WILDLIFE HUNTING TOURISM MARKET ANALYSIS

Market Challenges And Opportunities

Market Drivers:

Growing Popularity of Trophy Hunting

• Trophy hunting is defined as the killing of wild animals for the purpose of displaying their body parts, such as the head, rather than for food. Trophies include parts such as elephant ivory tusks, rhino horns, and deer antlers, among others, that can be mounted on walls or complete bodies that can be formed into life-like poses by a taxidermist.
• According to Humane Society International (HSI), hunters glamorize the killing of an animal to demonstrate virility, prowess, and dominance, which motivates hunters to go trophy hunting. HSI promotes animal-free testing and research, respond to natural disaster, and confronts cruelty to animals in all of its forms. North Americans are among the largest wildlife hunters and contribute significantly to the trophy hunting industry. This demonstrates that Americans have a disproportionate influence over the number of hunting trophies traded globally. Hence, the rising number of imported game hunting trophies in the region is expected to drive market growth over the forecast period.
• For instance, a U.S.-based Safari Club International (the world’s largest trophy hunting organization with more than 50,000 members) gives hunting awards in dozens of categories, including the Africa Big Five, for which a hunter must kill an African lion, an African elephant, an African leopard, an African rhino, and an African buffalo. A hunter must kill over 300 animals across the globe to win the highest SCI award, known as ‘World Hunter of the Year.’ Another type of competition is to kill the highest-scoring animals. Trophy hunting clubs record kills that meet certain standards, and these standards are used to establish a score for each trophy. Trophy hunters often kill more than one animal of a certain species to achieve a higher score. The competitions and record book scores encourage trophy hunters to kill more animals. These factors are expected to drive the global wildlife hunting tourism market growth over the forecast period.

Market Restraints

Wildlife hunting destroys animal families and habitats

• Wildlife hunting destroys animal families and habitats, leaving terrified and reliant baby animals to starve to death and damaging natural ecosystems, which is expected to hamper market growth of the global wildlife hunting tourism over the forecast period. In March 2021, a representative study revealed that 81% of the respondents in five European Union member states (Germany, Italy, Denmark, Spain, and Poland) oppose trophy hunting. Also, 81% of the respondents condemned trophy hunting imports from other countries and believed that these should not be legal. Nearly 90% of German, 88% of Italian, and 84% of Spanish respondents support an import ban on dead animal trophies in their countries. In 2020, 91% of Belgians supported the prohibition of the import of all hunting trophies. Similarly, 89% of French citizens were in favor of banning the import of hunting trophies when asked in 2017.
• There are various wildlife welfare organizations, such as the Born Free Foundation (BFF) and Humane Society International (HIS), among others, that are creating awareness about wildlife conservation and discouraging people from wildlife hunting. Furthermore, BFF and HSI pressure on governments in the US to prohibit wildlife hunting. Over the forecast period, these factors are expected to limit the growth of the wildlife hunting tourism market.