Intensive tour guide training in regional Australia: an analysis of the Savannah Guides organisation and professional development schools

A number of authors believe that tour guide training may hold a key to passing on the concept of sustainable tourism to tourists. Savannah Guides Limited (SGL) is an organisation for tour guides interpreting and protecting the tropical savannahs of northern Australia. This paper examines the provision of intensive professional development schools, which the SGL organisation provides, to raise standards of professionalism for nature-based tour guides in remote regions. Its framework is based on Schein's three levels of organisational culture model, and Black and Ham's 10-element performance-based tour guide certification programme. Active participant observation of the development school process and a self-administered questionnaire to SGL members were used to understand the organisation's success. The main motivations for tour guiding are explored, as are the ways in which tour guides acquire knowledge. It is suggested that the provision of professional development schools in nature-based tourism regions benefits the guide and the tour guiding industry, and contributes to the protection of the natural environment. It is proposed that the SGL training model of professional development schools and certification be adopted by tour guiding organisations in other regional destinations as a way of nurturing and advancing quality tour guiding and professionalism.     

Alternative approaches to tertiary tourism education with special reference to developing countries

The diversity of tourism education programmes makes well considered choice of appropriate training and education in tourism particularly difficult for developing countries. This article distills guidelines for programme choice from examining two main approaches to tourism—the demand- and supply-oriented approaches—and outlines the main components of an ‘ideal’ system, paying particular attention to the needs of developing countries and the problems that are likely to be encountered in this regard. Keywords: education, tourism development curricula choice, developing countries.     

A review and evaluation of China's quality assurance system for tour guiding

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of China's tour guiding quality assurance system as an instrument for sustainable tourism. It notes the importance of China's 131,000 tour guides for inbound, outbound and domestic tourism. China's tour guiding quality assurance and regulatory mechanisms are then reviewed, including qualification examination, licensing, professional certification, training, awards for excellence, professional associations and codes of conduct. Structurally, China's comprehensive and comparatively regulated system may be recommendable to other countries, particularly its certification and licensing systems. However, the findings suggest that tour guide quality assurance in China may be constrained by an over-reliance on government and the absence of industry-driven mechanisms for some elements such as monitoring, enforcement and rewarding excellence. Most importantly, the focus of China's quality assurance system is on a limited number of tour guiding roles and tends to overlook those most critical to harnessing the guide as a vehicle for sustainable tourism. Key future development areas could extend recognition and reward for the guide's performance as a role model, advocate, mentor, interpreter, cultural broker and environmental monitor.     

Using a Delphi approach to identify managers' preferences for visitor interpretation at Canterbury Cathedral World Heritage Site

Religious heritage sites have seen a remarkable increase in tourist visitation. To cater for the changing, and sometimes conflicting needs of visitors, many religious sites are developing interpretive plans to enhance the provision of on-site experiences. Interpretive plans are normally negotiated between the owners/managers of a site and an interpretation team. This study uses a Delphi approach to ‘negotiate’ owner/management preferences regarding key interpretive topics and themes to inform the development of a visitor interpretive plan for the Canterbury Cathedral World Heritage Site. Sixty-eight interpretive topics were reduced to twenty-one grouped under three themes: past, present and future spiritual development; aesthetic and architectural features; and the cathedral as a working community. The usefulness of the Delphi approach as a means to negotiate a consensus view of owners/managers' interpretive priorities and preferences within a planning context is discussed. Methodological issues arising when using a Delphi approach are also addressed.     

Visitors' use of interpretive media at heritage sites

Although heritage interpretation is a central component of the modern heritage industry there has been relatively little concern with how visitors to heritage sites make use of interpretive media. This paper reports a study of visitors' use of three interpretive media — exhibitions, outdoor panels, and stereo-audio tours — commonly employed at one type of heritage site, namely ancient monuments. Interpretation is an important component of the visit for many people, although visitors differ in the interest and attention they display to the interpretive media. This is greatest for audio media and less for visual media. This was attributed both to qualities of the interpretive media themselves (e.g. subject matter, readability), and also to characteristics of visitors, particularly their motive for visiting. This supports the notion that the ‘effectiveness’ of interpretation is the result of an interaction between visitor and interpretive medium, rather than depending solely on the interpretive medium.     

Environmental Interpretation in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: An Assessment of Programme Effectiveness

This study sought to determine how visitor environmental interpretation programmes in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park could be assessed to determine their effectiveness in educating visitors about the reef environment and conservation issues. A self-administered visitor questionnaire was designed to identify changes in visitor knowledge and understanding of the reef's basic ecology, human impacts, health and tourism. The study used an independent sample design in which visitors aboard a large reef-trip vessel were surveyed over one week before exposure to the operation's interpretive programme. A second set of visitors was then surveyed following completion of the interpretive programme. The survey identified significant changes in visitors' self-reported knowledge of the reef environment as a result of the trip. Additionally, visitors' self-reported knowledge and understanding of basic reef ecology and human impacts on the reef environment differed significantly in relation to the number of interpretive activities in which they participated. These findings suggest that (1) reef-based visitor interpretation programmes can effectively change visitor understanding of key reef topics and issues, and (2) methods of evaluating reef-based interpretive programmes can be undertaken through self-administered questionnaires.     

