Global Journal of Management and Business Research, F: Real Estate, Event and Tourism Management, Volume 23 Issue 3

Buzzing Opportunities: Integrating Apitourism for Enriching the Tourism Heritage of the Republic of Benin Felicien Amakpe α , Dirk De Graaf σ , Brice Sinsin ρ & Honore S. Biaou Ѡ Corresponding Author α : Centre Béninois de la Recherche Scientifique et de l’Innovation. Direction Générale des Eaux, Forêts et Chasse. e-mail: famakpem@hotmail.com Author σ : Gent University. Laboratory of Molecular Entomology and Bee Pathology. e-mail: dirk.degraad@ugent.be Author ρ : Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, Laboratoire d’Ecologie Appliquée (Bénin). e-mail; bsinsin@gmail.com Author Ѡ: Université de Parakou. Laboratoire d’Ecologie et de Foresterie (Bénin). e-mail: hbiaou@gmail.com Abstract- Tourism is the third most crucial socio-economic sector that generates income and employment in the Republic of Benin, where it occupies a prominent place in the country’s development policies. In response to the sustainable development requirements, tourists are worldwide more and more demanding on the quality and diversity of the services they receive. As such, strengthening the tourism sector requires environmentally and socio-economically sustainable innovations. Bees, with their great ecological and socio- economic functions, offer many facets which can be valued to support the well-diversified tourism heritage of the Republic of Benin. This review analyses existing tourism heritage, the diversity of bees and apicultural practices in the country and their susceptibility to apitourism development. Tourism promotion strategies based on the products and the ecological services of social, and solitary bee species were analysed per suggested ecotourism region of the country. The involved actors, their roles, and responsibilities, as well as the challenges that may emerge from integrating the bee sector into the tourism heritage of the country, were also analysed. This opens up prospects for the diversification of income for riparian communities of reserved forests and relevant tourism sites and constitutes excellent opportunities for the sustainable conservation of bees, which are threatened worldwide. Keywords: apitourism, beekeeping, benin, biodiversity, culture, heritage, pollinator, tourism, visitor. I. I ntroduction n response to the challenges of sustainable development, tourists are increasingly demanding on the quality, the diversity of the elements to discover, their environmental sustainability, and the contribution of tourism heritage to the strengthening of their human capital (Bruce et al. , 2012). Thus, tourism sites with positive environmental impacts, which also offer visitors, learning and practice opportunities to make them be part of the solutions to the global environmental and development challenges, are likely to maintain the highest attendance rates (Duvat, 2006; Pantoja et al. , 2017). With their undeniable ecological and socio- economic functions, bees are of great interest to the science community, and friends of nature who also demonstrate their attachment to the mitigation of pollution, diseases, and fragmentation of habitats, which threaten bee populations worldwide (Domanski et al. , 2017). Thus, integrating bees, their services and products into tourism circuits may be an efficient approach for improving the required optimum attendance rate to achieve a profitable tourism enterprise. This will ensure better sharing and acceptance of the roles and responsibilities of visitors and communities as far as the challenges that prevent the bees from fully playing their biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development functions are concerned (Goulson et al. , 2015). Tourism is the second source of foreign exchange and the third sector that sustains jobs after agriculture and trade in the Republic of Benin. Indeed, according to the 2013-2025 Benin Tourism Strategic Plan document (PST, 2013), the number of tourists increased from 138,000 in 1995 to more than 325,000 in 2020, when it generated 1.3% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The government's ambitions favoured this sector in the different development strategies, and following the country's national development plan (MEPD, 2018), the contribution of tourism to the country's (GDP) should reach 8% in 2025. I Global Journal of Management and Business Research ( F ) XXIII Issue III Version I Year 2023 1 © 2023 Global Journals Despite the strong and recognized potential of the tourism sector in the economy and social well-being of the country, the sector is still understudied. In fact, the best investigations on tourism in Benin are often limited to descriptions of key tourism sites and some fair contributions for improving reception facilities (Corali & Houenoude, 2013; Agbaka, 2022). With such limited scientific analyses available on classic tourism in the country, apitourism, which is an emerging field in most countries, is almost unknown despite the favourable conditions for its implementation in Benin. This constitutes an obstacle to the total valuation of the tourism potential and bee diversity of the country. The present study filled this gap by analysing the possibilities of integrating bees into the country's tourism heritage, and proposes strategies for a new ecologically and socio-economically smart bee-based tourism for sustainable biodiversity conservation and development in the Republic of Benin. The investigations established a universal process for integrating the bees, their products, and services in the tourism heritage of any socio-geographic area. Targeting on the particular socio-economic, political et ecological situation of the