In recent decades, rising consumer interest in visiting relatively less commercialized natural destinations has facilitated the growth of ecotourism. Yet the research on ecotourism is fragmented, ...presenting gaps in the current understanding of this topic. This study performs a bibliometric analysis to assimilate the present knowledge from a total of 878 articles published in six reputable outlets between 1990 and 2019. The study analyzed citation chains and coauthorship networks to acknowledge contributions from select authors, organizations, and countries. Next, a cocitation analysis of the prior literature identified four major thematic areas: ecological preservation, residents' interests, the carbon footprint, and tourists' behaviors. Further, a dynamic cocitation analysis technique mapped the development of these thematic areas. Subsequently, a content analysis of the four thematic areas delivered significant insights about prior research in the domain and indicated future avenues of research.
•This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 878 articles on ecotourism.•Four major thematic areas are identified from the literature on ecotourism.•The first thematic area highlights the need for the ecological preservation of tourist destinations.•The second thematic area advocates for protecting residents' interests in ecotourist destinations.•The third thematic area raises concerns about the carbon footprint from tourist mobility.•The fourth thematic area discusses tourists' attitudes and behavior toward sustainability.
Tourism and conservation policies in Sweden share a significant common history, involving constructions of the non-human world. In this paper, the development of this historical relationship is ...traced through national park policies and the Swedish Tourist Association's yearbooks, from the late nineteenth century onward. We explore this in theoretical terms of what Nancy Fraser has called ‘boundary struggles’: constantly mutating institutionalized divisions between capitalist production and nature, public governance, and social reproductive activities. Through our analysis, we identify five discursive formations — significant changes in the discursive constructions of the non-human world entailing reconfigurations of boundary struggles. Shifts between notions of sublime and wild nature external to capitalism, as stakes in welfare state accessibility debate, and as tools in the current moment of intensified commodification of the non-human world, confirm the persistence of boundary struggles in capitalist society.
•Emphasizes capitalism's contested separation from nature, reproduction, and polity.•Traces constructions of the non-human world throughout Swedish national park history.•Analyses key policies and tourism yearbooks between 1870 and 2021.•Detects five discursive displacements in the constructions of the non-human world.
Animals perceive human activities as risky and generally respond with fear‐induced proactive behaviors to buffer the circadian patterns of lethal and nonlethal disturbances, such as diel migrations ...(DMs) between risky places during safe nighttime and safer places during risky daytime. However, such responses potentially incur costs through movement or reduced foraging time, so individuals should adjust their tolerance when human activities are harmless, through habituation. Yet this is a challenging cognitive task when lethal and nonlethal risks co‐occur, forming complex landscapes of fear. The consequences of this human‐induced complexity have, however, rarely been assessed. We studied the individual DM dynamics of chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra rupicapra), 89 GPS‐tracked individual‐years, from/to trails in the French Alps in areas with co‐occurring lethal (hunting) and nonlethal (hiking and skiing) disturbances, with different intensities across seasons. We developed a conceptual framework relying on the risk‐disturbance hypothesis and habituation to predict tolerance adjustments of chamois under various disturbance contexts and across contrasted seasonal periods. Based on spatial and statistical analyses combining periodograms and multinomial logistic models, we found that DM in relation to distance to a trail was a consistent response by chamois (~85% of individuals) to avoid human disturbance during daytime, especially during the hiking and hunting periods. Such behavior revealed a low tolerance of most chamois to human activities, although there was considerable interindividual heterogeneity in DM. Interestingly, there was an increased tolerance among the most disturbed diel migrants, potentially through habituation, with chamois performing shorter DMs in areas highly disturbed by hikers. Crucially, chamois that were most human‐habituated during the hiking period remained more tolerant in the subsequent harvesting period, which could increase their risk of being harvested. In contrast, individuals less tolerant to hiking performed longer DMs when hunting risk increased, and compared to hiking, hunting exacerbated the threshold distance to trails triggering DMs. No carryover effect of hunting beyond the hunting period was observed. In conclusion, complex human‐induced landscapes of fear with co‐occurring disturbances by nature‐based tourism and hunting may shape unexpected patterns of tolerance to human activities, whereby animal tolerance could become potentially deleterious for individual survival.
