The quest for authentic experiences in wildlife tourism - a review of issues

Tourism based on interactions with wildlife is increasing in popularity across the world. This trend leads to increasing pressures on the visited ecosystems. In this paper the reader is introduced to the issues surrounding sustainability and authenticity of wildlife-based attractions and tourist’s expectations on a wildlife-based holiday, possible impacts of human – wildlife interactions on the wildlife are explored and solutions to conflicts arising from these interactions are shown. This paper aims to show that providing an authentic experience of wildlife to large numbers of visitors is mutually exclusive to ensuring the sustainability of the wildlife-based attraction visited.