Touristic development of the La Lopé National Park (Gabon) in light of the SWOT analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the possibilities of touristic development of the La Lopé National Park and to indicate the most important barriers and limitations of the area exploitation. For this purpose a SWOT method was applied. This assignment presents the situation as of the end of 2014. The majority of the up-to-date data was collected during the mission, the purpose of which was to observe the region, and which was organized by Université Omar Bongo in Libreville and Warsaw University. The La Lopé National Park has a significant touristic potential which is very poorly used. The diagnose of the reasons for that can be an indicator for attempts to rationally use the resources of the region and present an appropriate development strategy.

Keywords

• la lopé
• national park
• ecotourism
• gabon
• nature protection