IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v32y2011i6p1243-1252.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Visitors’ learning for environmental sustainability: Testing short- and long-term impacts of wildlife tourism experiences using structural equation modelling

Author

Listed:
  • Ballantyne, Roy
  • Packer, Jan
  • Falk, John

Abstract

Wildlife tourism experiences have the potential to positively impact tourists’ awareness, appreciation and actions in relation to the specific wildlife they encounter and the environment in general. This paper investigates the extent of such impact across multiple sites, and uses Structural Equation Modelling to identify factors that best predict positive long-term learning and environmental behaviour change outcomes. Three sets of variables were measured – visitors’ entering attributes (including pre-visit environmental orientation and motivation for the visit), salient aspects of the experience, and short- and long-term learning and environmental behaviour change outcomes. Although attributes such as pre-visit commitment and motivation to learn were among the best predictors of the long-term impact of the experience, there was evidence that aspects of the experience were also important. In particular, reflective engagement which involved cognitive and affective processing of the experience was found to be associated with short- and long-term environmental learning outcomes. The implications for wildlife tourism managers are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Ballantyne, Roy & Packer, Jan & Falk, John, 2011. "Visitors’ learning for environmental sustainability: Testing short- and long-term impacts of wildlife tourism experiences using structural equation modelling," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1243-1252.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:32:y:2011:i:6:p:1243-1252
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2010.11.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517710002372
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2010.11.003?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. Ballantyne, Roy & Packer, Jan & Sutherland, Lucy A., 2011. "Visitors’ memories of wildlife tourism: Implications for the design of powerful interpretive experiences," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 770-779.
    2. Clem Tisdell & Clevo Wilson, 2005. "Perceived Impacts of Ecotourism on Environmental Learning and Conservation: Turtle Watching as a Case Study," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 291-302, September.
    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. Kularatne, Thamarasi & Wilson, Clevo & Lee, Boon & Hoang, Viet-Ngu, 2021. "Tourists’ before and after experience valuations: A unique choice experiment with policy implications for the nature-based tourism industry," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 529-543.
    2. Ziegler, Jackie & Dearden, Philip & Rollins, Rick, 2012. "But are tourists satisfied? Importance-performance analysis of the whale shark tourism industry on Isla Holbox, Mexico," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 692-701.
    3. Wenxi (Bella) Bai & Ivan Ka Wai Lai & Jose Weng Chou Wong, 2023. "Memorable Tourism Experience Research: A Systematic Citation Review (2009–2021)," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    4. Agapito, Dora, 2020. "The senses in tourism design: A bibliometric review," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    5. Janet Loebach & Adina Cox, 2020. "Tool for Observing Play Outdoors (TOPO): A New Typology for Capturing Children’s Play Behaviors in Outdoor Environments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-34, August.
    6. Tisdell, Clement A., 2012. "Ecotourism Experiences Promoting Conservation and Changing Economic Values: The Case of Mon Repos Turtles," Economics, Ecology and Environment Working Papers 125209, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    7. Richards, Daniel R. & Warren, Philip H. & Moggridge, Helen L. & Maltby, Lorraine, 2015. "Spatial variation in the impact of dragonflies and debris on recreational ecosystem services in a floodplain wetland," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 113-121.
    8. Barnes, Stuart J. & Mattsson, Jan & Sørensen, Flemming, 2016. "Remembered experiences and revisit intentions: A longitudinal study of safari park visitors," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 286-294.
    9. Lee, Tsung Hung & Jan, Fen-Hauh & Yang, Chung-Cheng, 2013. "Conceptualizing and measuring environmentally responsible behaviors from the perspective of community-based tourists," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 454-468.
    10. George Pipinos & Persa Fokiali, 2009. "An assessment of the attitudes of the inhabitants of Northern Karpathos, Greece: towards a framework for ecotourism development in environmentally sensitive areas," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 655-675, June.
    11. Travesi, Celine, 2017. "The politics of knowledge as a tourist attraction," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 130-139.
    12. Teo Xin Yi Belicia & Md Saidul Islam, 2018. "Towards a Decommodified Wildlife Tourism: Why Market Environmentalism Is Not Enough for Conservation," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, July.
    13. Tisdell, Clem & Wilson, Clevo & Swarna Nantha, Hemanath, 2008. "Contingent valuation as a dynamic process," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1443-1458, August.
    14. Stanislava Pachrová & Petr Chalupa & Eva Janoušková & Alice Šedivá Neckáøová & Leoš Štefka, 2020. "Monitoring of Visitors as a Tool of Protected Areas Management," Academica Turistica - Tourism and Innovation Journal, University of Primorska Press, vol. 13(1), pages 67-79.
    15. Luo, Jun & Dey, Bidit L. & Yalkin, Cagri & Sivarajah, Uthayasankar & Punjaisri, Khanyapuss & Huang, Yu-an & Yen, Dorothy A., 2020. "Millennial Chinese consumers' perceived destination brand value," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 655-665.
    16. Clem Tisdell & Clevo Wilson, 2012. "Nature-based Tourism and Conservation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13773.
    17. Jonathan P. Reeves & Conor H. D. John & Kevin A. Wood & Phoebe R. Maund, 2021. "A Qualitative Analysis of UK Wetland Visitor Centres as a Health Resource," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-25, August.
    18. Xiaoping Gu & Carter A. Hunt & Xiang Jia & Lijun Niu, 2022. "Evaluating Nature-Based Tourism Destination Attractiveness with a Fuzzy-AHP Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-23, June.
    19. Igor Trišić & Snežana Štetić & Donatella Privitera & Marko D. Petrović & Marija Maksin & Slavoljub Vujović & Zoran Jovanović & Marija Kalinić, 2021. "Perspectives on Sustainable Tourism Development in the Hotel Industry—A Case Study from Southern Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, May.
    20. Bueddefeld, Jill & Duerden, Mat D., 2022. "The transformative tourism learning model," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    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:eee:touman:v:32:y:2011:i:6:p:1243-1252. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    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.