Abstract
Great White shark (Carcharodon carcharias) tourism is a highly controversial, iconic niche form of shark tourism that forms part of the nature-based adventure tourism or wildlife tourism market. As such it straddles hard adventure, nature-based adventure as well as marine ecotourism. Great White shark cage diving tourism in South Africa started in the early 1990s and has expanded tremendously. The chance for people to observe and appreciate Great Whites, combined with opportunities to support local communities, along with focused educational initiatives means that this alternative to consumptive uses of wildlife could assist with the long-term preservation of sharks. In addition, it may have a positive impact on the attitudes, knowledge and behaviour of the public with respect to sharks. However, this type of ‘up close and personal’ wildlife tourism which involves ‘close encounters’ with wild animals and marketed as a type of ‘enhanced client experience’ is not unproblematic. The negative impacts on animals in general range from physiological stress; behavioural changes, as well as overall declines in health status, birth rates and even mortality. Thus, this type of wildlife tourism is highly controversial and cannot be left unmanaged. This chapter provides an overview of Great White shark tourism around the world. It explores the geographical location of in-water Great White shark tourism, and then locates the Gansbaai, South Africa industry within the international one. It concludes that South Africa offers a product that is significantly cheaper than any other location. It also hosts many more tourists. Nevertheless, the South African industry is a highly vulnerable one, with the loss of regular Great White sightings between 2016 and 2018 taking a heavy toll on the industry.
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Notes
- 1.
Chum is a mixture of minced tuna and sardines with fish oil and seawater (EWT 2016).
- 2.
All prices and exchange rates were as of 7 August 2016.
- 3.
An airline dive system where one can dive without a tank, connected to air tanks on board the boat by a line.
- 4.
The Farallon Island operators are not allowed to use fish derived bait or chum, so luring the sharks close to the cage is a challenge.
- 5.
Exchange rate of 0.71 to the New Zealand Dollar.
- 6.
See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/29/jaws-new-zealand-town-attack-great-white-sharks-cage-divers [Accessed November 5, 2016].
- 7.
See http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/75022978/paua-divers-take-department-of-conservation-to-court-on-shark-cage-diving [Accessed November 6, 2016].
- 8.
Exchange rate 0.77 to the Australian Dollar.
- 9.
See http://www.sharkwatchsa.com/en/blog/ [Accessed October 25, 2018].
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McKay, T. (2020). Locating Great White Shark Tourism in Gansbaai, South Africa Within the Global Shark Tourism Economy. In: Rogerson, J., Visser, G. (eds) New Directions in South African Tourism Geographies. Geographies of Tourism and Global Change. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29377-2_16
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