Nature-based tourism's impact on environmental knowledge,attitudes, and behavior: a review and analysis of the literature and potential future research

Although nature-based tourism is often promoted as benefiting local destinations through income generation, employment, and direct conservation support, it is also believed to influence tourists’ environmentally friendly attitudes, knowledge, and ultimately their behavior. Yet, few studies have empirically documented these outcomes, and those that do are inconsistent in the variables measured and the time frame analyzed. This paper examines the empirical research on nature-based tourism's ability to foster long-term stewardship behavior among travelers by conducting a systematic review of peer-reviewed tourism research published between 1995 and 2013. This search, focused on literature addressing changes in tourists’ environmentally related knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and actual behaviors, yielded just 30 empirical studies. Outcomes related to new environmental knowledge were commonly reported in these studies, but findings related to environmental attitudes and behaviors were inconsistent. Few studies measured environmental behavior directly, and fewer still include longitudinal assessments of persistent changes in attitudes or behaviors. We suggest potential future areas for research as well as programmatic strategies that may facilitate favorable outcomes from nature-based tourism, particularly those related to tourists’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Key areas include understanding visitors’ prior experiences and background, designing and delivering more effective interpretive messages, and using social media.     

Making a difference together: discourses of transformation in family voluntourism

This article explores the intersection of development discourse, volunteer tourism, and practices of family travel. While research on the emerging trend of voluntourism has tended to focus on young, single, college-aged volunteers, little attention has been paid to families with young children who volunteer abroad. Taking as its starting point the prevalent message that voluntourism can “make a difference”, the article examines the implications of emphasizing the family and the child, rather than structural inequalities, as the objects of transformation. Based on face-to-face and online interactions with worldschooling families, the article uses mobile virtual ethnography to create an in-depth and immersive study of mobile and online social groups. Findings suggest that families undertake voluntourism as a strategy for fostering family bonding and cultivating their children's sense of global citizenship. In both cases, family voluntourism pursues transformation in the private sphere of the family rather than in the public sphere of political activism. In this sense, discourses of transformation make family voluntourism complicit with neoliberal ideals of individual responsibility and entrepreneurialism that may reinforce rather than dismantle entrenched Global North/Global South power hierarchies, but they also lend themselves to critical debates that may recuperate the transformative potential of volunteer tourism.     

Entanglements in multispecies voluntourism: conservation and Utila's affect economy

Abstract

Through a case study of conservation voluntourism this article brings together critical political ecology, multispecies ethnography, and studies of humanitarian tourism to advance a political ecology of multispecies conservation voluntourism. The article presents multispecies conservation voluntourism as a field that produces and is produced by an “affect economy”, or an economy based on the exchange or trade in the relational. Since the mid-1990s, life on Utila, Honduras, a popular discount backpacker scuba destination located along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, has been deeply transformed by the growth of dive tourism, the ecological destruction it has produced, and now the conservation voluntourism industry emerging in its wake. Seventy percent of Utila is comprised of mangroves and associated wetlands, home to several endangered and endemic species. Using examples of whale shark tourism, lionfish hunts, and iguana tracking, this article shows how conservation organizations operate as affect generators, enabling the privilege of engaging in multispecies encounters. Engaging in multispecies conservation voluntourism produces value in the form of cultural capital which is then exchanged for material outcomes by volunteers in the global economy; at the same time, this form of voluntourism obscures local relationships to nature and alters multispecies assemblages from past configurations.     

