Moving Towards a Sustainable Marine Tourism Economy
Every year, World Oceans Day provides a unique opportunity to honor, help protect, and conserve our world’s shared ocean. In dire need of all the support it can get, this is the ONE DAY we at The Fat Fish choose to acknowledge and throw our full weight behind, going all out to do our bit to enlighten and inform.
Our Plettenberg Bay Fat Fish is particularly excited by this year’s guest speaker – Dr Gwen Penry, who on behalf on the Nature’s Valley Trust will be sharing details of their exciting new project. The NVT in partnership with reserachers from Nelson Mandela University have received a grant from WWF- SA’s Nedbank Greent Trust to run a three year study on the sustainability and economic value add of the boat based whale watching industry on small towns along the Garden Route.
According to Dr Penry there are 3 main components to the project: Biological, Social and Economic –
Biological –where is the tipping point between enabling growth of the industry while maintaining a healthy biodiversity?
Social – what do tourists expect to experience when they go on a marine wildlife tour? Are their expectations realistic, and how can industry adapt it’s marketing and operational strategies to ensure it is not driven by unrealistic expectations.
Economic – “What is marine tourism worth to small towns that depend on tourism as their main industry?”
For anyone interested in the sustainability of our local tourism ventures – which theoretically should be just about everyone in Plett – this talk is an absolute must! The Fat Fish will serve up a delicious two course SASSI friendly lunch following the talk.
Date – 08/06/2018 Time – 12:00 Venue – The Fat Fish, Plettenberg Bay Tickets – R200 including 2 course lunch
For more information or to book your seat please email nicola@thefatfish.co.za