Whale Watching Worldwide

Land‐based whale watching also continues to be a huge tourist drawing card, particularly to the Western
Cape. Land‐based whale watching in South Africa is almost exclusively focused on southern right whales.
Across the Western Cape, it is estimated that there were 519,150 land‐based whale watchers in 2008.
Hermanus is estimated to receive approximately 70% of these, or 369,232 tourists in 2008, down from
500,000 in 1998.
The reason for the drop in numbers in Hermanus is possibly due to increased land‐based whale watching
from other locations along the coast, as populations of whales are continuing to increase along the South
African coastline and other locations become increasingly popular for land‐based whale watching. The use
of different data sources for estimation of land‐based whale watchers for this report may have also led to a
difference in estimates. In previous studies, data from tourist counts was available for use, however, no
updated studies of a similar nature were available, and so, the methodology below was used to calculate
land‐based numbers in Hermanus.
Land‐based estimates for Hermanus are based on the town’s estimated overnight capacity between June
and November, 114,616, combined with an estimated 70,000 tourists to the whale festival, a total of
184,616 whale watchers. To estimate day‐trip tourists, we assumed that the same number again of day‐trip
tourists would visit Hermanus over the whale watching season. This is based on previous data that indicated
that at least 50% of visitors to Hermanus were domestic, and that the majority of overnight tourists were
international. Our survey results from hotels in Hermanus and other locations around Walker Bay indicate
very high proportions of international visitors make up overnight visitors. Based on this – representing best
available data – we estimate a further 184,616 day‐trip whale watching tourists to Hermanus in 2008. This
results in a total estimated number of whale watching tourists in Hermanus of 369,232.
In any case, Hermanus still remains central to whale watching tourism in South Africa and continues to hold
an annual whale festival, which can attract as many as 100,000 people in a weekend.
With population increases and sightings occurring more frequently from many locations along the Western
Cape coast, land‐based whale watching is now also popular from Cape Town, Plettenberg Bay, De Kelders,
Gansbaai, Fish Hoek, Hangklip‐Kleinmond, Simon’s Town, as well as Table Mountain National Park 22 . Other
National Parks where whale watching is possible, but for which no data has been included, are Addo
Elephant, Agulhas, Tsitsikamma, West Coast and Wilderness.
With whale populations and sightings increasing, the long‐term outlook for whale watching is positive, with
whale watching tourism likely to parallel general tourism growth.
22 From Boulders Beach and Cape Point
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