A capital assets framework for appraising and building capacity for tourism development in aboriginal protected area gateway communities

Tourism may constitute an important livelihood option and conservation incentive for communities located near protected areas (PAs). Gateway communities can benefit significantly from the development of tourism through increased employment, financial gains, infrastructure creation, cultural revitalization, and environmental protection. Yet, tourism is not a panacea for PA communities and the development of a local tourism industry often fails to deliver significant economic, social, cultural, and environmental benefits. Clearly defined frameworks for maximizing the benefits from tourism development for PA communities are needed so that tourism can more directly support community development and conservation efforts. This paper presents a framework for appraising and building community capacity for tourism development in aboriginal protected area gateway communities. The framework was developed through the analysis of qualitative results from five different research projects around seven capital assets (i.e., natural, physical and built, financial, political and institutional, social, cultural, and human capitals). Preliminary results from application and testing of the framework are also explored. The framework presented herein has significant potential for broader application in non-aboriginal, international, and non-protected area communities.     

Discovering the perceived attributes of CBT destination travelers in South Korea: A mixed method approach

Despite the emerging significance of community-based tourism (CBT) with its sustainable advantages, little research has examined to uncover distinctive attributes, the role of destination attachment, awareness of community benefit of CBT destination, and destination loyalty in explicating post visit behavior. This study attempted to fill this gap. We harnessed both qualitative and quantitative analytic approaches, identifying 20 attributes of a CBT destination through a psychometric process. Our results verified that local foods and restaurant, natural environment and landscape, and activity and events were significantly associated with place identity and place dependence, whereas ‘customized service and service staff’ showed positive impact on the place identity. Also, the place identity and place dependence revealed positive effects on destination loyalty. In addition, awareness of community benefit of CBT played a salient moderating role in the relationship between ‘customized service and service staff’ and ‘place identity’. Our results provide meaningful insights to destination marketers.     

Volunteer tourism,development and education in a postcolonial world: conceiving global connections beyond aid

This paper contributes to the public and academic debate on the appropriateness of young Westerners’ participation in projects of volunteer tourism conducted in developing countries. Ethnographic research was carried out in the context of an Australian program that organizes short-term group placements for university students in countries like Vietnam, Mexico and Fiji. The results illustrate that such projects can produce similar benefits to other educational initiatives of international volunteering and service (IVS) in terms of global engagement, career development, intercultural competence and psychological support. However, for these projects to avoid public critiques and negative outcomes, they need to harmonize personal and institutional expectations with real volunteer capacities. Thus, until IVS programs in the university context distance themselves from a development aid discourse, they will potentially fall under the umbrella of “neo-colonialism”. The research provides a model of impact analysis and raises challenging questions for universities or similar organizations involved with short-term group placements of volunteer tourism.     

Community assessment of Indigenous language-based tourism projects in Haida Gwaii (British Columbia,Canada)

Abstract

Research into language-based tourism programming is rare. Aside from a few studies that consider the language/tourism nexus broadly, research has failed to examine the community context in which development takes place or the impact of communities on the choice of suitable projects. This study assessed the relative merits of 12 proposed language-based tourism projects to support the development and revitalization of Haida language. This research was conducted in two phases: initially, informal focus groups were used to identify key criteria affecting development, which were then used as a means of reflecting on the proposed projects from the perspective of the community. The results show that the two projects with the greatest potential include Impromptu Cultural Performances and Increased Signage in Haida Language. The level of community support contingent upon their ability to (1) find suitable partnerships, (2) secure adequate approvals, (3) hold long term industry potential, (4) deepen speaker opportunities, and (5) moderate high level political concerns. This research fills a gap in the literature by offering evidence to support projects best suited to the needs and aspirations of the community and introduces a necessary distinction between language use in tourism settings versus language planning in tourism settings.     

The contribution of social tourism to sustainable tourism: a case study of seasonally adjusted programmes in Spain

Recent policy from the European Union has attempted to justify social tourism initiatives on the basis that they lead to a more sustainable tourism industry. However, the majority of latest research in the field has been focused on the benefits for participants, with the addition of some evidence on the economic impacts of such programmes on destinations, which have pointed towards sustainability outcomes including: a longer tourism season, more even spread of demand, and longer periods of employment for tourism workers. Yet there is a lack of direct evidence linking such programme to these outcomes. This paper aimed to explore this important disconnect between policy assumptions and evidence-based outcomes through an analysis of the deseasonalising effects of the Spanish social tourism programme for older people. The research found that this programme does have an effect on the seasonal nature of employment and economic activity in most regions studied, but that the huge volume of demand from international tourists in the high seasons masks the quantitative effects in the regions with the highest seasonal concentration of international tourists. Recommendations for policy and practice in sustainable tourism are made that are transferable to many countries and regions that adopt social tourism programmes.     

