As Russian territorial acquisitions in central Asia posed an ever-increasing threat to India and British strategies to meet this threat vacillated, it was the activities of a small number of adventurers which upheld British interests beyond the frontier and provided intelligence to the authorities. This thesis uniquely considers the Great Game with exploration and travel at its core in order to reveal the significance of such activity in the formation of policy and strategy. It also uncovers the intricate bureaucratic procedures which governed adventurous expeditions and identifies the conceptual frameworks which underpinned these mechanisms. It adds a new perspective to the hi storiography of the Great Game and contributes to the growing interest in the study of travel both in the context of empire and of international relations. A collective consciousness existed in Victorian Britain that exploration and adventurous travel were noble pursuits. This was sustained in the public psyche through the Press and in popular culture. Among the privileged classes, this ethos was nurtured through the public schools and upheld by the elite universities, scienti fic bodies such as the Royal Geographical Society, gentlemen's clubs and in public service both at home and abroad. Across the British Empire, most notably in Africa, exploration was a key constituent of British imperial expansion: in Eastern (or Chinese) Turkestan it provided information useful to the security of existing imperial possessions. All Travel to the region, whether motivated by intelligence gathering, commerce, science or sport, inevitably entailed political implications due to the region's sensitivity. Study of official and private correspondence, learned articles and popular accounts reveals that travel to central Asia was governed by a complex network of government departments, their agencies overseas and by organisations on the fringes of government with commercial or scientific interests. Conflicting interests between these bodies and the individuals who staffed them ensured that procedures for sanctioning travel to the region were seldom straightforward and that opinions concerning its value varied greatly.

Surfing is an increasing component of the adventure tourism sector. Growth in surfing as a lifestyle, sporting activity and industry has generated a surge of exploration and intrusion by surfing tourism into remote and vulnerable destinations worldwide in the "search" for uncrowded waves at uncharted locations. Consequendy, there have been concerns at the impacts of surfing tourism on coastal, island and marine areas, often characterised by fragile environments and host communities, compounded the lack of management in isolated regions, and of the surfing tourism industry. The aim of this study was to examine surfing tourism in remote and sensitive destinations and evaluate its consequences and sustainability in relation to socio-cultural, economic and environmental parameters, and thereby, derive planning and management requirements for remote surfing destinations and the surfing tourism industry. A hybrid, multidisciplinary approach was employed based on twelve exploratory interviews, and empirical case study of three distinct remote surfing destinations: (a) Gnaraloo (Australia) - representative of unmanaged surfing tourism in a relatively pristine area; (b) Lagundi (Indonesia) which experienced rapid uncontrolled development resulting in significant environmental, socio-cultural and economic impacts; and (c) Tavarua Island (Fiji) - generally regarded as a leading example of sustainable surfing tourism. Difficulties in managing surfing tourism in remote areas include the mobility of surf tourists and the isolated and vast distribution of destinations. Impacts can be reduced with appropriate management but an educational approach and a level of self-management by surf tourists and surf tour operators is required. With planning and management, community involvement in decision-making and the use of recreational cairying capacity as a management control for tourist numbers, surfing tourism can provide economic and soaal opportumties -without compromising sustainabihty objectives.

Since the 1980s, ecotourism has attracted an enormous amount of investment and policy attention, because ecotourism potentially delivers both the conservation of wild nature and the sustainable development of local societies, particularly in rural regions of developing countries where wilderness is usually abundant but where investment is lacking and governance weak. For ecotourism to fulfil this promise, we need to understand where, how and why it works, a task made difficult by an activity that combines environmental, social and economic systems. This study is centred on the ecotourism destination area ofTambopata, Peru - arguably the principal ecotourism destination in the Amazon. Chapter 1 measures the magnitude and distribution of economic benefits generated from tourism and shows how the profit motive of lodge operators can translate into a diverse array of successful forest conservation strategies, as long as an appropriate governance structure is put in place. Chapter 2 presents a social cost- benefit analysis of ecotourism land use, finding that the net present value of ecotourism- controlled land from a producer surplus perspective is higher than all currently practiced alternatives, including unsustainable logging, ranching, and agriculture and that the amount of carbon sequestration on ecotourism lands is high. Chapter 3 tests whether vertebrate communities are directly reduced around tourist-used forest trails. Direct, negative environmental impacts can, in theory, incentivize lodge owners to reduce investment in conservation activities. No such impact is detected; instead, variation in historical hunting pressure explains variation in wildlife among lodges. In conclusion, I find that ecotourism in Tambopata is profitable, that profits finance conservation actions, that ecotourism land is more valuable from a private and social perspective than are alternative uses, and that intensive use of forest trails does not result in perverse damage to the animal communities that are one of the region's major tourist attractions.

