COVID-19 and game park employees’ livelihoods in a distressed destination

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the extent to which COVID-19 impacted the livelihoods of game park employees in a destination with ongoing political and economic challenges. Data were collected through interviewing employees revealed employee resilience levels and strategies to save their livelihoods during a crisis. It showcased the weaknesses of organizational social capital nodes in assisting employees during their vulnerable moments. It was found that employees on short-term contracts were the most affected, as they were the first to be laid off. The paper suggests up-skilling game park employees and develops empowerment interventions that help them generate second streams of income. This coping strategy is rarely discussed in the literature of tourism crisis and disaster management.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• game parks
• distressed destinations
• tourism crisis
• Zimbabwe

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the five anonymous reviewers and editor for valuable comments and suggestions on earlier drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Regis Musavengane

Regis Musavengane is a Human and Tourism Geographer. He is a faculty member at the Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. He is a Research Fellow at the School of Ecological and Human Sustainability, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa. His research interests are premised within the spectrum of environmental governance and sustainability in Sub-Saharan African contexts, with particular interest in collaborative management of natural resources, community participation, community-based tourism, land reform for community development, urban risk and inclusive tourism systems in distressed destinations. He is a member of the IUCN’s (International Union for Conservation of Nature’s) World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group (TAPAS Group). He is a member of the South Africa Geography Society and a member of the Zimbabwe Climate Change Coalition (ZCCC).

Erisher Woyo

Erisher Woyo is an Extraordinary Research Scientist at North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa. He also serves as the MBA Programme Coordinator at the Namibia Business School, University of Namibia. His ongoing work focuses on distressed economies, ICT, and higher education. His work has been published in Anatolia, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, Journal of Marketing for Higher education, Development Southern Africa, and several other outlets. For more information, please visit his website: www.drwoyo.com.

Agartha Olga Ndlovu

Agartha Olga Ndlovu is a lecturer at the Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. She is an upcoming scholar, interested in sustainable tourism, wildlife management and culinary sciences.