The effects of tourism development on rural livelihoods in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

The Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) program in Botswana aims to achieve biodiversity conservation and rural development in rich biodiversity areas like the Okavango Delta. CBNRM assumes that if rural communities derive benefits from natural resources, they will be obliged to use such resources sustainably. Using the sustainable livelihoods framework, this study analyzes the effects of tourism development through CBNRM on rural livelihoods at Khwai, Sankoyo and Mababe in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, using primary and secondary data sources. Results of long-term surveys and in-depth interviews indicate that the three communities have forgone traditional livelihood activities such as hunting and gathering, livestock and crop farming to participate in tourism through CBNRM. Livelihoods in these villages have been improved as a result. Basic needs such as shelter, employment and income and social services like water supply systems, transportation, scholarships and payment of funeral expenses are now provided to community members and funded with income from CBNRM. Social capital has been built up in order to agree, manage and develop the CBNRM process. These results show that tourism development in these villages is achieving its goal of improved livelihoods, contradicting claims that community development projects are failing to achieve rural development.     

Tourism,tourist learning and sustainability: an exploratory discussion of complexities,problems and opportunities

Learning is often a central element of tourism. Tourists can learn actively, i.e. with a specific purpose, as well as passively through the comparison of values, norms and customs. It has been argued that travel supports active learning that has positive outcomes for sustainability, for instance, in the context of conservation. Yet, the complexity of active and passive learning processes and their outcomes for environmental sustainability and sustainable lifestyles remain insufficiently understood. Against this background, the paper discusses selected learning outcomes for transportation (air travel), accommodation (hotels) and activities (theme park visits). Findings suggest that “desirable” learning (defined as pro-sustainable development learning) in tourism may be very limited, while in particular, passive learning processes which redefine social norms frequently have outcomes that are largely detrimental to sustainable lifestyles. They include forms of moral licensing, the diffusion of responsibilities as well as the attenuation of the negative consequences of travel. Given the economic, social and cultural importance of tourism vís-a-vís its global implications for environmental sustainability, learning outcomes in tourism deserve to be studied in greater detail, while strategies need to be devised to enhance sustainable learning effects.     

Exploring factors influencing individual participation in community‐based tourism: The case of Kampung relau homestay program,Malaysia

This paper presents the early findings from a qualitative investigation conducted to examine how participation is practiced in a community‐based tourism program which offers homestay experience to tourists in Kedah, Malaysia. The first objective of the study was to determine where on the spectrum of participation (Pretty 1995) does the homestay program fall. The second objective was to explore the variables that may influence the extent of community participation in this program. Findings from the present study indicate that participation in community‐based tourism is influenced by community members’ motivations to participate. An important implication from this finding is that community‐based tourism projects must include awareness programs among its members so as to educate them about the project and to motivate them to participate.     

Tourists and community development: corporate social responsibility or tourist social responsibility?

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are usually determined, in large part, by head office and by shareholder interests. This article explores the unique case of tourism CSR which has a distinctive relationship with local communities. CSR programmes of hotels and resorts in the Global South are increasingly creating opportunities for tourists to engage directly with communities, yet the relationship between tourists and CSR – and how this impacts on community development outcomes – has so far been overlooked. Based on two separate research projects undertaken in Zambia and Fiji which examined hotel CSR from community perspectives, we show how these programmes were largely motivated, driven and financed by tourists. This suggests that, in the accommodation subsector of tourism, CSR is not only being shaped by head office, but that tourists can play a key role, leading us to coin the term TSR (tourist social responsibility). For community development initiatives in particular, this gives rise to both challenges and opportunities.     

