Case
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April 2018
Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship
James E. Austin, Megan Epler Wood and Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard
Wilderness Safaris sees itself as a conservation company that is built on a business model of providing high-end, premium-priced wildlife safaris in various locations in Africa. Dependent on functioning, healthy ecosystems for its long-term survivability as a business, it invests heavily in conservation efforts, both directly, with communities and governments, and with partners and competitors. It may be reaching saturation of the high-cost, high-priced, low-volume, luxury travel product in its existing locations, so to continue its growth it is now trying to expand into East Africa, where the traditional safari approach by most providers has been a high-volume, low-cost, low-priced product. As a publicly- listed company, can Wilderness Safaris find a sustainable growth path that will allow it to profitably expand its business and meet its shareholder’s interests while still achieving its priority purposes of protecting and investing in the ecosystems and communities on which its services are based?
Brief Description: Wilderness Safaris was started by wildlife guides in the 1980s as a Botswana-based business that expanded to operate in several other countries in southern Africa. Built on a business model of providing high-end, premium-priced wildlife safaris in remote camps with only a small number of guests at any one location at a given time, WS recognizes that it is completely dependent on the existence and availability of functioning, healthy ecosystems for its long term survivability as a business, so it invests heavily in conservation efforts, both directly, with communities and governments, and with partners and competitors. Its strategy is based on the “4 Cs:” Commerce, Conservation, Community, and Culture, and it believes that its success lies in the interdependence among these, so that performance on each of these dimensions is essential. WS may be approaching saturation of the high-cost, high-priced, low-volume, luxury travel product in its existing locations, so to continue its growth it is now trying to expand into East Africa, where the traditional safari approach by most providers has been a high-volume, low-cost, low-priced, bare-bones product – more or less the opposite of the approach, philosophy, and values upheld by WS. Can WS find a sustainable growth path that will allow it to profitably expand its business and meet its shareholder’s interests while still protecting and investing in the ecosystems and communities on which its services are based – and successfully navigate and balance the complex interests of the communities, governments, partners, and competitors with whom it works?
Keywords: strategy;
social enterprise;
sustainability;
social entrepreneurship;
conservation planning;
corporate social responsibility;
ecotourism;
Strategy;
Social Enterprise;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Environmental Sustainability;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Expansion;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Tourism Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Travel Industry;
Africa;
Botswana;
Citation:
Austin, James E., Megan Epler Wood, and Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard. "Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship." Harvard Business School Case 318-040, April 2018.
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