INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW development. Tourism helped local economic growth, enhanced cultural exchange and assisted nature conservation. Holland (2021) highlights that tourism activities bring prosperity to involved local communities in Kenya by offering new economic opportunities and by encouraging biodiversity conservation6. Kongbuamai et al. (2020) have found that proper implementation of the concept of sustainability in tourism has led to improvement of the environmental quality in Thailand regardless of popularity of the travel destination7. The Covid-19 outbreak, in turn, has reduced the positive impacts of tourism and affected economic, social and environmental sustainability dimensions. The dramatic decrease in tourism demand and the lack of travel have led to various adverse consequences, including the severe economic downturn, sharp growth of unemployment, notable loss of biodiversity8 and worsening of nature conservation efforts, especially in travel-dependant countries. To give an example, the reduction of revenue sources needed for conservation, anti-poaching, and antitrafficking work has triggered illegal poaching across Southern Africa, as well as, worldwide9. Newsome (2021) also states that African wildlife tourism has been already damaged and put in further danger by wildlife trafficking and bushmeat consumption due to social and economic pandemic consequences10. On the other hand, the pandemic has also created some positive impacts. In particular, lock-down conditions and, as a consequence, a decrease in tourists’ arrivals enabled the restoration of over-visited natural and cultural areas11. A full understanding of the pandemic impact on tourism, however, remains unclear because the crisis is still ongoing and continues to bring new challenges to the industry12. 6 Holland K.K., Larson L.R., et al. (2021) Impacts of tourism on support for conservation, local livelihoods, and community resilience around Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, DOI: 10.1080/09669582.2021.1932927. 7 Kongbuamai, N., Zafar, M.W., Zaidi, S.A.H. et al. (2020) Determinants of the ecological footprint in Thailand: the influences of tourism, trade openness, and population density. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 40171– 40186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356 -020 -09977 -6. 8 Yeh S.-S. (2021) Tourism recovery strategy against COVID-19 pandemic, Tourism Recreation Research, 46:2, 188-194, https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2020.1805933. 9 Lucas, B. (2022). Impact of COVID-19 on poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking trends in Southern Africa. K4D Helpdesk Report 1094. Institute of Development Studies. DOI:10.19088/K4D.2022.017. 10 Newsome, D. (2021), The collapse of tourism and its impact on wildlife tourism destinations, Journal of Tourism Futures, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 295-302. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-04-2020-0053. 11 Bhuiyan, M.A.H.; Hassan, S.; Darda, M.A.; Habib, M.W. (2020) Aspects of Sustainable Tourism Development and COVID-19 Pandemic. Preprints 2020, 2020080418. 12 Fotiadis A., Polyzos S., et al. (2021) The good, the bad and the ugly on COVID-19 tourism recovery, Annals of Tourism Research Volume 87, March 2021, 103117; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.103117.
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