Visitors' memories of wildlife tourism: implications for the design of powerful interpretive experiences.

TLDR: In this article, the authors examined participants' memories of their wildlife tourism experiences and explored processes through which such experiences can lead to long-term changes in conservation behaviour, based on 240 visitors' extended open-ended responses to a follow-up web survey administered approximately four months after a visit to one of four marine-based wildlife tourism venues in Southeast Queensland.

About: This article is published in Tourism Management.The article was published on 2011-08-01 and is currently open access. It has received 431 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Wildlife tourism & Wildlife conservation.

Figures

Figure 1. Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Cycle

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of the sample

Table 2. Percentages of visitors at each site who responded at each level

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in this paper?

One of the aims of wildlife tourism is to educate visitors about the threats facing wildlife in general, and the actions needed to protect the environment and maintain biodiversity. To identify effective strategies to achieve this aim, this paper examines participants ’ memories of their wildlife tourism experiences and explores processes through which such experiences can lead to long-term changes in conservation behaviour. 

Q2. What are the future works in this paper?

Further quantitative research is necessary to confirm and test the generalisability of these findings. The findings suggest that, in order to evoke powerful memories, enhance the visitor experience, and encourage visitors to adopt environmentally responsible behaviours in response to their visit, wildlife tourism managers and environmental interpreters should: Design interpretive experiences that incorporate multiple senses – especially, sight, sound, smell and touch ; Provide opportunities for visitors to get as close as possible to the animals ( without compromising the animals ’ well-being ) or see the animals from a new and different perspective ; The wildlife tourism experience can thus draw attention to the issues and provide visitors with a reason to care, while postvisit action resources can encourage visitors to further process their experience ( both cognitively and affectively ) ; model behavioural responses and explain the positive impact of such responses on the environment ; and empower visitors to take informed action in their everyday lives. By capitalising on the emotional affinity between visitors and the animals they are observing, encouraging a reflective response to the experience, and providing suggestions for manageable but meaningful behavioural responses that visitors could make, wildlife tourism managers and environmental interpreters can provide the conditions that are most likely to result in long-term behavioural change. 

Q3. How many binary ratings were given to each of the themes?

For each of the 240 respondents, each of the four themes was coded as present or absent, thus yielding a total of 960 binary ratings. 

Q4. How many visitors responded to the web survey?

A total of 240 visitors responded to the web survey (out of a total of 508 who provided email addresses – a response rate of 47%). 

Q5. Why did the whale watching tours have a lasting impact on the majority of respondents?

Because the whale watching tours were able to provide opportunities for close and personal interaction with mammals in their natural habitat, as well as the element of thrill (Reynolds & Braithwaite, 2001), they had a sensory and emotional impact on the majority of respondents (over 60%). 

Q6. What is the definition of whale watching?

According to Reynolds and Braithwaite’s (2001) typology, the whale watching tours would be considered a combination of “specialist animal watching” and “thrill-offering tours”. 

Q7. What did the visitors feel when they came to the site?

(MTP)The idea that in the non-captive animal settings (whale-watching in particular), the animals had chosen to approach the visitors, led to a heightened sense of privilege and emotional affinity:I felt honoured that they wanted to come to us and have a good look at us, as much as the authors wanted to look at them. 

Q8. What did visitors describe as their memories of the experience?

visitors described visual images that conveyed a sense of immediacy, even four months after the experience:Watching those little guys burst out of the sand with their legs flapping away like egg whisks. 

Q9. What is the role of mammals in facilitating a behavioural response to the wildlife tourism experience?

In both types of experience, mammals played a particularly important role in creating a sense of relationship between human and wildlife which made environmental issues more personal and relevant, and behavioural responses more likely. 

Q10. What was the powerful effect of the reflective element on visitors?

it was the combination of emotional affinity with a reflective response that appeared to have the most powerful impact on visitors, leading to a concern and respect not only for the specific individuals encountered in the wildlife tourism experience, but the species as a whole. 

Q11. What was the pronounced feeling of the visitors when they first saw the turtles?

These feelings were particularly pronounced in the Turtle Viewing experience, where many visitors referred to the animals’ “struggle” to accomplish their task:Seeing a straggling hatchling fighting its way out to sea, battling against the tiny waves as if they were enormous.