This letter was sent to Minister Edna Molewa by CACH UK upfront to the planned colloquium in August 2018
How the DEA is sabotaging the SA Department of Tourism: see the annexed Nash report from CACH.
Everyone knows that lion breeding and canned lion hunting in South Africa has attracted significant international criticism and that this has increasingly damaged South Africa’s image abroad. Yet your Department spends millions every year trying to promote tourism here.
What you, and in particular your colleagues in other departments, may be less well aware of is the sheer scale of the overseas reaction. When you see the extent of the damage to SA brand image, you will be shocked.
To demonstrate this, retired lawyer David Nash of Campaign Against Canned Hunting ( CACH) UK has prepared the attached review. It lists the huge range of import bans, airline trophy bans, negative press coverage, anti-canned hunting campaigns, protest marches, tourist industry views and social media criticism. Once you read this important research, you will clearly see how Min Edna Molewa’s DEA is undermining your efforts.
Further, the damage to Brand SA adversely impacts Responsible Tourism – the fastest growing sector of the global tourism industry.
Hunting PR, swallowed by the DEA and other SA conservation structures, claims that canned hunting is essential to the South African economy.
CACH strongly disagrees: rather than benefiting the South African economy, captive lion breeding and canned hunting is a wasteful use of land and significantly limits employment and up-skilling opportunities when compared with other forms of farming and ethical wildlife tourism.
This Review demonstrates a clear economic case for banning lion farming (through a managed phasing out) and canned lion hunting.
You can download the 50-page report HERE.
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