While most people travel to Kenya and Tanzania to visit the Safari parks to see the plethora of wild animals in the Masai Mara and the Serengeti, they are often vastly unaware of the affect that climate change has on the hotels and lodges operating in the area. The Sarova Mara Game Camp is a lodge operating in the Masai Mara, which increasingly faces new and more complex challenges due to global warming and changes in weather patterns.
Climate change is having a significant effect on the lodge’s operations during both the dry and the wet season. During the dry periods, the lodge suffers from extensive water shortages. Since the dry seasons are lasting longer and longer the lodge has struggled to accurately predict the demand for water and the amount of water tank refills necessary to meet demand. While the lodge already asks guests to use water conservatively for the duration of their stay, guests water usage patterns have been slow to adapt. The dry season is also characterized by higher temperatures, day and night, resulting in higher energy costs for the lodge driven by increased cooling, refrigeration, and air conditioning requirements.
The rainy periods pose a different set of challenges. In recent years, it has been characterized by extreme rains and flooding causing water damage, leakages and erosion, all of which affects the placement and ability for the lodge to use tents.
The dramatic changes in the local climate are also affecting the lodges’ ability to accurately predict occupancy and challenges the overall guest experience in the safari park. The most popular time of year to visit the Masai Mara has traditionally been during the great wildebeest migration. Wildebeests and Zebras typically migrate according to rainfall patterns. Historically, the cycle of rain and dry seasons was quite predictable and guests could book their stays at hotels and lodges months in advance, assured that they would be able to witness the spectacle. However, now, due to shorter rainy sens have become more and more erratic from both a timing and a location perspective (“Epic Animal Migrations Could Change with Global Warming”, Lisa Friedman, Scientific American, 13. August 2014).
As the peak migration period is hard to predict precisely, many guests now wait to book last minute. Guests traveling internationally, who have to book in advance leave disappointed as there stay no longer overlaps with the migration period.
On top of the hard to predict timing, high rainfall, such as in 2007, cause the wildebeest to cross the water at a different point. As a result, 10,000 (1% of the global wildebeest population) drowned (“Global Warming: Bad News for Gnus”, Jumana Farouky, Time Magazine, 09. October 2007). The lodge certainly could not have prevented this, but even so sights like this have a dramatic and of course negative effect on the guest experience and future visits.
In an attempt to tackle the occupancy issues, Sarova has optimized their pricing structure to increased fees during the high season (peak migration season), as well as increased the fees for last minute bookings and cancellations. In addition, they offer significant discounts and eliminated last-minute booking fees for the low season. To address the energy and flooding concerns, the lodge installed solar panels to reduce overall energy costs and gas emissions are looking to renovate their drainage systems to reduce flooding and water damage on the property.
There are a few more options the Sarova Camp should consider for the future, particularly in terms of educating guests on climate change and the effect on the Safari Park. Currently, guests are only asked to use water conservatively. Further education, for example through a pamphlet or through a presentation directly by the staff / tour guide, could significantly increase the guests’ awareness of the importance of conserving water and energy during their stay and hopefully inspire them to take action.
Regarding the migration patterns of the wild animals and resulting guest experience there is not much the lodge can do. There is however a possibility that migration patterns will continue to evolve, so much so that animals will pass through alternative areas that are no longer within the park boundaries. With the animals, the guests would move to a different region. In this case Sarova should join forces with the other hotels and lodges in the safari parks and together lobby to expand the boundaries of the park to create more space for the animals. This would not only help protect the animals, but also the tourism and hospitality industry in the area as well. (word count 758)
You mention that the dry season is longer than the wet season in the park. Based on this, I assume that the animals spend most of their time somewhere else that does not have a drought? If so, why didn’t they build the park there? How could they develop their business model to accomodate the evolving and volatile nature of the business?
I found the article very interesting. It’s like a news vendor problem adding both the influx of customers and of animals.
In terms of water and energy conservation that is quite interesting, and common to bigger tourism markets, including California or Spain, where water shortage forces water cuts and rationing at some points of the year. I think it is important to make client customers to be aware of conservation, but at the same time I understand that after you spent 6 hours at 45ºC and are covered in dust and mud you want to shower. I think here there is a business opportunity for companies to generate more efficient shower systems (that conserve water while giving the feeling of same pressure), and in-house water recycling systems, to reuse shower water for the toilet cisterns or gardening, or even go further and reuse shower water for further showers.
Another factor may come into play here- what is the right level of human intervention to offset these natural (or not so natural?) phenomena? Should water sources be artificially replenished in conditions of drought that threaten the animal population in these reserves? Surely the businesses mentioned here would love to push for that…
Though the article is interesting and well written, I did not quite understand how the hospitality industry is mitigating the risks of climate change. While it is evident that customers pay more eventually and are educated about the risks, surely these hotels can develop more meaningful and tangible solutions to address the primary challenge of resource scarcity through technological integration and reducing reliance on external resources. Addressing these points would have made this article more pertinent.
It’s a very interesting article, bringing attention to the hospitality industry in Africa. I wonder if there can be a system built up to drain the water during the flooding season, recycle it and reuse it during the dry season.
The problem with conservation of resources for the hospitality industry is surely one that has not been adequately addressed. This article highlights it more specifically from the lens of a lodge located in a region impacted by climate change and makes us wonder, how can tourism be a force of good in this regard? Rain water harvesting, reusability of water and other water related sustainable initiatives need to be in the fabric of the hospitality industry on an overall level.