The concept of geopark was first proposed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1999. After that, geotourism emerged as a novel strategy for sustainable development in rural areas. Tourism carrying capacity is a concept related to the optimum use of natural areas without creating environmental degradation. This concept has been widely employed in nature tourism in national parks. To apply the carrying capacity concept in global geoparks, the purpose of this study is to remodel existing tourism carrying capacity frameworks to foster sustainable use of global geoparks. A review of the development of carrying capacity concept and six tourism carrying capacity frameworks, namely, Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS), Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC), Visitor Impact Management (VIM), Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP), Visitor Activity Management Process (VAMP), and Tourism Optimization Management Model (TOMM) in Chapter 2 demonstrates that tourism carrying capacity concept is able to raise the awareness on sustainable tourism in national parks but these traditional tourism carrying capacity frameworks commonly failed to address the interests of all stakeholders. Thus, this thesis adopts the definition of tourism carrying capacity for geoparks as the situation or condition of a geopark where there is reconciliation (i.e., having balance and harmony) of environmental conservation, social maintenance, and economic development. Based on the three aspects (i.e., environmental conservation, social maintenance, and economic development) of this concept, a tailor-made framework for global geoparks was built in Chapter 3, using confirmatory factor analysis and the revised importance-performance analysis to evaluate tourism carrying capacity in Global Geoparks. Then the modified tourism carrying capacity framework was applied in two UNESCO Global Geoparks, namely, Hong Kong Global Geopark and Danxiashan Global Geopark, to address the inherent tensions between resources conservation and sustainable development in both Geoparks in Chapters 4 and 5. It was found that 1) there was compatibility only among the three dimensions, namely, environmental conservation, social maintenance, and economic development in two Geoparks; 2) the structure of the framework and the compatibility of the three dimensions can only be confirmed in the local community model (Figure 3.3) by the importance data of factors, i.e., resource, human environment, and facility. No validity can be established in the construct of the GGN model on the local community's satisfaction of the overall environments in two Parks and neither is there an agreement between the visitors in both Parks with the GGN criteria; and 3) from the satisfaction data on the three factors of the visitor model (Figure 3.4), i.e., environmental carrying capacity, political-economic carrying capacity, and socio-demographic carrying capacity, it shows that HKGP appears to be more sustainably managed than DXSGP. Collectively, this study has provided a new framework for evaluating tourism carrying capacity in a geopark. I hope to advance the methodological innovation of sustainable geotourism management and supplement the lacuna of criteria and standards for Global Geoparks in future studies.

The purpose of this research is the design of a green infrastructure that allows a regional conservation area to revalue the Ventanilla wetlands to promote ecotourism through spaces for the conservation of natural resources, turning it into a tourist attraction. The proposal considers design and construction criteria with adequate technology, biodegradable, and sustainable materials where environmental impact is minimized in this context. The collection of information through field visits and the use of different software for the topographic survey. Results show that the infrastructure design proposed was validated by a survey of potential users of the place, with 75% of the interviewees agreeing with the design proposal that allows interaction and harmony with nature, giving it a landscape value, generating local, national, and international visitors. The value is in the ecosystem services that the landscape provides to the city due to the design and construction criteria with adequate technology, biodegradable, and sustainable materials minimizing the environmental impact and promoting the cultural exchange, preservation, and ecological awareness wetland. / Revisión por pares

