I have an academic and research background in environmental science with a PhD in environmental management and many years of teaching experience at various British universities. More recently, I ran two specialist tour operating businesses organising sustainable holidays in Africa for clients in the UK, Europe and worldwide. Both were founded firmly on ethical principles, fully dedicated to providing sustainable tourism services in Africa, and were certified by Fair Trade Tourism as one of the first tour operators in the UK and South Africa. With this extensive knowledge of the African tourism industry and a passion for responsible travel and sustainable tourism, together with a strong emphasis on conservation and wildlife, I later established and built partnerships within the industry with those who share my sustainable tourism philosophy, as a freelance consultant. In this capacity, my research focused on the unethical and even cruel captive wildlife encounters on offer in particular in South Africa in order to raise awareness and educate the public and the tourism industry at large based on facts. More recently, this led to a focus on the commercial captive lion industry in South Africa as the campaign manager and director of Blood Lions and hence my recent research targets knowledge gaps within this industry.