South African company WildEarth brings virtual safaris to a worldwide audience in the comfort of their living room via a camera that WildEarth guides drive around in an open top vehicle.
A 24-hour camera perched over a watering hole in South Africa’s Djuma Game Reserve also shows live images of whatever comes there to drink. Using technology, viewers can watch twice a day whatever animals the guides spot as they zoom around game reserves — they’ve filmed 200 spots across east and southern Africa since founding it in 2006.
As shared with the press, founder Graham Wallington stated “We’ve seen a dramatic rise in our viewership of our live safaris”. With up to 3 million viewers a month, and an individual virtual safari engaging as many as 200,000. They have also claimed to start soon “paid-for private tours” with currently out-of-work guides via a Zoom video call.
As many have reported that the environment has been recovering across the world, therefore from an environmental point of view, the slowing down of flights cuts back on carbon emitted by flights, and could help popular spots, like East Africa’s Serengeti, recover from over-tourism.
It’s reported that some 67 million tourists visited Africa in 2018, representing a rise of 7% from a year earlier, making Africa the second-fastest growing region when it comes to tourism, after Asia Pacific. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the 2018 contribution of the tourism sector in South Africa, directly accounted for 2.8% of real gross domestic product (GDP), which amounts to R139 billion and this was projected to grow to R145,3 billion for 2019.
