Master's Thesis

National parks are frequently the top destinations for nature-based tourism because they showcase the most representative ecosystems within a country and provide a variety of benefits to individuals and communities, including physical and mental well-being, raising awareness about natural areas, and connecting with nature (Barros et al., 2019). In exchange, an increased number of visitors draws attention to the park, which can benefit local economies by creating jobs and helping to conserve the environment and wildlife species in the park (Mangachena et al., 2023).

Social media is becoming acknowledged as a significant source of information regarding a wide range of issues, including nature-based tourism, because of its high temporal and spatial resolution (Teles da Mota & Pickering, 2020). Social media platforms are frequently used to share real-time geolocated data associated with images, text, and routes, reflecting the growing use of social media apps and smartphones (Bergman et al., 2022). The user-generated content from social media provides new alternatives for assessing tourism and recreation in national parks by analyzing visitor inflow and their sentiments, assigning economic values, and helping park management monitor tourist mobility (Teles da Mota & Pickering, 2020). Such data is also useful in developing strategies to reduce wildlife stress by analyzing visitor hotspot areas (Mangachena et al., 2023).

Spatial information is a core component of geotagged data; for example, understanding where wildlife species are located and in which environments. This type of data must be condensed and presented in an understandable and visually appealing manner so it can highlight unseen facts and allow the user to interact with what they are viewing. Researchers primarily used social media platforms such as Flickr, Panoramio (now integrated into Google), and Instagram to obtain geotagged data to access nature-based tourism (Teles da Mota & Pickering, 2020).

With a great diversity of wildlife species, including attractive mammals like elephants, lions, giraffes, and zebras, Etosha National Park considered one of the largest wildlife sanctuaries in the world (de Beer et al., 2006; Kimaro et al., 2015). This research aims to create cartographically designed maps for three different target groups, including younger people, the public, and expert people, that visualize different wildlife species that could potentially be seen at different waterholes, topographical features, and amenities of the Etosha National Park. The geotagged information for wildlife species will be collected from Flickr, Google Earth, and tourist company websites like Expert Africa. These maps will also be user-tested to gain feedback and evaluate the effectiveness of cartographic design in communicating wildlife information. Additionally, these cartographic maps will also be hosted on the web so that everyone can access them through the internet and interact dynamically with the wildlife information and different thematic features of Etosha National Park.

The result of this research can act as a guide for tourists who are planning to visit Etosha National Park and gain information about the existence of wildlife species at different waterholes in the park.