published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Some of Australia’s most pressing conservation problems are found in the arid and semi-arid rangelands where the traditional major land-use is extensive pastoralism. Yet with the emergence of a change in resource values, the rangelands of Australia have started to move away from a strict production land-use towards a multifunctional land-use where pastoralism, tourism and the environment have an influence on one another. With the present mixture of consumption and protection values in the rangelands, ecotourism represents a model for achieving a symbiotic relationship between tourism activity and conservation in a pastoral setting. This study develops a theoretical framework for understanding the relationships between ecotourism, pastoralism and ecological recovery efforts in the Flinders Ranges through employing mixed qualitative and quantitative research techniques to examine the perceptions and practices of tourism operators, local landholders and visitors to the study site. The study finds that while pastoralism and its level of success often remain variable, the strength and stability of tourism is increasing. Because economics is a central component of the concept of sustainability, and because we must manage the environment while accommodating tourists, ecotourism is one way to help reach rangeland sustainability goals, provided that there are adequate levels of agreement amongst the local community and other land users. The results indicate that the vast majority of stakeholders are currently in a state of co-existence with each other rather than one of conflict, suggesting ecotourism has the potential to assist ecological recovery. However, many landholders are constrained in their ability to integrate ecotourism operations and conservation due to economic difficulties and market barriers. There are also conflicting results among visitors who claim to be interested in ecotourism but do not necessarily act accordingly, highlighting the need for a greater focus on environmental education. Ecotourism should be incorporated into a regional sustainability plan where the public are able to assist decision makers through collaborative planning. The thesis concludes that when well-managed, ecotourism can be a business supporting conservation in the Flinders Ranges. It contributes to knowledge of the role that ecotourism can play in encouraging ecological recovery in the rangelands and explores the complex interrelationships involved through consultation with the primary stakeholders of landholders, tourism operators and visitors. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1346333 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2008

Increasingly, third-world countries are relying on ecotourism to boost their economies. Similar to other forms of tourism, ecotourism as a business initiative is perceived to contribute positively to economic development. However, tourism service providers generally do not deliver satisfactory services to ecotourists due to misunderstanding the segment’s needs and the customer traits. In emerging countries such as South Africa, which has a conducive economic environment for tourism businesses, some provincial departments such as the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism has set objectives to make the Limpopo province a preferred ecotourism destination. These have been propagated by service providers who passively participate in ecotourism yet claim to be ecotourism service providers. Moreover, the attitude of passiveness by service providers is derived from insufficient knowledge of the ecotourist. This set the foundation for the current study, which sought to provide detailed profiles of ecotourists in the Capricorn District Municipality in order to gain a clear understanding of the ecotourists visiting the Limpopo province. The study reviewed theoretical and empirical works conducted by tourism scholars. The study was developed on a descriptive research design and employed a quantitative approach. It made use of self-administered questionnaires with a sample of 295 participants selected from tourism establishments and attractions in the region, utilising convenience and purposive sampling methods respectively. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 24 and Microsoft Office Excel was used to analyse the data. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, cluster analysis and Chi-square tests were conducted to analyse the data of the study. The findings revealed demographic, psychographic and behavioural descriptors associated with the ecotourists in the Capricorn District Municipality. In addition, information sources preferred by ecotourists in the Capricorn District Municipality were identified. It is envisaged that the findings of the study will be of value to ecotourism service providers as they will provide a sound understanding of ecotourists and thereby help to deliver satisfactory ecotourist experiences. This will ultimately provide valuable input for the planning of the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism in promoting the Limpopo province as a preferred ecotourism destination in South Africa.

