Research engagement,impact and sustainable tourism

In this editorial, we reflect on how the Journal of Sustainable Tourism can contribute towards sustainable tourism researchers achieving more impact with their research. We propose some changes that can be tested in, and introduced gradually and collaboratively with, the community of the editorial board and authors. To support impactful mind sets, we will promote research that reflects diverse academic communities. To promote impactful research topics, we will encourage authors to frame their submitted articles against the Sustainable Development Goals, while research that is time sensitive will be fast tracked so it can contribute to current debates. To promote impactful methodologies, we shall favour articles that use mixed methods and action research, and those that conduct longitudinal, experimental, and evaluative research. To promote impactful partnerships, we will favour multidisciplinary approaches and research that has been co-created with stakeholders. To promote impactful communication and dissemination, we will continue to build an online community on social media for sustainable tourism researchers, we will promote articles in social media to raise their visibility, and we will provide free access to those articles that are deemed to have the greatest potential to impact positively on society.     

Commentary - Sport as an Avenue of Tourism Development: An Analysis of the Positive and Negative Impacts of Sport Tourism

Recognition of the negative effects that are often associated with sporting megaevents has emerged relatively belatedly in the academic literature. Much attention has focused on the economic development potential of sporting events (Burgan & Mules, 1992). Various authors suggest that positive image and identity, inward investment and tourism promotion through media coverage and the televising of sport also help to justify hosting sports mega-events. Roche (1994: 1) states that 'mega-events are short term events with long-term consequences for the cities that stage them'. In many cases, it seems, the long term consequences for the host cities are negative. It appears that with increasing scale, the potential for sporting events to create negative impacts also increases (Olds, 1998, Shapcott, 1998). Despite this, little academic attention has been paid to the tourism potential of regular season domestic sport competitions, national championships and local/regional sport. At these levels of sport the potential for negative impact is minimal, while the tourism development potential that they offer remains largely unresearched.     

Managing whale-watching as a non-lethal consumptive activity

Marine tourism is a new frontier of late-capitalist transformation, generating more global revenue than aquaculture and fisheries combined. This transformation created whale-watching, a commercial tourism form that, despite recent critiques, has been accepted as non-consumptive activity. This paper uses four academic discourses to critique whale-watching as a form of capitalist exploitation: (1) commercial whale-watching and global capitalist transformation, (2) global capitalist politics and the promoted belief that whale-watching is non-consumptive, (3) the inherent contradictions of non-consumptive capitalist exploitation, and (4) whale-watching as a common-pool resource. These discourses lead us to critique whale-watching practices in relation to the common capitalist sequence of resource diversification, exploitation, depletion and collapse. Using specific impact studies, we conclude that a sustainability paradigm shift is required, whereby whale-watching (and other forms of wildlife tourism) is recognized as a form of non-lethal consumptive exploitation, understood in terms of sub-lethal anthropogenic stress and energetic impacts. We argue the need for a paradigm shift in the regulation and management of commercial whale-watching, and present the case for a unified, international framework for managing the negative externalities of whale-watching. The relevance of the issues raised about neoliberal policy-making extends beyond whale-watching to all forms of wildlife and nature-based tourism.     

Tourists and albatrosses: the dynamics of tourism at the Northern Royal Albatross Colony, Taiaroa Head, New Zealand

Wildlife tourism attractions in New Zealand, like those elsewhere in the world, have experienced rapid growth in demand since the mid-1980s in association with the ecotourism phenomenon. Fortunately, the body of research on the impacts of tourism upon wildlife, both domestic and international, is beginning to reflect this growth. This article presents a consideration of wildlife tourism as it has developed in the New Zealand context. Specifically, it addresses the complexities of understanding the impacts of non-consumptive wildlife tourism. This term describes tourist engagements with wildlife that take place in the habitat of the focal species without the deliberate disturbance or removal of that species. To this end, the case of the North Royal Albatross Colony, Taiaroa Head, New Zealand, is examined. Various secondary data sources are employed to test the application of Duffus and Dearden's (Biological Conservation 1990, 53, 213–231) conceptual framework to this bird colony, with all components of the framework proving to be upheld. It is concluded that site users, contact wildlife species and the natural habitat of the focal species all demonstrate various dimensions of change over time. Several conclusions are drawn from this study. First, that in the absence of deliberate management intervention, wildlife tourism attractions evolve over time to the detriment of both the visitor experience and the focal wildlife species. Secondly, the impacts of tourism upon wildlife transcend tolerance. In other words, wildlife species may appear to be perfectly tolerant of tourists while significant impacts still occur. Thirdly, the application of the core components of Duffus and Dearden's framework dictates that wildlife impact research is not transferable, but rather research of this nature is both site- and species-specific. Finally, it is recommended that research in this domain should involve long-term monitoring of wildlife impacts. Many significant impacts go undetected in the absence of time series data. Failing this, research into the impacts of non-consumptive wildlife tourism must give consideration of the possible long-term biological consequences of tourist engagements with wildlife species.     

Ecotourism Visitor Experiences in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Challenging the Environmental Values of Visitors in Pursuit of Pro-environmental Behaviour

This paper reports on a research project that examined ecotourism visitor experiences in Aotearoa/New Zealand and whether or not those experiences challenged visitors to consider environmental issues. Twelve study sites in three nationwide geographical clusters were drawn from a comprehensive database of 479 eco/nature tourism operations based on each operation fulfilling 14 selection criteria. The operations offer maximum variation in the ecotourism experiences that they provide. The qualitative research methods implemented at these sites are described. Observational and interview data were employed to critically assess the visitor experiences reported at the study sites. Five important aspects of the visitor experience emerged from data analysis. These were considered to be effective in drawing visitor attention to environmental issues of relevance. The results indicate that ecotourism visitor experiences may be an effective medium via which environmental values may be influenced.     

Managing the impacts of dolphin-based tourism through the definition of critical habitats: the case of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.) in Doubtful Sound, New Zealand

Marine ecotourism in New Zealand presents a challenging tourism-environment management context. This is demonstrated in the case of Doubtful Sound (New Zealand) where the recent proliferation of tour operators has brought pressures to bear upon a population of bottlenose dolphins resident in the sound. Strict methodologies are necessary to objectively interpret responses to tourism-induced anthropogenic impacts upon cetaceans. Previous research in this field has established that boat interactions with dolphins in Doubtful Sound affect the behavioural budget of the dolphin population, and that dolphins are more sensitive to interactions with boats when they are resting and to a lesser extent when they are socialising. This article reports on a programme of research that employed observational data to explore the applicability of tourism management techniques grounded in spatial ecology. The data provided scientific evidence that determining critical habitat through spatio-ecological analysis is a powerful tool to protect marine mammals in New Zealand, and elsewhere, from biologically significant tourism-induced impacts. The delineation of multi-levelled marine sanctuaries may, therefore, be an effective approach to managing the impacts of tourism upon marine mammals.     

Decentralisation of Pay In the Nhs: Diagnosis and Prognosis

This article analyses why some NHS trusts have departed from national arrangements and adopted a local pay regime, while others have not. It finds that the primary determinant is the attitude of management, particularly the chief executive. This is value driven and not a pragmatic response to the labour market. Although a healthy financial position is a necessary condition for a trust pay regime, it is not an adequate causative explanation. Moreover, while management sets the agenda, the pace, manner and extent of change, are tempered by the cohesiveness and vigour of the staff-side and the power of the medical profession. It also suggests that in some trusts more immediately pressing priorities have taken precedence over the government initiative on local pay bargaining, so it will be some time before fully fledged pay systems are adopted.