Stress and emotions at work: An adventure tourism guide's experiences

Little research has identified issues faced by tour guiding professionals and investigations of tour guide experiences have been neglected in favour of tourist experience and behaviour studies. Even less research has focused on adventure guiding experiences and potential sources of stress and emotions in this context. Studies that have investigated adventure guide experiences generally focused on guide–client interactions and sociological accounts of these experiences. Due to these gaps in the literature, and the recognised potential of psychological theories to enhance studies of stress and emotions in tourism settings, this study explored stress and emotions resulting from employer–guide interactions in an adventure tourism context from a psychological perspective. Longitudinal autoethnographical data was recorded during a river guiding season in South America. A reversal theory framework guided data analyses of key motivational states, sources of stress, and resulting emotions. Analyses identified potential transactional sources of stress and negative emotions for adventure tourism guides, and motivational states associated with stress and emotional outcomes in the employer–guide relationship. Results are discussed in relation to psychological theory and stress and coping research. Recommendations for practice, that could alleviate stressful experiences between employers and guides, are also discussed.     

Application of carrying capacity management in Vietnamese national parks

Implementing carrying capacity is a prerequisite for national parks (NPs) striving to meet the three mandates of park management, namely, recreational use, conservation, and economic value. This study attempts to investigate the application of carrying capacity management in Vietnam’s park system and to assess its application for further development of the concept. Findings show that there are three different approaches to the implementation of carrying capacity in Vietnamese parks, including (1) a laissez-faire approach, (2) a relaxed approach, and (3) a strict approach. It is suggested that economic consideration is one of the major constraints to the implementation in developing countries such as Vietnam. This study not only contributes to the literature on capacity management in NPs, especially in the context of developing countries, but its findings are also valuable for park authorities to achieve the triple mandates of park management.     

A conceptual model of adventure tour guide well-being

Tour guides play a critical role in influencing visitor experiences and organisational success. The experiences of tour guides themselves however are less understood, particularly with regards to how these experiences impact on guides' well-being. Adventure tour guiding unfolds in a unique context reported to involve both high levels of emotional labour and job satisfaction. This study explored key factors that determine adventure guides' psychological well-being in this unique work context. In-depth qualitative interviews with air, land, and water-based guides identified primary, secondary, and tertiary psychological well-being determinants. Based on these findings, a conceptual model of adventure guide well-being is proposed to inform future research and practices for fostering guide well-being.     

Hospitality and Tourism VET in Schools

ABSTRACT

Students undertaking vocational education and training (VET) in school comprise a rapidly growing component of Australia's VET system, with numbers reaching in excess of 100,000 by the Year 2000, representing around 8% of Australia's vocational students (ANTA, 2002). The inclusion of VET in schools has meant changes to curricula, structures, industry partnerships-and changes in the specialisations of teachers. Finding suitably qualified teachers for classroom delivery of VET has become a pressing issue. The University of Queensland explored the need for a teacher education program for hospitality and tourism teachers, conducting an analysis of the demand for specialist VET teachers, a focus group involving key stakeholders to explore issues surrounding the provision of these teachers, and identified appropriate pathways for their education. This paper reports on the context and background of VET in schools, recommendations of the focus group and the development of a program by the university.     

Preferences and willingness to pay for bird-watching tour and interpretive services using a choice experiment

This study identifies the activity and experience preferences of bird-watchers and estimates their willingness to pay (WTP) for bird-watching-related ecotourism tour and interpretive services using choice experiment methods. An on site survey was conducted of tourists attending the Cheonsuman International Birdwatching Fair, South Korea's most popular bird-watching festival. Results indicate that respondents are more likely to prefer intermediate length bird-watching courses, interpretive opportunities and services, seeing special birds, and lower admission fees. WTP for bird-watching interpretive services is approximately $10.14 per person per visit, whereas WTP for additional diversity in bird species is $12.64. Courses with bus tours are preferred to courses with no bus tours, but long tours are not preferred. WTP is $14.24 for an intermediate length tour and $8.09 for a longer tour compared with the no bus tour. It appears that as the levels of service attributes associated with the bird-watching ecotourism resources increase, the respondents are more satisfied and willing to pay more for bird-watching tours than if the levels of service attributes are lower.     

Limits to community participation in the tourism development process in developing countries

This study deals with a normative concept of participatory development approach, which originates in the developed world. In particular, it analyses and explains the limitations to the participatory tourism development approach in the context of developing countries. It was found that there are operational, structural and cultural limits to community participation in the TDP in many developing countries although they do not equally exist in every tourist destination. Moreover, while these limits tend to exhibit higher intensity and greater persistence in the developing world than in the developed world, they appear to be a reflection of prevailing socio-political, economic and cultural structure in many developing countries. On the other hand, it was also found that although these limitations may vary over time according to types, scale and levels of tourism development, the market served, and cultural attributes of local communities, forms and scale of tourism developed are beyond the control of local communities. It concludes that formulating and implementing the participatory tourism development approach requires a total change in socio-political, legal, administrative and economic structure of many developing countries, for which hard political choices and logical decisions based on cumbersome social, economic and environmental trade-offs are sine qua non alongside deliberate help, collaboration and co-operation of major international donor agencies, NGOs, international tour operators and multinational companies.     

