Based on an international sample of past (N=420) and potential future visitors (N=569) to wild great ape tourism sites in Africa, we used an online questionnaire to characterise visitors’ practices, assess expectations (e.g., about proximity to great apes) and identify key factors related to potential compliance with disease mitigation measures. This was implemented adapting a framework from health literature (the Health Belief Model; HBM), particularly focused on reducing COVID-19 transmission at an early stage of the pandemic.

During early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (data collected from the 19th January to 27th February 2021), an online questionnaire was used to gather information on potential uptake of disease mitigation measures among visitors to wild African great ape tourism sites. Potential participants were invited to fill in the questionnaire if they had visited, or were interested in visiting, wild great ape tourism destinations in Africa and were aged 18 or older.

A copy of the English version of the final questionnaire is available in Appendix I of the published manuscript.