WILD HOLIDAYS
6 x 52'
Eco-Tourism - What is it really?
The series looks at the effect and so called eco-tourism has on a variety of destinations
around the world. Each episode looks at the unique wildlife to the region, the effect that tourism has on it, and also the local culture. The series is very visual, lively, full of wildlife
with no "talking heads" or interviews.
1: Safari on Safari
Travel from Uganda to South Africa, almost the length of the once “dark” continent. Experience
a wide variety of safaris in five countries from the most basic to the most luxurious and see how the safari business has illuminated the wilderness. What do you, as an eco-tourist, get
out of it? And, perhaps, more importantly, how do the local people and the wildlife benefit - if at all? How do Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana and South Africa score on conservation?
How do they really value their gorillas, lions, elephants, rhinos, crocodiles and leopards? Join this safari of questions and find out... especially about lions.
2: Red Sea Revealed
Diving is big business. Increasingly tourists search the sea off Egypt’s desert coast to find the famous coral reefs and brilliant life that thrives there. Illustrated with exceptional underwater
footage, we reveal how the problem of a too-successful holiday industry may be affecting the very resource it depends on. The park rangers must tackle illegal fishing, reef damage by divers
and the momentum of massive hotel developments. They may be winning but, in the meantime, most of the sharks have gone as more and more divers are arriving. And much of
this is shown through the eyes of the bizarre lion fish on the reef and a little goby fish that shares a burrow with a bulldozer shrimp in the sand below.
3: Majorca - A Paradise Uncovered
Recently this tourist island in the Mediterranean has changed its image in a remarkable way. It caters both for the mass of larger-drinkers and for royalty and millionaires. Why do the tourist
authorities now come to Majorca for advice? Seen from four very different points of view - a huge rare vulture in the mountains; a frog in the wetlands; an amusing hoopoe bird on the
farmland; and a special kind of seagull along the coast, we expose a kind of tourist island that you probably never knew existed.
4: How to Manage the Wild Bahamas
As well as its very beautiful islands, the Bahamas has some star attractions amongst its wildlife. Brilliant red flamingos, endangered parrots, unique giant lizards, friendly dolphins
and less friendly sharks - all of these have been made highly accessible to tourists. You can laugh at a marching flamingo show, talk with a tame parrot, feed an iguana a banana, pet a
dolphin or slip a fish to a shark. But what has happened to the wilder side of those animals, away from the popular islands that some say have been trashed? It’s a classic case of where
commercial tourism and eco-tourism meet up.
5: Antarctic Ecotour
Join a three-week voyage of a lifetime following in the footsteps of Scott and Shackleton in the
unlikely comfort of a Russian ship, and guided by wildlife experts. Mix with penguins, fur seals, albatrosses, whales and elephant seals. But this is more than just a holiday show about what
you get for your money. It’s about the impact of so-called “eco-tourism” on an unspoilt wilderness. From Patagonia to The Falklands, then on to South Georgia and the Antarctic
peninsular, it’s a journey that asks some hard questions - and get some surprising answers.
6: Madagascar Wild Surprises
A group of wildlife tourists get more than they bargained for when they meet bizarre plants,
insects, chameleons and adorable lemurs some of which are the rarest creatures on earth. They also mix with the local people and discover how Madagascar’s unique wildlife is both helped both helped and hindered.
Producer: Living Planet Productions
Availability: Worldwide, all media.