Clear waters: assessing regulation transparency of website advertising in South Africa’s boat-based whale-watching industry

Abstract

Long-term sustainability of South Africa’s boat-based whale-watching (BBWW) industry requires any desired growth to be achieved within sustainable parameters. Given that advertising is often the first point of exposure for potential tourists, transparency regarding permit regulations that support sustainable tourism and manage tourist expectations is important. To assess transparency, textual information and photographic content from 17 South African government permitted BBWW company websites were analysed. Regulation-related information in textual content was low across all websites (5-28% of sentences extracted); 91% of photographs containing whales, and 55% containing dolphins, appeared non-compliant for distance of vessel to animal. These results demonstrate that misleading advertising may result in tourist expectations that conflict with legal requirements for a sustainable industry and can place operators under pressure to provide the experiences as advertised. Solutions to address this problem and promote ecological sustainability in the industry include clearer advertising guidelines in permit regulations, standardised resources supplied to industry for advertising and tourist education, and greater awareness of advertising effects and how to positively promote regulations in website content.

Keywords:

• Marine ecotourism
• sustainable tourism
• marketing
• cetacean watching
• science communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the World Wildlife Fund Nedbank Green Trust under grant number GT5651. MW and MB acknowledge funding from the National Research Foundation. CJ, MW, GSP and MB thank the Nature’s Valley Trust and Nelson Mandela University for logistical and salary support. Three anonymous reviewers are thanked for their valuable comments on a draft manuscript.

Notes on contributors

Caitlin Judge

Caitlin Judge is a conservation scientist and communications manager for Nature’s Valley Trust. She has a BSc. Hons degree in Zoology from Newcastle University in the UK, F.G.A.S.A guiding experience and research skills. Alongside her academic studies she has creative experience in videography, social media and graphic design. This mixture of experience helps to bridge the gap between scientific research and communication to the public.

Gwenith Susan Penry

Gwenith is a marine mammal biologist who has specialised her research on the Bryde's whale, contributing vital new information on their taxonomy, abundance, and seasonal movements. She has worked closely with the South African whale-watching industry for 15 years, recognising their value as platforms of opportunity for data collection and education of the general public about the threats to the marine environment. Gwenith coordinates the local marine mammal stranding network and is a participating member in several national and international cetacean research groups that are working towards better conservation of several threatened species. Gwenith is a postdoctoral research fellow at Nelson Mandela University, but is based in Plettenberg Bay and partners with the Nature's Valley Trust on marine related research.

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gwenith_Penry

Mark Brown

Mark Brown, As a conservation biologist, Mark is passionately interested in the interface between biodiversity and people. Understanding the impact we have on local biodiversity, and creating novel ways to mitigate that through inclusive conservation programs is the focus of much of his work. His academic work is varied and includes a wide variety of plant and animal taxa, ranging from fish to birds to marine mammals. Mark holds an honorary research fellow position in the School of Life Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark_Brown13

Minke Witteveen

Minke Witteveen is a PhD candidate at Nelson Mandela University, studying the sustainability of boat-based whale-watching tourism in South Africa. Minke has an MSc in Conservation from the University of Cape Town. She is passionate about the natural environment and conservation, and enjoys pursuing her interests in a wide variety of topics, as well as instilling passion for conservation through environmental education.

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Minke_Witteveen