As nature-based tourism has recognized the seriousness of environmental issues, tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors have gained the attention of scholars and practitioners. However, previous ...empirical studies have not considered motivational factors and destination-related constructs within the tourism context. With the data collected from nature-based tourists, the findings of this study reveal the significant association between personal values and motivations and the significant impact of anticipated positive affect on pro-environmental behavior among nature-based tourists. Also, the findings address that the impact of empathetic concern on pro-environmental behavior is moderated by a level of place attachment to a nature-based destination.
•Explored the causal relationships between three aspects of personal values and two dimensions of motivations.•Confirmed tourists have experienced dual concern about helping nature while and/or after visiting a nature-based destination.•Explored the moderating role of place attachment by expanding attachment theory in the nature-based tourism context.
The Anthropocene is characterised by people’s significant influences on global systems, which generate both high levels of uncertainty and profound change in our lifetime. We must start to better ...engage with what it might mean to inhabit and know the world differently, especially as we experience extensive loss and change, and because grief is increasingly with us. At the same time, we must better engage with our emotions productively and find hope through active, conscious processing and mourning. In this commentary, we explore the potential of engaging in nature‐based tourism to help us grapple with, process, and positively engage with the emotions of the Anthropocene. We gained insights about such potential for healing by collaborating with two eco‐tourism enterprises in Australia: Mount Barney Lodge in Southeast Queensland and Salt and Bush Eco Tours in the Peel River Region on the west coast of Australia. We found that nature immersion can heal and renew. Moreover, guides who know about and are connected to or living closely with nature play critical roles as interpreters or intermediaries with nature. They can also inspire gratitude and positive emotions by encouraging us to (re)connect with nature and provide new and transformative perspectives that bring comfort and motivate action.
We engage with ideas about what it might mean to be of the Anthropocene by exploring ways to grapple and productively engage with our grief and anxiety. Drawing from our exploration of our own and others' experiences of nature‐based tourism, we point to important functions for these enterprises and their guides for such outcomes.
Read the Commentaries on this Feature Paper: To use tourism as a conservation tool, first study tourists; The Big 5 and conservation
Response from the authors: Conservation marketing and education ...for less charismatic biodiversity and conservation businesses for sustainable development
The ‘Big Five’ charismatic megafauna concept is considered key for financial competitiveness of protected areas in South Africa. However, this Western colonial concept is also leading to an underappreciation of wider biodiversity and the recovery of other endangered species. This study assessed the heterogeneity of tourist preferences for big game species in KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa, using a choice experiment approach, employing latent class modelling, in order to identify tourists' segments not necessarily drawn to the Big Five. The latent class segmentation identified two segments for both international and national tourists, largely defined by socio‐economic characteristics. Less experienced and wealthier tourists were mostly interested in charismatic megafauna, while more experienced, but lower income tourists showed preferences for a broader range of species. Exploring viewing preferences in this way illustrates the potential to realign conservation businesses to achieve biodiversity conservation objectives. In the short term, managing protected areas for the Big Five and other favourite species will continue to deliver significant financial benefits to local stakeholders, but policy makers should consider using financial mechanisms to subsidize conservation actions for less charismatic species and develop the biodiversity base of safari tourism in South Africa.
Nature‐based recreation substantially benefits human wellbeing, for example, by improving physical and mental health. However, recreation can also have severe ecological impacts. The recreational ...value of landscapes and natural areas is often used to generate support for public spending in conservation. However, we still don't know whether nature‐based recreationists place greater recreational value on natural areas that have high conservation value compared to other green spaces.
