventure tourism stakeholders who promote wildlife tourism are tapping the potential of this segment as it grows in leaps and bounds. TTJ interacts with Geeta VG, Co-founder and CEO, WildTrails to know the latest wildlife scenario and trends in India. How would you describe the growth of Wildlife Tourism in India in the last decade?
We have seen tremendous growth in wildlife tourism in the last decade and more so in the last couple of years (due to pandemics) where the travel style has changed largely from “touch-and-go multi-city hoping” to long-stay nature and wildlife holidays. We feel wildlife tourism is now becoming a part of everyone’s bucket list rather than just the rich and famous. Also, recent celebrity visits to wildlife parks to celebrate marriages over there (ViKat marriage) are only increasing their popularity. PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Corbett Tiger Reserve as part of Man vs Wild has taken wildlife tourism to the next level.
Have you witnessed a demand for this segment and the destinations during the pandemic?
We saw 5X demand for nature, especially wildlife, during the pandemic. Especially what we call for the “drivable-parks”, the national parks that are at the driving distance from major metros like Kabini, Bandipur, Bhadra, Dandeli, Nagarhole, BRT from Bangalore and say Tadoba, Pench, Umred from Hyderabad and Mumbai and Ranthambore, Corbett from Delhi.
Based on the number of footfalls, based on tiger sightings (which WildTrails collects across all national parks and tiger reserves), and also based on its popularity on our social media (our 100K+ following of our Instagram account @WIldTrails.in), we see Ranthambore in the north and Kabini in the south are the most happening and most sought-after destinations.
According to you, other than the thrill of tiger sightings, what are the other popular forms of wildlife tourism or experiences that could be made popular with the tourists?
Tiger takes #1 spot always. Everyone, especially in India, wants to see the Tigers. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that’s the
only thing that determines whether it’s a successful safari/trip or not. People come to our sightings portal only to see tiger sightings. Even overseas tourists who we have accompanied literally started crying after sighting the tiger. That’s the craze our national animal brings. Having said that, things are changing now. Many are asking for leopards, specifically the snow leopards (in Spiti in Himachal Pradesh) and the black panther in Kabini, the Rhinos in Kaziranga, and also the Red Panda in Singalila & liontailed macaque in the western ghats, etc. Also, bird lovers are many in number and are also increasing steadily in India like the overseas and in line with that, we are also planning to bring many destinations into our ambit in the near future.
Wildlife Tourism also means Responsible Tourism. Give us your thoughts on Responsible Tourism for this segment of travel like visitors’ behaviour in parks, benefits to locals, conservation, environment, etc.?
Educating wildlife travellers is one of the key factors that we do in WildTrails. Many travellers come to these wildlife parks with their kids as kids are showing a lot more interest in Wildlife off lately. We make sure we educate the parents and kids as to why forests and the ecosystem of the forest are very important for us and our upcoming generations. Making them understand that forests are the lungs of the earth is very important. We also explain to them about responsible tourism and how not to leave any wastes in the forests nor feed the animals as they say - we only leave footmarks and take only memories. At WildTrails we also make that we invest the money in the local community so that those economies will thrive and they will lead a decent lifestyle because of wildlife and they will also work more for the conservation of the forest and its inhabitants rather than turning into poaching.
Is wildlife tourism a difficult segment to sell? How is your organisation marketing or offering innovative packages when reaching out to your trade partners and desiring customers?
A very tough segment to sell because of the nature of the business. It is still considered as a niche travel segment and also seen as for the rich and the famous. Africa has marketed its wildlife very well and is seen as a must for everyone. It’s there on everyone’s bucket list and that has helped them tremendously to get enough dollars for their conservation and upkeep and also for the local economy which otherwise would have got into poaching and destruction of the forests. But after the pandemic, the view towards nature and wildlife tourism has changed. Also, we are making things simple by automating and digitising the entire process of discovery, finding the right park, resort, safari, and the naturalist all with just a few clicks empowered with sightings information. We are also automating and digitising for African wildlife and we expect that to release in time for the migration season in Africa (June to October).