An environmental social marketing intervention in cultural heritage tourism: a realist evaluation

ABSTRACT

Following Pawson and Tilley's principles of realist evaluation and the context–mechanism–outcome (CMO) framework, this paper conducts a process evaluation of an environmental social marketing intervention in a heritage tourism organisation. Social marketing and employee environmental interventions have received relatively scant attention in tourism. Additionally, prior literature mostly focused on the evaluation of intervention outcomes (i.e. how far the intervention produces precise targeted outcomes) and ignores the importance of process evaluation (i.e. identifying what works, for whom, under which circumstances and how, plus issues of intervention maintenance). This paper fills this literature gap using realist evaluation theory and academic perspectives, as well as via the reflections of practitioners involved in intervention design and delivery. Findings suggest that a good understanding of the tourism and organisational context (regarding the dimensions of structure, culture, agency and relations) and the use of tailored, action-focused mechanisms (for each context dimension) are critical to achieving transformational outcomes in environmental interventions in cultural heritage organisations. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the CMO is a useful framework for assessing environmental social marketing interventions in tourism (both for heritage and other tourism organisations). Implications for tourism practice and further research directions are also discussed.     

Visitors’ learning for environmental sustainability: Testing short- and long-term impacts of wildlife tourism experiences using structural equation modelling

Wildlife tourism experiences have the potential to positively impact tourists’ awareness, appreciation and actions in relation to the specific wildlife they encounter and the environment in general. This paper investigates the extent of such impact across multiple sites, and uses Structural Equation Modelling to identify factors that best predict positive long-term learning and environmental behaviour change outcomes. Three sets of variables were measured – visitors’ entering attributes (including pre-visit environmental orientation and motivation for the visit), salient aspects of the experience, and short- and long-term learning and environmental behaviour change outcomes. Although attributes such as pre-visit commitment and motivation to learn were among the best predictors of the long-term impact of the experience, there was evidence that aspects of the experience were also important. In particular, reflective engagement which involved cognitive and affective processing of the experience was found to be associated with short- and long-term environmental learning outcomes. The implications for wildlife tourism managers are discussed.     

Residents’ attitudes toward future tourism development in terms of community well-being and attachment

This study explores residents’ attitudes toward future tourism development based on their community well-being (CWB) and community attachment. Focusing on the case of Gamcheon Culture Village in Busan, South Korea, which was developed during an urban regeneration project in 2009, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. The main findings of this study are: (1) CWB is supported by five variables including income effects, social participation, safety service, infrastructure service, and environmental effect; (2) not only does CWB influence community attachment but attachment also effects residents’ attitudes; and (3) the most effective variable of CWB is income effect, and safety service for community attachment. These results can help to provide effective strategies to encourage residents to have positive attitudes about further tourism development in a community-based tourism destination.     

旅游公共服务价值共创:概念模型、驱动因素与行为过程--以杭州市社会资源国际访问点为例

与商业服务领域相似,旅游公共服务近年来也经历了由产品主导逻辑向服务主导逻辑演变的过程,由公共服务供需双方共创价值的实践现象已经出现。文章以杭州市社会资源国际访问点为案例,通过扎根理论的方法,探索性地提出旅游公共服务价值共创的概念,剖析了由政府、企业、居民、游客等不同社会主体参与的旅游公共服务价值共创现象,识别了制度保障、增权激励、信息透明、技术摄入、文化契合是实现旅游公共服务价值共创的驱动因素与前提条件。而不同主体间耦合形成的服务生态系统,其内部各要素的互动与整合是旅游公共服务价值共创实现的中介要素。此外,旅游公共服务价值共创的行为过程包括价值主张提出、共创环境营造、社会成员嵌入、社会价值共识、公共价值创造和社会影响输出。文章拓展了价值共创理论在旅游公共服务领域的应用,揭示了共创的内部机理与行为规律,为旅游目的地公共服务发展与供给模式创新提供了理论工具。     

