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The Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa) is encouraging its members and other interested parties to provide feedback and suggestions on animal interactions, following a number of successful animal interaction workshops recently hosted countrywide.

For those unable to attend the workshops, a video has been loaded onto Satsa’s website: watch the video and complete a questionnaire providing your feedback and suggestions.

The national public animal interaction consultation workshops take Satsa one step closer to developing guidelines for animal interactions in tourism.

Ten workshops were hosted countrywide – forming part of the public consultation phase of Satsa’s Animal Interaction Study – the content of which the association has made available online to ensure that all stakeholders affected by, or with an interest in, animal interactions within the wider tourism industry are included, and to allow an opportunity for input for those who couldn’t make it to the workshops.

“As the leading inbound tourism association, Satsa has been tasked by its members to develop guidelines for animal interactions in tourism. The Animal Interaction research is member mandated, board approved and being run in partnership with South African Tourism,” says Keira Powers, Chairperson of Satsa Animal Interaction Committee.

Satsa adds: “The information acquired from the workshops and this questionnaire, along with further research (including analysis of legislation and regulations, consultation with key organisations, market and trends assessments among others) will be used to develop guidelines for animal interactions in tourism. A draft of this will be shared in the future for public comment.”

Source: tourismupdate.co.za