Research overview: tourism revenue sharing and big cat conservation

Wildlife tourism, much of it built around charismatic big cats, generates revenue that can fund conservation and provide community benefits, but the distribution of those benefits strongly affects conservation outcomes. This overview surveys research on tourism revenue sharing, examining how income from lion, tiger, leopard, and cheetah tourism reaches local communities and whether it changes attitudes and behavior toward predators. Studies assess models from photographic tourism to community-owned lodges and conservancy partnerships, and the conditions under which tourism benefits translate into greater tolerance and habitat protection. Researchers also document pitfalls, including leakage of revenue away from communities, dependence on volatile tourism markets, and benefits too diffuse to influence individual decisions. The overview frames tourism as a major potential funding source for big cat conservation whose value hinges on equitable benefit-sharing. It matters because predators that generate tangible local income are far more likely to be valued and conserved.