Sustainable service design and revenue management for electric tour bus systems: seoul city tour bus service and the eco-mileage program

Sustainable tourism has true sustainability when it is designed economically and in an environmentally friendly fashion. A variety of methods has been explored to achieve sustainable tourism, and the use of new technologies is a significant trend for sustainable tourism. In the City Tour Bus service, an environmentally friendly tour service can be achieved by using electric buses. Moreover, the social energy saving program helps to reduce the economic burden of building eco-friendly services by providing economic incentives as rewards for environmental contributions. Two mathematical models are newly developed to quantitatively design and operate a sustainable City Tour Bus service. Mathematical model I is developed with two objective functions of minimizing total investment cost and CO₂ emissions. It derives from Pareto solutions with different number of electric buses and battery capacities. Based on the solutions of mathematical model I and the economic incentive from the social energy saving program, mathematical model II investigates the optimal unit service price. Proposed quantitative approaches are applied to the Seoul City Tour Bus service with Seoul Eco-Mileage Program. These new approaches are expected to build and manage sustainable tourism system in scientific way. Moreover, they will provide quantitative bridge between sustainable transportation system and social programs beyond tourism industry.     

Successful action in the public sphere: the case of a sustainable tourism-led community protest against coal seam gas mining in Australia

As demand for resources grows, there is increased pressure on the places and communities in which sustainable tourism is situated. This research examined the experience of an academic and a sustainable tourism business operator who were engaged in a community protest against coal seam gas mining in Queensland, Australia. Our research used a co-constructed narrative method and a post-ecological democratic framework to understand the significance of the public-sphere action of the tourism business. Our findings reveal that sustainable tourism organisations can link with the local community to be effective in public-sphere protest because of their social relationships within communities. The tourism business engagement in the public sphere was characterised by an increase in the locus of control of the business in responding to environmental threats, reconceptualising “the environment” as a valued local place worth fighting for, and tactics that ensured the campaign was not subsumed and devalued within government administrative processes. We found that if the value basis for public-sphere action aligns with the business model, tourism businesses can engage in public-sphere action with no financial loss. Protest actions by sustainable tourism business operators can be part of a deeper sustainability movement through protest actions in the public sphere.     

Destination social capital and innovation in SMEs tourism firms: an empirical analysis in an adverse socio-economic context

Abstract

This study examines the structural relationships between internal and external resources that explain the innovation of small tourism firms in adverse socio-economic contexts. Specifically, it analyzes two internal resources, human and organizational-technological capital, and the valuable intangible resources derived from social interactions between the agents in the destination (other companies, institutions, and community). The research hypotheses are tested by means of structural equation analysis applied to an empirical study of 180 tourism firms located in Isla Margarita (Venezuela). The findings confirm the importance of external resources derived from relationships with destination agents in the innovation behavior of tourism small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While business social capital affects innovative behavior directly, other types of internal intellectual capital mediate the relationship between innovative behavior and institutional and community social capital. It is the first to address the local community’s role in the innovation of tourism SMEs. The importance of integrating firm and destination resources should inform SMEs’ innovation policies in adverse contexts where the scarcity of resources make vulnerable the economic, social and environmental sustainability.     

Lifestyle,leisure and pluralism — a response

In this paper we use data from the Scottish Young People's Surveys in order to examine the effects of post-16 experiences and social class on the leisure patterns of young people with an average age of just over 19 years. We analyse leisure patterns in relation to labour market status and assess the longer term effects of post-16 experiences on young people's leisure activities. We argue that young people's social class and experiences after the age of 16 have an important and lasting effect on their subsequent leisure patterns.