Last chance tourism in south africa: Future research potential?

Last Chance Tourism (LCT) is defi ned by tourists' urgent visits to landscapes and seascapes, natural environments and places of social and cultural importance/heritage before they disappear. Th e obliteration of these environments is attributed to the rapid and destructive eff ects of global environmental change and globalization. Th ese influences are leading to the demise of natural systems and biodiversity, including in polar regions and coral reef systems. Furthermore, cultures and traditions are also being lost. Scholarly investigations to date have refl ected on the contention between the experiential gain in visiting destinations before they disappear on the one hand, and the losses to, and demise of, those very destinations through such visits. Despite aboveglobal- average rise in temperature, increasingly frequent droughts and fl ooding, as well as rapid globalization, the South African experience on LCT destinations remains under-investigated. Th is paper uses secondary sources to explore current and future destinations where cultural groups are threatened, fauna and fl ora are on the brink of extinction, and landscapes are changing for the worse. Future research opportunities are identifi ed and conceptual concerns are discussed.