My thesis focuses on the problems of ecotourism, or more precisely its borders from an anthropological perspective, using example of a typical Cambodian community named Chambok. Based on five months of research, together with ethnographic methods of research I found out that boundaries of ecotourism are complex, multi-layered, problematic and negotiated and also that there are so called "grey zones" encompassing them. It is the conceptualization of these zones and boundaries, which is my contribution to current anthropological debate about ecotourism, which has been largely left out until now.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Timothy D. Keane / The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), the world’s first ecotourism organization, coined what has become the most succinct definition of ecotourism: “Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the wellbeing of local people (Honey 2008, p. 6).” Ecolodges are accommodation facilities within ecotourism destinations which must satisfy specific principles, while reflecting the definition of ecotourism. Ecolodge principles include water conservation, preservation of flora and fauna, design to create a small footprint, and interpretive programs to educate both employees and tourists about the surrounding natural and cultural environments, to name just a few. (Mehta 2002, p. 5) Tropical locations, where ecolodges are often found, are comprised of unique ecosystems. With tropical locales, there are specific considerations that could determine the success of a proposed ecolodge development. As a designer, one must understand the biophysical characteristics on site, to inform design decisions of the ecolodge development. In addition, a designer must understand how the indigenous populations utilize the site culturally, physically and spiritually to fully understand the importance of the ecolodge development. (Mehta 2002, p. 12) When proper analysis of cultural and biophysical factors is completed, an ecolodge development is able to conform to the ecotourism definition and satisfy ecolodge principles. Within this manual, a hierarchical list of design principles, guidelines and criteria are communicated to achieve an overall design goal called fitness design. A “fit” design is intended to achieve sustainability and quality of life for the environment and the communities that have daily interaction with the development. As readers navigate through the document, they will be exposed to various considerations of a tropical ecolodge development. The intent of the manual is to provide a structural framework to guide an ecolodge design process.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / This research investigates the volunteer tourism industry in Namibia, a niche market of the tourism industry. The tourism industry is the fastest growing sector in the economy (Travel News Namibia, 2012: 9), and it is also the second largest contributor to GDP (Ministry of Environment and Tourism Annual Report, 2010: 14). Although the volunteer tourism industry has been active for more than 20 years, it is currently having trouble with its status as a recognised sector of the tourism industry. Industry members mostly fear that investments to grow the industry are at risk due to uncertain entry visa requirements for international volunteers. There is also a concern that the industry is not regulated like other sectors of the tourism industry and that volunteer tourism is not recognised with equal status. Industry members feel ignored when it comes to national marketing campaigns and when representative bodies act in their interest. Industry members also expressed concern being left out when it comes to drafting new laws that affect the industry. To understand the industry, it is vital to analyse the industry from an internal and external perspective. This includes an analysis of the current status of the strategic architecture of the industry and an environmental analysis. The report also presents innovations to a typical strategic architecture model. Information and data for this research report was gathered from tourism industry stakeholders and experts, managers of five of the biggest industry players, and international volunteers. The findings of the investigation reveal that the business model of the industry is working well. Initiatives for continuous improvement, however, remain small due to uncertainties experienced in the macro-environment. The competitive environment of the industry is conducive to performance, as well as price and costing models. Demand for volunteering in Namibia is on the increase and the industry has realised that it needs to prepare itself to capture its full potential. The establishment of the Namibia VolunTourism Forum, which is represented through important stakeholders of the industry, is a first step to find solutions to the many challenges. This report serves as a working paper for the tourism industry and in particular for the volunteer tourism industry with the aim to increase stakeholder value.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Despite the dramatic increase in ecotourism as a sustainable development strategy over the last two decades (Honey 2008; Yunis 2000), theoretical models to interpret and evaluate ecotourism—as well as the broader field of tourism—are lacking (Farrell and Twining-Ward 2003; Weaver and Lawton 2007). Farrell and Twining-Ward (2003) call for a reconceptualization of tourism study that incorporates social-ecological systems (SES) theory. This dissertation responds by assessing ecotourism as an SES in a dryland setting, addressing the question: "What key characteristics of ecotourism increase social-ecological resilience?" The study site is Santa Rosa National Park and surrounding communities in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Higham and Lück (2008) cite sustainability as the "ultimate goal of ecotourism" (Higham and Lück 2008, p 124); however sustainability itself proves to be a difficult concept to measure and evaluate (Cater and Lowman 1994; Dernbach 2002; Weaver 2001a). SES theory recognizes sustainability as a process rather than an end goal and identifies resilience as a key attribute (Berkes, Colding, and Folke 2003). With ecotourism as an economic strategy of nearly every developing country since the early 1990s and an increasing economic strategy in rural areas worldwide (Valaoras, Pistolas, and Sotiropoulou 2002; Honey 2008), this study investigates ecotourism through the lens of social-ecological resilience for increased sustainability. Based on a 12-month survey conducted in Santa Rosa National Park and the surrounding area, this study identifies characteristics of ecotourism that can cause different levels of resilience using indicators of increasing biodiversity, economic diversity and social capital. These relationships are represented by linked and continually changing social and ecological systems, diagramed by Holling‘s adaptive renewal cycle (Berkes, Colding, and Folke 2003; Gunderson and Holling 2002). Three research papers are included as part of this dissertation: 1) Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Parque Nacional Santa Rosa Ecotourism Study: Final Survey Results, Analysis and Recommendations; 2) Ecotourism‘s Contribution to Social-ecological Resilience: A Case Study Analysis of Rural, Dryland Ecotourism in Guanacaste, Costa Rica; and 3) Barrier-free Ecotourism? The Costa Rican Approach. Findings of this study include recommendations for ecotourism programs to increase social-ecological resilience and contribute to the sustainability of linked SESs.

