Tourism, including nature-based tourism, simultaneously produces and conceals the contradictions of capitalism. This is because it relies on creating attractions, or new sources of accumulation from ...the very crises it produces. Nature-based tourism is promoted as a 'win-win' that can resolve the contradiction between continual economic growth and finite natural resources. This is made possible via a process of neoliberalising nature, which cuts the threads that bind ecosystems together, so that the constituent parts can be transformed into new commodities. To draw out these broad arguments, this paper firstly examines the claims around tourism as 'green economy' - which proponents claim can produce environmentally sustainable economic growth - a benefit also associated with nature-based tourism. I also show that this can be regarded as simply the latest version of an existing debate rather than offering a new interpretation. This is explored further via a comparative analysis of how tourism neoliberalises nature at the scales of the individual animal (elephant trekking in Thailand) and the landscape (by global networks of NGOs operating in Madagascar). In the case of neoliberalisation of nature at the individual animal scale, the notion of bodily fix is also important. It is not just the elephants that are primed for commodity capture, it is the emotional experience of close interactions with elephants which is commodified. Such changes reshape societal relations with nature, but in uneven and incomplete ways. This is underlined by a discussion of the case of the Durban Vision Initiative in Madagascar - which reveals how neoliberalisation was incomplete as a result of its encounter with local level materialities.
Protected areas can be important destinations for tourism development because they contribute to economic, environmental and cultural development. In the phase of planning the development of a ...protected area as a tourism destination, it is important to consider all the possibilities, opportunities, strengths, weaknesses and dangers of tourism implementation, which should be the basic task of management processes. The Outstanding Natural Landscapes " Vrsacke Pianine " has significant potential for tourism development. Within this area, there are numerous natural and anthropogenic motives, important for the development of tourism. Favorable geographical location, proximity to major cities in Serbia and the border with Romania, are significant potentials for tourism development in this protected area. In the research in this paper, a quantitative method was used. A total of 250 visitors to this tourism destination was interviewed using the questionnaire survey technique with the help of a questionnaire as a research instrument, the method of random selection. Visitors answered questions about the potential for tourism development of this protected area. The analysis of the respondents ' answers concludes that this area has a significant extent of natural factors that contribute to the development of nature-based tourism, such as bird and animal sightseeing, nature photography, health tourism, recreation, science tourism and trips. In addition, the visitors recognized the importance of sociocultural factors that are important for the development of cultural forms of tourism.
Recent research has demonstrated a disconnect between environmental beliefs and behavior when it comes to the consumption of hospitality products. Unfortunately, while many consumers believe that ...hotels should engage in green practices, there is mounting evidence that such beliefs do not necessarily translate into actual purchases of sustainable products. The purpose of this research is to examine this issue by developing an integrated framework establishing the relationships among the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors associated with the consumption of the green hotel product. In particular, we are concerned with the effects of consumers' beliefs regarding the luxury-based trade-offs associated with staying in green hotels. Additionally, we seek to establish the role of destination image as a determinant of the relationships specified in the proposed nomology. The results support our overall hypothesis that the established disconnect between environmental values and sustainable hospitality consumption behavior is at least partially attributable to the cognitive evaluation of the attributes of the hotel's destination. Specifically, our results show that, while the belief that green hotels are less luxurious translates to unfavorable attitudes toward green hotels in urban tourism destinations, this relationship does not occur in nature-based tourism destinations.
The availability of reliable information on local climatic-tourism conditions is a growing need due to the influence it exerts on the quality of the organizational strategy of tourist destination's, ...and travel experience. Evaluations of the tourism potential of the climate have been carried out on a daily or monthly resolution, thus limiting the collection of detailed information that makes it possible to fine-tune tourism management and operational decision-making on an intraday scale. This research is the first case study to analyse the climatic suitability for nature tourism, using the weather types method at hourly resolution. The study applies to arid tourist destinations in Isfahan province (Iran). The detailed resolution has made it possible to identify the time slots favourable to the development of nature tourism in those periods of the year recognized as critical in the daily resolution analyses. In the same way, the hourly resolution has also identified critical bands in those periods indicated as favourable in the evaluations to daily resolution. The hourly resolution provides detailed information that can allow tourists and also tourism managers to establish intraday adaptation strategies that make it possible to develop the activity even in places with extreme climates.