The concept of service quality is gaining global importance in hospitality/tourism industry, and ecotourism is regarded as one of its fastest growing segment. The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between ecotourist's environmental attitude, environmental behavior, travel motivation, value dimension, and their service quality expectations. A conceptual model was developed to study these relationships. The service quality expectations of the ecotourists were measured by ECOSERV - an adapted version of SERVQUAL scale. The results of the study suggest a significant relationship between service quality expectations of the ecotourists and their environmental and travel behavior. Pearson's correlation analysis revealed the direction of the relationship which supports the notion that those with positive attitude and behavior toward the environment most likely prefer services that are environmentally friendly. Also, it was evident that when reasons to travel are intercultural and social, services with local cultural influence were most likely to be expected from an ecotourist business. Canonical correlation analysis revealed three significant variate pairs (functions). The interpretation of the first pair indicated that ecotourists who perceive the ecotourist business to help/benefit the community and who have an ecocentric attitude toward the environment, tend to expect more of those services that are courteous, informative, trustworthy, in addition to environmentally friendly facilities/equipment. The second pair revealed that when the attitude and behavior toward the environment is not positive, and reasons to travel are not intercultural, services are expected to be performed on promised time, with prompt personal and individual attention. The third pair suggested that when there is no interest in intercultural social interactions but there is an ecocentric attitude toward the environment, the service preference tend to be for facilities that are safe/appropriate to the environment, and equipment that minimize environmental degradation. Also, it was evident that service quality expectations of the ecotourists are somewhat influenced by their attitude toward the environment, their behavior patterns, reasons to travel, and emphasis on value. The study contributed to the theoretical and methodological advancement of service quality and ecotourism literature by developing ECOSERV, a scale to measure the service quality expectations of the ecotourists. It provided practical and marketing implications for the ecotourist industry which can be useful to the ecotourist marketers, tour operators and destination promoters, to target specific markets, design products and services, plan communication strategies, and promote tourism that is sustainable. / Ph. D.

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ABSTRACT THE IMPACTS OF TOURISM AND DEVELOPMENT IN NICARAGUA A GRASSROOTS APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SEPTEMBER 2007 JENNIFER ATWOOD BURNEY, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS DARTMOUTH M.R.P., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Ellen Pader This study examines the impacts of tourism and development in Nicaragua and how lessons learned from a case study review of tourism and development in Mexico and a Certificate for Sustainable Tourism in Costa Rica, as well as two ecotourism and sustainable development establishments in Nicaragua can be applied to Nicaragua policy. Nicaragua’s political history, land use and policy and the tourism industry are reviewed to determine how sustainable development could be guided by the adoption and implementation of a program based on Costa Rica’s certificate program.

Polar bears spend the majority of their lives on the sea ice, where they gain access to seals and mates. In western Hudson Bay, the sea ice melts for three to four months in the summer, and polar bears there are forced onto land. These bears live on their fat reserves for the duration of the iceless period, until temperatures get colder in the fall and freeze up begins. The aggregation of polar bears near Churchill, Manitoba during the ice free period has led to a thriving tourist industry, with a large influx of tourists visiting Churchill in the fall in a six to eight week period, yet little is known about the impacts of this industry on the biology of the bears. This study investigated the effect of tourist vehicles and human presence on the behavior of polar bears over the fall of 2003 and 2004. Overall time budgets were estimated for bears, and the behavior of males and females was compared. Females spent significantly less time lying and more time in locomotion than males. Time budgets were also estimated for bears in the presence and absence of tourist vehicles. Bears spent less time lying and more time in a sit/stand position in the presence of vehicles. Air temperature had no significant effect on the time budgets of polar bears. Tundra vehicle approaches were manipulated to determine effects on polar bear behavior, and to investigate any variables that significantly affected response, including habituation. A response was defined as any sudden whole body movement or change in position or behavior at the time of approach. A total of 25% of all bears responded to the experimental vehicle approach. For bears that responded to approach, the average distance at response was 43 m. The average speed of the vehicle was 0.66 ± 0.02 m/s (range 0.23 to 1.15 m/s). Approach variables that significantly influenced the likelihood of response of a bear to an approaching vehicle included angle of approach and vehicle speed. Direct approaches, in which the bear was in the path of the moving vehicle, had a higher probability of eliciting a response than indirect approaches, in which the vehicle stayed to one side of the bear at all times. Higher speeds of the vehicle increased the probability of a response by a bear. Behaviors of the bear that significantly predicted a response were shifting of the body and smacking of the lips. A playback study was conducted to determine the effects of human induced sound on polar bears. There was no significant effect of human sound on polar bears. Results presented here provide the first experimental evidence of variables in the tourist industry that affect polar bear behavior, and the first evidence of behavioral cues predicting a response to vehicle approach.

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