IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/buogeo/v47y2020i47p27-44n2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tourist perceptions and attitudes regarding the impacts of climate change on Victoria Falls

Author

Listed:
  • Dube Kaitano

    (University of Technology, Department of Ecotourism Management Vaal, Andries Potigieter Blvd, Vanderbijlpark, 1911South Africa)

  • Nhamo Godwell

    (University of South Africa, EXXARO Chair in Business and Climate Change, Institute of Corporate Citizenship, Pretoria, Preller St, Muckleneuk, Pretoria, 0002South Africa)

Abstract

Tourist perceptions are critical in shaping tourism development at a destination. Regardless of the centrality and vulnerability of the tourism industry, tourism geographers have been shying away from perception studies, and more so in Africa. Some of the destinations most vulnerable to climate change and related weather activities are water-based natural resorts. Recent droughts have ignited an intense debate that has brought the future viability of tourism in Victoria Falls into question. Using a mixed-method approach, the study sought to document tourist perceptions and attitudes regarding the impact and future of the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site. It emerged that Victoria Falls is categorised as a last-chance tourism destination. Going forward there is need for continuous resort monitoring, tourism product diversification, and transparency and proper communication, particularly during years of extreme droughts, in order to avoid tourism disruption. Climate change action is a must for all tourism stakeholders to save the resort.

Suggested Citation

  • Dube Kaitano & Nhamo Godwell, 2020. "Tourist perceptions and attitudes regarding the impacts of climate change on Victoria Falls," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 47(47), pages 27-44, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:buogeo:v:47:y:2020:i:47:p:27-44:n:2
    DOI: 10.2478/bog-2020-0002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2020-0002
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/bog-2020-0002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Brulle & Jason Carmichael & J. Jenkins, 2012. "Shifting public opinion on climate change: an empirical assessment of factors influencing concern over climate change in the U.S., 2002–2010," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 169-188, September.
    2. Mattia Cai, 2016. "Greenhouse gas emissions from tourist activities in South Tyrol," Tourism Economics, , vol. 22(6), pages 1301-1314, December.
    3. Scott, Daniel & Hall, C. Michael & Gössling, Stefan, 2019. "Global tourism vulnerability to climate change," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 49-61.
    4. Kaitano Dube & Godwell Nhamo, 2019. "Climate change and potential impacts on tourism: evidence from the Zimbabwean side of the Victoria Falls," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 2025-2041, August.
    5. Xiang, Zheng & Du, Qianzhou & Ma, Yufeng & Fan, Weiguo, 2017. "A comparative analysis of major online review platforms: Implications for social media analytics in hospitality and tourism," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 51-65.
    6. Illum, Steven F. & Ivanov, Stanislav H. & Liang, Yating, 2010. "Using virtual communities in tourism research," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 335-340.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Natalia Porto & Matías Ciaschi, 2021. "Reformulating the tourism-extended environmental Kuznets curve: A quantile regression analysis under environmental legal conditions," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(5), pages 991-1014, August.
    2. Aysun Aygün Oğur & Tüzin Baycan, 2023. "Assessing climate change impacts on tourism demand in Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 2905-2935, March.
    3. Gupta, Kuhika & Nowlin, Matthew C. & Ripberger, Joseph T. & Jenkins-Smith, Hank C. & Silva, Carol L., 2019. "Tracking the nuclear ‘mood’ in the United States: Introducing a long term measure of public opinion about nuclear energy using aggregate survey data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    4. Poortinga, Wouter & Aoyagi, Midori & Pidgeon, Nick F., 2013. "Public perceptions of climate change and energy futures before and after the Fukushima accident: A comparison between Britain and Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1204-1211.
    5. Yucheng Zhang & Zhiling Wang & Lin Xiao & Lijun Wang & Pei Huang, 2023. "Discovering the evolution of online reviews: A bibliometric review," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 33(1), pages 1-22, December.
    6. Shelley Boulianne & Mireille Lalancette & David Ilkiw, 2020. "“School Strike 4 Climate”: Social Media and the International Youth Protest on Climate Change," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 208-218.
    7. Michael J. Motta, 2021. "Diffusion and Typology: The Invention and Early Adoption of Medicinal Marijuana and Offshore Wind Policies," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(1), pages 567-584, January.
    8. Paolo E. Giordani & Francesco Rullani, 2020. "The Digital Revolution and COVID-19," Working Papers 06, Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    9. Daniel Bulin & Georgică Gheorghe & Iulian-Petru Tenie, 2021. "EU Most Vulnerable Economies from the Tourism Sector Perspective: a Macroeconomic Approach," Global Economic Observer, "Nicolae Titulescu" University of Bucharest, Faculty of Economic Sciences;Institute for World Economy of the Romanian Academy, vol. 9(1), pages 48-54, June.
    10. Henrik Serup Christensen & Lauri Rapeli, 2021. "Immediate rewards or delayed gratification? A conjoint survey experiment of the public’s policy preferences," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(1), pages 63-94, March.
    11. Jeremiah Bohr, 2017. "Is it hot in here or is it just me? Temperature anomalies and political polarization over global warming in the American public," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 271-285, May.
    12. Carmela Iorio & Giuseppe Pandolfo & Antonio D’Ambrosio & Roberta Siciliano, 2020. "Mining big data in tourism," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 54(5), pages 1655-1669, December.
    13. Nicholas Apergis & Konstantinos Gavriilidis & Rangan Gupta, 2023. "Does climate policy uncertainty affect tourism demand? Evidence from time-varying causality tests," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(6), pages 1484-1498, September.
    14. Prieur, Fabien & Zou, Benteng, 2018. "Climate politics: How public persuasion affects the trade-off between environmental and economic performance," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 63-72.
    15. Alexandre Morin-Chassé & Erick Lachapelle, 2020. "Partisan strength and the politicization of global climate change: a re-examination of Schuldt, Roh, and Schwarz 2015," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 10(1), pages 31-40, March.
    16. Josef Zelenka & Tracy Azubuike & Martina Pásková, 2021. "Trust Model for Online Reviews of Tourism Services and Evaluation of Destinations," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-21, March.
    17. Sun, Ya-Yen & Cadarso, Maria Angeles & Driml, Sally, 2020. "Tourism carbon footprint inventories: A review of the environmentally extended input-output approach," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    18. Sunyoung Hlee & Hanna Lee & Chulmo Koo, 2018. "Hospitality and Tourism Online Review Research: A Systematic Analysis and Heuristic-Systematic Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-27, April.
    19. Latré, Edwin & Perko, Tanja & Thijssen, Peter, 2017. "Public opinion change after the Fukushima nuclear accident: The role of national context revisited," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 124-133.
    20. Bramoullé, Yann & Orset, Caroline, 2018. "Manufacturing doubt," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 119-133.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:buogeo:v:47:y:2020:i:47:p:27-44:n:2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.