This study explores the impact of COVID-19 on travellers' future recreational vehicle, cabin and tent camping decisions extending the construal level theory. Findings suggest that camping ...consideration due to COVID-19 is significantly related to understanding about time and distance of travel and dependent on pandemic scale.
•The place meanings of residents in protected areas are diverse and variable.•A mismatch may exist between traditional place meanings and current sense of place.•The co-evolution of protected areas ...and tourism affects residents’ place meanings.•Adaptive co-management planning that consider changing place meanings is essential.•Synergy between conservation, tourism and communities is needed in protected areas.
The place meanings (or landscape values) of local people are increasingly being considered in nature conservation plans. However, in Indigenous and ethnic minority contexts, place meanings and underlying cultures tend to be regarded as static over time. This limits the inclusiveness and appropriateness of protected area governance. Using a case study of the Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area, a World Heritage Site in China, we found that residents’ sense of place and place meanings were diverse, varying, and were affected by changes to their livelihoods and the economy resulting from increased tourism. There was a major mismatch between the recorded ‘traditional’ place meanings of residents and their current sense of place and landscape values. The co-evolution of protected areas and tourism can affect residents’ place meanings. This complicates the process of finding a balance (or synergy) between economic development, nature conservation, and local community concerns, which is necessary for sustainability. Adaptive co-management planning that pays attention to residents’ diverse and changing place meanings is essential, even though it may be difficult to implement in heavily touristified areas.
The main purpose of this study is to reveal the relationships between nature-based tourists' self-determined travel motivations, ecologically responsible attitudes and subjective well-being within ...the scope of self-determination theory. Empirical analyses show that there are positive relationships between nature-based tourists' self-determined travel motivations, ecologically responsible attitudes and subjective well-being. The conceptual model was tested using Smart-PLS with 268 valid survey responses. The results of the study showed that there are positive and significant relationships between nature-based tourists' self-determined travel motivation, ecological responsibility attitudes and subjective well-being. Research integrating self-determination theory and nature-based tourism is relatively limited and the results of this study enhance our understanding of the topic.
Safari tourism is one of the nature-based tourism initiatives for visiting protected areas, national parks, and wildlife sanctuaries. It is necessary to measure the tourist perception to identify the ...relevant attributes of tourist satisfaction. The present study aims to measure the tourists' satisfaction at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park in Bangladesh based on tourists' perceptions. The study uses primary data from 350 conveniently chosen tourists through a structured questionnaire survey. The tourists' perception was measured on five dimensions namely attraction, staff and access, facilities, information, and environment and reliability analysis has been carried out. The study considers a multiple regression model and found that four dimensions such as ‘staff and access’, ‘attraction’, ‘facilities’, and ‘environment’ are significant for generating tourists' overall satisfaction. Moreover, the information dimension is important but found statistically insignificant. Several initiatives should be taken to increase the satisfaction of tourists in the study area such as increasing the number of skilled staffs, enhancing opportunities for safari experiences, proper management of the park, reasonable prices for service and facilities, and proper arrangements for the physically challenged visitors.
Environmental communication interventions are employed in nature-based tourism settings to achieve environmental protection. However, much still needs to be studied to understand what interventions ...work, how and why. This review summarises the research design and outcomes of 54 empirical studies, published in English-language peer-reviewed journals where communications were used to foster visitors' pro-environmental intentions or actual behaviours. Our analysis suggests that environmental communication can be a useful tool although mixed results were often observed. Personal interpretation interventions were slightly more common than non-personal communications, and produced a higher portion of positive changes in pro-environmental behaviors and intentions. The use of Theory of Planned Behaviour was most commonly observed. Research on the efficacy of environmental communications is increasing; we suggest priorities to guide this accelerating research activity. Under-researched communications approaches include visual communications and digital tools. Increased comparison of content and delivery modes within the same study and in different nature-tourism contexts is needed, especially with diverse populations (e.g. cultural) and distinct sub-groups (e.g. pro- vs. non-environmental market segments). We advocate for increased diversity of research methods (e.g. qualitative) and robust design (e.g. longitudinal) to better understand visitors' behaviours, with reduced use of attitudes, knowledge and intentions as dependent variables.
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