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 Global Journal of Management and Business Research ( F ) XXIII Issue III Version I Year 2023 5 © 2023 Global Journals 2021; Etxegarai-Legarreta & Sanchez-Famoso, 2022). In Benin, there is no specifically dedicated site to active visions around the bees. It is, therefore, a new business opportunity available to innovators who may integrate it into existing tourism sites or create new apitourism sites for guaranteed financial, economic, environmental, and social profitability. This will strengthen the operational framework for tourism's contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). c) Apitourism and the Worldwide Sustainable Tourism Criteria Under the recommendations of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC, 2019), any tourism development initiative must comply the principles of site management sustainability, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic sustainability. This allows the optimal exploitation of the tourism aspects, while preserving their authenticity and long term ecological and social values. The integration of bees into existing tourism heritage or the creation of new sites dedicated to tourism around the bees contributes to the strengthening of these three principles, which are the same as the objectives of sustainable development goals (GDB) according to Marcotte & Bourdeau (2010); Drouin (2014) and Duval & Smith (2014). i. The Site’s Management Sustainability It is supported by the responsibility and involvement of key actors and stakeholders in managing the bee-based tourism destinations with relevant themes on the bees, and the implementation of a participatory action plan for the management of the apitourism site for better performance and efficiency. In case biological materials such as social bee colonies and nests are harvested from the wild, this plan will also endure the reduction of socio-economic, cultural, and environ- mental risks induced by keeping social and solitary bees in compliance with Law No. 2002 on wildlife in Benin. The establishment of a concerted operational framework for the monitoring and evaluation of installations will ensure better resilience with the dynamics of the number of visitors and induced activities from the introduction of apitourism for an optimum carrying capacity at the host sites. ii. Socio-Economic Sustainability The socio-economic sustainability is ensured by evaluating the contributions of the apitourism complex to the social well-being of the involved actors, the created new jobs, and business opportunities that emerge from the innovation. The possibility of establishing young, women, and disabled people associations to take care of the bee nests and hives constitute an efficient mitigative innovation to the innate fears that limit inclusive beekeeping and wild bee valuation (Ekumankama & Nwankwo, 2002; Deressa et al. , 2009, Bradbear, 2010). Likewise, this will help reduce social discrimination as all visitors may be accepted without distinction of sex, religion, and other disadvantaged social categories. In apitourism business, the main targeted products of the bee circuits are vision-based services. But hive products that will emerge from social beekeeping make up additional economic and financial values (Famuyide, 2014; Hanley et al. , 2015; Etxegarai-Legarreta & Sanchez-Famoso, 2022). As such, the income of the involved actors will be improved as a consequence of better visibility and promotion of local beekeepers and the material and intangible resources which were formerly dedicated to classic tourism. iii. Cultural Sustainability The materials and themes required for the bee tour will add more value and protect existing intangible tourism heritage. This will reinforce compliance with the relevant legislation during trades of cultural goods, bee products, and services. Themes relating to beekeeping techniques of the country in relevant national languages to local and foreign visitors will be developed to retain tourists. This will also help create representative sites of the potential and challenges of bees and their services conservation, strengthen, and diversify the ethno- zoological knowledge on bees, their products, and services (Gbesso et al. , 2019). iv. Environmental Sustainability Apitourism will contribute to a better conservation of the country's natural heritage. Its association with sites that were traditionally dedicated to ecotourism will lead to better awareness of visitors of the conservation challenges of these sites, the promotion of environmentally sound behaviours, and reduction of risk factors on delicate habitats and their components (Aryal et al. , 2020). In reserved forests, sacred groves, parks, and fragile ecological areas, apitourism represents alternative income activities for local communities which may also help better control conflicting activities such as extensive agriculture, poaching, and pastoralism (Hanley et al. , 2015; Yirga & Ftwi, 2010). It also constitutes potential mitigative actions to human-wildlife- conflicts around protected areas in promoting the use of honey bees to repel large wildlife such as elephants, which damages crops and properties of riparian (King et al. , 2011; Ridwan et al. al., 2023; Raycraft, 2023). d) Geospatial Analysis of the Apitourism Potential of the Republic of Benin For efficiency and profitability’s sake, apitourism sites must be set in such a way as to benefit from the synergy of the diversity of tourism and beekeeping potentials of the bearing ecological regions. As the honey bee morpho-ecotype regions almost cover each tourism regions of the tourism strategic plan of the Republic of Benin (PST, 2013), the apitourism regions are also based on the bee morpho-ecotype regions for easier readability of the geographic distribution of each region (figure 3).