African tourism alarmed by rhino, elephant losses

Animal conservation in Africa has suffered several setbacks in recent months prompting experts at an African tourism conference this week in Cape Town to warn about the cost to the travel industry.

"Obviously it's negative," said the African Tourism Association's (ATA) managing director Naledi Khabo, who spoke at the inaugural event organised by Airbnb.

"Whether it's people or animals, you see them being killed or slaughtered in such a terrible manner -- it has a negative impact."
"The numbers of rhinos in terms of protection has gone up -- over 1,200 rhinos we have in Kenya from almost 300 30 years ago. We have 35,000 elephants, 30 years ago we had only 16,000."
"Traveller activism has become an important part of our industry."
"There's a big up turn in people understanding we need to protect the wildlife."