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.     

An educational simulation tool for integrated coastal tourism development in developing countries

In spite of the importance of coastal tourism for the economies of many developing countries, tourism infrastructure has often been developed without full consideration of long-term impacts on the environment. The simulation model presented in this paper aims to address critical gaps in awareness and capacity for integrated decision-making and planning in tourism infrastructure development in a developing country context. We build a simple closed-loop model of tourism infrastructure investment, which integrates typical economic, social and ecological dimensions of the problem. The model is calibrated so that within 20 years, investment projects in tourist capacity done without concomitant investment in solid waste and wastewater treatment result in a collapse of fish stocks and a sharp drop in tourist attendance. The model includes several policy options that allow users to intervene at various points in the loop, allowing stakeholders to explore how various combinations of policies perform in financial, environmental and social terms over the long period. The model can, therefore, be used as an educational tool for training and capacity-building.     

世界自然遗产地游客旅游解说需求之研究——以湖南武陵源风景名胜区为例

本文以湖南武陵源世界自然遗产地为研究对象,通过游客问卷调查,以便利抽样的方式探讨游客社会经济背景因素对游客旅游解说需求(解说媒体偏好与解说主题兴趣)的影响,以指导武陵源世界自然遗产地经营管理者对未来解说规划的制定与实施.研究发现,在解说媒体选择上.游客偏好于带队解说、定点解说与咨询服务等人员解说方式,游客性别、年龄、教育程度、职业、婚姻与居住地对解说媒体的偏好有显著差异;在解说主题选择上,游客对森林、植物、动物、地质等较有兴趣,游客性别、年龄、教育程度、职业、婚姻对解说主题的兴趣也有显著的差异.     

北海涠洲岛生态旅游开发的基本思路

本文以人们十分关注的涸洲岛为例，从资源优势、市场定位、产品定型、发展目标、指导思想、开发原则、开发措施等方面，对一个生态环境十分脆弱、经济仍欠发达的海岛的旅游开发进行了有益的探讨，提出了旅游生态岛的概念和开发性保护的指导思想及发展模式，形成了较完整的海岛生态旅游开发思路。     

The Contribution of Sustainable Tourism Development in Poverty Alleviation of Local Communities in South Africa

ABSTRACT

For more than fifty of the world's poorest countries such as Thailand, Zambia, and Egypt, tourism is ranked first, second or third in terms of their economies, and tourism is the only service industry to show a positive balance of trade with flows from first world countries to developing countries exceeding those in the opposite flow by US$ 66 million. Yet tourism has only very recently been recogised by some aid donors, some international funding agencies, and some segments of the industry as an appropriate instrument for poverty reduction (WTO, 2000).

This article addresses the role of tourism as a development strategy in poverty alleviation, discussing the possible strategic senarios for future tourism in South Africa with special focus on local community involvement.     

Heritage Tourism in Rural Areas: Challenges for Improving Socio-economic Impacts

Many developing countries seek to utilize cultural heritage sites as resources for socio-economic development through heritage tourism. When rural area is the context of heritage tourism, effort is needed to establish linkages between tourism and the local economy by addressing the following issues: lack of skilled human resources, capital, access to credits, and other assistance; leakages; and dominance of urban players. This paper examines the impacts of heritage tourism on rural livelihoods using Borobudur in Central Java, Indonesia, as the case study. Further, it proposes rural industry promotion as one of the ways to establishing better linkages to tourism.     

A comparison of the moderating effect of tourism reliance on the economic development for islands and other countries

Tourism is usually one of the top industries in most countries, especially islands. However, there is some question as to whether there is a negative potential impact if a country relies too much on tourism as a means of economic development to the detriment of other industries such as manufacturing and agriculture. The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effect of tourism reliance on the relationship between tourism development and economic development for regular countries and island economies, including “small island developing states” (SIDS). This study uses quantile regression on panel data from the WDI database from 1995 through 2014 for all of the countries that report tourism and economic data. The findings demonstrate that tourism reliance does have a moderating effect on the relationship between tourism development and economic development for all countries, but mainly at higher levels of economic development.     

Paradoxes in planning Tourism Elitism or Brutalism?

While the rhetorics of environment, sustainability and ethics are prominent in academic discussions on tourism planning, they remained somewhat remote in the case of Eritrea. The debate about how the poorest countries should proceed with tourism remains polarized and confused. To help analyze this, a continuum is proposed upon which various types of planning advice may be placed. The two poles are represented by Tourism First (in which developing the industry is the focus of planning) and Development First (where planning is framed by national development needs) The terms of reference which are the key planning guide for tourism consulting firms conducting planning, are identified as being particularly inadequate.