The purpose of this study is to examine if the experience of whale watching can lead to increased knowledge of environmental problems. We also want to find out whether increased knowledge in turn could lead to changing environmental attitudes and behaviors. The theoretical framework consists of theories about sustainable tourism, ecotourism and responsible environmental behavior. The paper also has a section where previous research on ecotourism impacts on behavior and attitudes is discussed and subsequently addressed in the analysis section. Data has been collected through a case study where seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals who participated in whale watching. The results show that all respondents had greater knowledge of whales by their experiences, the degree of knowledge was due to respondents' prior knowledge. The respondents did not consider their attitude towards environmental issues has changed considerably by the experience or that it affected their environmental behavior. A number of conclusions were drawn from analysis of empirical data using the selected theories. It seems that it is easier to give people knowledge than to influence them to change their attitudes and it is particularly difficult to say whether the experience of a single ecotourism experience may impact deeply ingrained attitudes and behaviors. Overall, the results suggest that ecotourism experiences to some extent leads to the strengthening of participants' environmental awareness and thus increase their interest in participating in further ecotourism experiences. Through these circular effects, an increased environmental knowledge provided by ecotourism experiences in the longer term can help to develop more responsible environmental attitudes and behavior of individuals. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om upplevelsen av valskådning kan leda till ökad kunskap om miljöproblem. Vi vill också ta reda på om ökad kunskap i sin tur kan leda till förändrade miljömässiga attityder och beteenden. Uppsatsens teoretiska ramverk utgörs av teorier kring hållbar turism, ekoturism och ansvarsfullt miljömässigt beteende. Uppsatsen har även ett avsnitt där tidigare forskning kring ekoturismens inverkan på beteende och attityder diskuteras för att därefter behandlas i analysdelen. Uppsatsens empiri har samlats in genom en kvalitativ studie där sju semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med individer som deltagit i valskådning. Resultaten visar att samtliga respondenter fick ökad kunskap om valar av sina upplevelser, hur hög grad av kunskap berodde dock på respondenternas förkunskap. Respondenterna ansåg inte att deras attityder gentemot miljöfrågor förändrats avsevärt av upplevelsen eller att det påverkat deras miljömässiga beteende. Ett antal slutsatser har dragits utifrån analys av empiri med hjälp av valda teorier. Det verkar som att det är lättare att ge människor kunskap än att påverka dem att ändra sina attityder och det är särskilt svårt att säga om erfarenhet av en enda ekoturistisk upplevelse kan ha effekt på djupt inrotade attityder och beteenden. Sammantaget tyder resultaten på att ekoturistiska erfarenheter till viss del leder till att förstärka deltagarnas miljömedvetenhet och därmed också öka deras intresse för att delta i ytterligare ekoturistiska upplevelser. Genom dessa cirkulära effekter kan ökad miljökunskap som tillhandahålls genom ekoturistiska upplevelser i ett längre perspektiv bidra till att utveckla mer ansvarsfulla miljömässiga attityder och beteenden hos individer.