This thesis uses qualitative methodology to explore the role of identity shaping travel behaviour at an individual level, with a particular interest in the role of environmental values given their significance within environmental behaviour change policy. Awareness raising and ‘smarter choices’ are increasingly being considered as positive ways to reduce individual reliance on motorised transport through promoting value change and information about transport options. However, there is now widespread acknowledgement that environmental values are not a sufficient motive for pro-environmental behaviour – the so called ‘value action gap’. Research around the value action gap has increasingly moved towards a marketing approach of segmenting the population into a series of groups with defined characteristics who are assumed to behave in similar ways. This research applies a social psychological perspective based on Harré’s (2001) ‘standard model’ of identity to answer the question: ‘what is the role of identity in shaping travel behaviour?’ The relationships between aspects of identity are explored through three themes drawn from the research: environmental values; the significance of place; and relationships with other people. In order to promote a participant-directed approach, photo elicitation methods were used with twelve participants, which then established the basis for subsequent in-depth interviews with each participant. The research establishes that identity forms an overarching framework within which decisions around travel behaviour takes place. This framework of identity includes attitudes, values, experiences, skills, and relationships with other people. Pro-environmental travel behaviour can be encouraged by influencing the identity framework, for example by promoting the development of cycling skills in children, and giving young people a store of experiences of using public transport to draw from later in life.

This thesis considers how to improve levels of understanding of different stakeholders' perspectives and their involvement in sustainable tourism development. Jeju Island has been relying on tourism to support the economy and has consequently emerged as the most developed tourist destination in Korea, launched as a result of growth-oriented regional policies of the central and local government over the last thirty years. For sustainable tourism to be successful, it requires the stakeholders' support in the community to develop tourism in a sustainable manner. Therefore, this study focuses on building knowledge about stakeholder perceptions of government led tourism development by investigating stakeholder groups. Also, for this research aim, a qualitative approach was applied, interviews are used to take information for a specific purpose, and this research used semi-structured interviews to obtain relevant information from 42 key informants. For analysis of the qualitative data from the key informants, this study employed Grounded Theory (GT) as a tool for data analysis and interpretation. This research is offers a critical evaluation towards the perceptions and impacts of tourism development and involvement, and investigates their relative influence within the collaboration process. To achieve the collaboration between various stakeholders in supporting the goals and objectives of tourism development, the study presents that the local government should involve local residents more actively in the decision making processes of the tourism development. The study confirms the importance of trust as a key variable in a social exchange relationship between residents' of a host community and government actors and all stakeholders need to be educated and trained to make sustainable tourism development more feasible.

Le paysage des quartiers de style occidental en Chine a été bouleversé durant les deux dernières décennies par deux dynamiques majeures, la patrimonialisation et la touristification, particulièrement dans la ville de Tianjin, où celles‑ci se traduisent par un processus de thématisation spatiale. A partir de ce constat, cette thèse se penche sur le rôle du patrimoine de style occidental dans le tourisme urbain en postulant que les dynamiques du patrimoine et du tourisme se croisent pour produire un espace original thématique dans une ville contemporaine chinoise. En s’appuyant sur le cas de l’ancienne concession italienne à Tianjin, ce travail propose une triple lecture de cet espace. Le premier axe cherche à contextualiser ces questionnements de patrimoine de style occidental en Chine en construisant un cadre théorique et méthodologique. La deuxième lecture analyse les conditions de production de l’espace à thème italien, en montrant que, tant sur le plan matériel que sur le plan symbolique, la mise en tourisme et la thématisation du quartier italien est fondée sur la présence du cadre patrimonial. Enfin, la troisième lecture s’attache à comprendre les modalités de consommation développées dans cet espace en mettant l’accent sur les ressorts des pratiques et le plan expérientiel des visiteurs. Ainsi, cette thèse appuie l’analyse sur la réinterprétation des territoires (semi‑) colonisés par/pour des pratiques touristiques, et les fondements socioculturels de celles‑ci, afin de mieux comprendre la validité des théories occidentales dans le contexte chinois et l’idéologie contemporaine de la société chinoise envers cette tendance. / The landscape of western‑style neighbourhoods in China has been shaken over the last two decades by two major dynamics, heritagization and touristification, especially in the city of Tianjin, where they are translated into a process of spatial theming. Based on this observation, this thesis examines the role of Western‑style heritage in the urban tourism implementation, considering that the dynamics of heritage and tourism intersect to produce an original themed space in a contemporary Chinese city. Taking the former Italian concession in Tianjin as case study, this work offers a triple reading of this space. The first is to contextualise these questions of Western‑style heritage in China and to construct a theoretical and methodological framework. The second reading level analyses the production conditions of the Italian themed space, showing that both on a material and a symbolic level, the touristification and the theming of the Italian area is based on the presence of its heritage backdrop. The third reading focuses on understanding the consumer patterns developed in this area, focusing on the practices and experiences of visitors. Thus, this thesis focuses on the reinterpretation of (semi‑)colonised territories by/for tourism activities and their sociocultural foundations with the aim to better understand the validity of Western theories in a Chinese context, and contemporary ideology of Chinese society regarding to this trend.