David Blanton is a writer, photographer, conservationist, and environmental activist. He is the founder of Friends of Serengeti.
Latest by this author
Facing habitat loss, climate change, and shifting livelihoods, Maasai women are leading a transformative program that links sustainable dairy farming with the preservation of the Serengeti’s iconic migrations and the resilience of local communities.
Unsustainable tourism threatens Africa’s wildlife and ecosystems, particularly in the Maasai Mara. The travel industry can help tourists contribute to the solution.
More about this author
David Blanton first visited the Serengeti in 1975 while working in Kenya as a writer and photographer. During that time, he became involved in tourism training and developed a social studies curriculum at Utalii College, Kenya’s tourism and hotel training facility. The course focused on social and cultural aspects of tourism for students entering travel careers.
After returning to the United States, Blanton founded a Voyagers International, a travel company which operated for twenty years and catered to U.S. universities, museums, and zoological societies. During this time, he founded the International Galapagos Tour Operators Association (IGTOA), a nonprofit organization for travel companies that has raised millions of dollars for Galapagos conservation.
While running IGTOA, he was alerted to the threat of a highway that was being proposed across the Serengeti. In response, he co-founded Serengeti Watch, a project of the US Earth Island Institute, located in Berkeley, California.
Serengeti Watch sponsored a court case in the East African Court of Justice and helped stop the highway. He has been operating Serengeti Watch since then, working with a partner in Tanzania, the Serengeti Preservation Foundation. In addition, he founded Friends of Serengeti, an association for the travel industry patterned after IGTOA, that funds community conservation.External
Being a Responsible Safari Tourist
What You Need to Know About Visiting the Serengeti
Horizon Guide | September | 2024
The economic benefits of safari tourism have saved much of the Serengeti from the plough. But left unchecked, tourism is also a growing threat to this delicate ecosystem and the communities and wildlife that it supports.
Daily Southern & East African Tourism Update | July | 2024
Tour operators, travel companies and travellers who draw benefits from the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem in Tanzania and Kenya have been called upon to deepen the action they take to guard against threats to the famed wilderness area.
Co-authors: Jeremy Hance | Mongabay | February | 2011
On March 19th 2011, the conservation organization, Serengeti Watch, held the world’s first International Serengeti Day to celebrate one of the world’s most treasured wildlife ecosystems. But the day also had another goal: bring attention to a Tanzanian government plan to build a road that would essentially cut the ecosystem, threatening the world’s largest mammal migration.
The Social and Cultural Dimension
Annals of Tourism Research | January | 1981
Before this article was written, tourism training in developing countries was narrowly focused on vocational and technical skills. Little thought was given as to how this education fit into an existing socio-cultural environment, the problems of communication between guest and host, or to the demands and stresses placed upon those in the front lines of the industry.
Part One of this paper looks at the need for the development of programs that broaden the scope of training. Such programs need to take into account the potential social and cultural risks of tourism for the industry worker, and the barriers to communication rising from different backgrounds, values, and expectations between hosts and foreign visitors. Part Two looks at some important considerations in educational development strategy, giving an example of such a program developed by the author in East Africa.
Media by this author
Feature | May | 2020
The first of a series of videos filmed in the Serengeti, supported by Serengeti Watch.
Feature | June | 2018
A program to involve students, teachers, and parents in conservation education and action. This video shows students visiting the Serengeti National Park for the first time, though they live right next to it.
Feature | November | 2010
Join an organization exclusively dedicated to preserving the Serengeti ecosystem.
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