Are Chinese nationals’ attitudes to wildlife tourist attractions different from those of other nationalities?

Many wildlife tourist attractions (WTAs) have negative impacts on animal welfare and species conservation. In the absence of regulation, raising standards requires tourists to create market pressure by choosing to attend WTAs with benefits for wildlife. We surveyed respondents from five countries – China, Australia, Canada, UK, and USA – to quantify how attitudes to captive animals, and towards WTAs’ outputs and standards, may vary with nationality. Our aim was to provide a firm basis for behaviour change interventions to alter current patterns of tourist consumption of WTAs. All respondents agreed on the importance of conservation and animal welfare, but Chinese respondents were twice as likely to believe that WTAs would not be allowed to exist if they were bad for animals, and that WTAs’ promotional materials were reliable indicators of welfare and conservation standards. These findings indicate Chinese respondents had fundamentally similar attitudes to those from the other countries, but differed in how those attitudes were likely to be applied. Chinese tourists may experience more barriers to aligning their actions with their values with respect to WTAs. Removing these barriers may require information campaigns to highlight the lack of regulation, and the unreliability of some WTAs’ promotional materials and tourists’ reviews.     

Perceived Determinants of Well-Being and Enjoyment Level of Leisure Activities

Two facets of leisure, perceived determinants of well-being and enjoyment of common leisure activities, were investigated in 388 participants. For well-being, a principal components (PCA) analysis yielded five components: competence, relatedness and health, wealth, personal values, and freedom of choice. For the enjoyment of leisure activities, another PCA generated seven components: wellness, sedentary leisure, intellectual leisure, social leisure, routine activities, self-realization, and inner peace. Different leisure enjoyment of young adults (18–30 years old) in contrast to adults and seniors was attributed to social transformations as also predicted by several theories of social change. The relationship between the determinants of well-being and enjoyment of leisure activities was statistically significant but meaningfully debatable.     

The role of tourism management in adaptation to climate change – a study of a European inland area with a diversified tourism supply

The Carpathian Basin is one of the most vulnerable European regions in terms of potential climate change impacts on biodiversity. Its wide range of tourism activities make it uniquely suitable for assessing the effects of climate change on tourism. This research sought to create a Tourism Adaptation Portfolio (TAP) for the Szentendre micro-region in Hungary and to assemble an adaptation toolbox for current and future use by tourism organizations. The TAP contains practical, easy to implement solutions for key stakeholders in the sector by adaptation type (technology, management, behavior, education, policy). Surveys of local tourism suppliers showed that 70% said they were well informed, largely by the Internet, but 55% admitted to not knowing enough. The methodology outlined here is transferable and the process can be replicated elsewhere, supporting other regions in becoming climate-friendly tourism destinations, creating opportunities for uniquely positioning a region for consumers. The article provides a concise overview of tourism provider attitudes assessed through a questionnaire, shedding light on points of intervention, willingness to pay, main barriers and suitable adaptation instruments. The adaptive capacity of stakeholders is also discussed, which is indispensable for implementing successful practices in adaptation and maintaining the current level of environmental services.     

Policy Environment for the Tourism Sector's Adaptation to Climate Change in the South Pacific – The Case of Samoa

Samoa and its neighbouring Pacific Island Countries are highly vulnerable to climate change risks because their population and infrastructure are mostly located on low-lying coastal areas. Impacts of climate change are potentially disastrous to tourism, the major economic sector in the region. This research examines the conduciveness of the policy environment in Samoa for the tourism sector to adapt to climate change along three dimensions: stakeholders’ will and commitment, resources available, and policy-making mechanisms [Wong, E.P.Y., Mistilis, N., & Dwyer, L. (2011). A framework for analyzing intergovernmental collaboration – the case of ASEAN tourism. Tourism Management, 32, 367–376]. Samoa is used as an exemplar case study to understand how the Pacific island tourism sector can best adapt to climate change. It was found that the policy environment in Samoa is generally conducive. However, there is a strong need for closer public–private cooperation.     

Women in tourism: Shifting gender ideology in the DR

The purpose of this study is to explore the ways in which the employment of women in the tourism industry has challenged or reinforced the traditional machismo–marianismo gender ideology in the Dominican Republic. Semi-structured individual, coupled, and group interviews were conducted in 12 coastal communities to investigate residents’ perceptions about gender ideology as it intersects with the employment of women in tourism. The findings reveal tourism employment as a source of opportunity, with women gaining economic and social independence, but also conflict as women and men negotiate new gender roles and identities. Emphasizing issues such as the double workload, negotiating domestic tasks with partners, and tension resulting from employment, this study illuminates the pressing practical needs of Dominican women.     

Climate change and tourism: a scientometric analysis using CiteSpace

The interaction between climate change and tourism has been one of the most critical and dynamic research areas in the field of sustainable tourism in recent years. In this paper, a scientometric analysis of 976 academic publications between 1990 and 2015 related to climate change and tourism is presented to characterize the intellectual landscape by identifying and visualizing the evolution of the collaboration network, the co-citation network, and emerging trends. The results show that the number of publications in this field has increased rapidly and it has become an increasingly interdisciplinary research subject. The most productive authors and institutions in this subject area are in Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, and European countries. In this paper, we identify the most pressing topics of climate change and tourism research, as represented in the existing literature, which include the consequences of climate change for tourism, necessary adaptations, the vulnerability of the tourism industry, tourist behaviour and demand in response to climate change, and emission reductions in the tourism sector. The paper presents an in-depth analysis of climate change and tourism research to better understand global trends and directions in this field that have emerged over the past 25 years.     

Fijian culture and the environment: a focus on the ecological and social interconnectedness of tourism development

Understanding the complex and adaptive nature of Pacific Island communities is a growing yet relatively unexplored area in the context of tourism development. Taking an ethnographic research approach, this study examines how over 40 years of tourism development have led to complex and multi-scale changes within an Indigenous Fijian village. The study establishes that tourism development has brought a range of ecological shifts that have, over time, spurred far-reaching changes within the embedded sociocultural constructs of the community. The development of the Naviti Resort, a water catchment dam, a causeway and a man-made island have created substantial changes in totemic associations, livelihood approaches, and traditional knowledge structures within Vatuolalai village. The emergence of internal adaptive cycles, and new behaviours, practices and values that redefine the cultural landscape will be discussed. This paper demonstrates the interconnectivity of nature, society and culture within Indigenous communal systems and asserts that ecological changes introduced in one part of a community stimulate complex, non-linear responses in other elements of the socio-ecological system of a Fijian village.     

危机后期经济增长方式转变、指导思想与实践路径——必须依据马克思主义理论为指导克服危机

经济增长理论是社会经济增长的一种理论反映,源于斯密和李嘉图为代表的古典经济学,是二战后在发达国家广泛流行的经济理论。但是发达国家经济学家自身存在的认识论缺陷使其不可能科学完整的建立经济增长理论及模型,因此必须遵循马克思的方法论从理论为实际的反映入手建立科学模型,并指导中国经济结构以及产业结构的调整,特别是经济增长方式的转变实践中经济结构及产业结构的优化升级。     

关于深化农电体制改革的建议

总结了我国农电体制改革在构建农村供电所或营业所、促进农业经济发展等方面的成效,分析了县级供电企业存在的政企未完全分开、股份制改革困难较多、产权关系复杂等问题,提出在深化农电体制改革的过程中,应优先考虑上划方式结束对县级供电企业的代管,明晰农电资产所有权,对农电工管理采用农电业务外包方式,建立有效的农电投融资机制及合理的农村电价形成机制。