Here, we determine which attributes of nature‐based tourism provide recreational services. We used pictures of wildlife posted on Flickr to quantify wildlife watching activities in Scotland. We then determined the environmental variables key to attracting wildlife watchers to a destination, such as protected areas (PAs), the perceived naturalness, and the presence of different types of infrastructure.
Infrastructure best predicts the intensity of wildlife watching activities in Scotland, while areas of high natural value are rarely used. PAs are weak attractors of wildlife watchers, with PAs designated to protect threatened habitats or species having low recreational value. In accessible and highly visited areas, higher biodiversity increases the intensity of wildlife watching activities.
Synthesis and applications. Areas of high natural and conservation value and areas of high recreational value do not tend to overlap. Recreational ecosystem services are mainly provided by the wider countryside and highly transformed landscapes, as opposed to wild ecosystems and protected areas designated to protect environmental features of high conservation value. These results question the synergy between the goals of recreation and those of conservation and the use of recreation as a justification for economic investment in conservation. During wildlife watching activities most people experience an urbanised, highly transformed nature; it is important to determine how this human‐dominated nature can influence support for conservation of wild and remote areas.
Areas of high natural and conservation value and areas of high recreational value do not tend to overlap. Recreational ecosystem services are mainly provided by the wider countryside and highly transformed landscapes, as opposed to wild ecosystems and protected areas designated to protect environmental features of high conservation value. These results question the synergy between the goals of recreation and those of conservation and the use of recreation as a justification for economic investment in conservation. During wildlife watching activities most people experience an urbanised, highly transformed nature; it is important to determine how this human‐dominated nature can influence support for conservation of wild and remote areas.
Despite a substantial history of research on the well-being of host communities at tourism destinations, the individual psychological well-being of local residents remains an underexplored topic. ...This study explores the psychological well-being of tourism host community members through
a case study of Queenstown, New Zealand. By drawing on the self-determination theory, an innovative focus group analysis approach, microinterlocutor analysis, complemented by thematic analysis, was used to explain the psychological well-being of individual host community members in a nature-based
tourism destination. Findings revealed a sense of autonomy, relatedness to people and the natural environment, feelings of competence or mastery, and beneficence-supported psychological well-being. This study extends prior research on the well-being of host communities by identifying key psychological
well-being domains explicitly related to host community members. Practical implications of the findings are highlighted with reference to nature-based destinations.
Spatial visitation patterns and its features on nature-based tourism are difficult to assess using only a field-based survey, which is costly and labor intensive. However, understanding of a ...protected area's visitation status is critical, as it can strongly influence the sustainability of natural resources. Hence, it is important to identify ‘where people visit’ and ‘why people visit,’ to evaluate the features attractive to tourists. In this regard, we proposed and applied social big data to investigate nature-based tourism in an ASEAN Heritage Park. Overall, our research was able to effectively illustrate spatial patterns of visitation using 10 years of Flickr geo-tagged photographs. Hotspots of high visitation were identified, while revealing the local spatial impact of distributed attributes. This study offers insights into the applicability of social big data to protected-area management and its potential in reinforcing existing field-based participatory approaches.
•Provided first study on the applicability of social big data for tourism management in ASEAN Heritage Parks.•Geotagged photographs shown to be a powerful tool to evaluate spatial patterns in visitation.•Impact of attractions and supporting artifacts on visitation were identified.•Potential and limitations of using social big data in management were suggested.•There was complementarity among big data and field-based approaches.
This mixed-methods study examined millennials' and nature-based tourism providers' perceptions of the use of technology in a nature-based tourism context. The data were collected through surveys and ...focus groups of millennials and nature-based tourism providers. Survey findings revealed that millennials perceived a number of technologies more negatively than providers, challenging common stereotypes. Focus group responses further demonstrated providers' assumptions regarding millennials' dependence on technology as well as millennials' conflicting needs to escape from ordinary technology use during nature-based tourism activities while remaining connected to essential technology services. The implications of catering to millennials' nature-based tourism needs are discussed.
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