From ‘Sandals and Beards to Sophisticated Urbanites’: The Opportunities and Management Dilemmas of a Dynamic Wildlife Tourism Sector

Wildlife tourism has undoubtedly come of age. If you consider it as ‘an old hat niche product’, you may think again. The last five years has seen an incremental growth in the number of different types of commercial wildlife watching activities developed, the number of tourism businesses offering these activities worldwide and the number of tourists engaging in them either as the primary motivation for travel or as a day trip whilst on a standard rest and relaxation holiday. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the recent changes in the sector and suggest the contemporary management issues that industry and academia must research and address

Population Growth and Other Statistics of Middle-sized Irish Towns. General Research Series Paper No. 85, April 1976

The basic aim of the study is the presentation of tables of comparative statistical data relating to 97 towns with population 5OO-1O,OOO in 1971 and analyses of such data. The exclusion of the four County Boroughs and Dun Laoghaire together with twelve other large towns and all small towns and villages, was to impart a degree of homogeneity to the inquiry, as regards function of town. The 97 towns range from Mullingar, the largest with a population of 9,245 to Cootehill with 1,542

Fermi Liquids and the Luttinger Integral

The Luttinger Theorem, which relates the electron density to the volume of the Fermi surface in an itinerant electron system, is taken to be one of the essential features of a Fermi liquid. The microscopic derivation of this result depends on the vanishing of a certain integral, the Luttinger integral $I_{\rm L}$, which is also the basis of the Friedel sum rule for impurity models, relating the impurity occupation number to the scattering phase shift of the conduction electrons. It is known that non-zero values of $I_{\rm L}$ with $I_{\rm L}=\pm\pi/2$, occur in impurity models in phases with non-analytic low energy scattering, classified as singular Fermi liquids. Here we show the same values, $I_{\rm L}=\pm\pi/2$, occur in an impurity model in phases with regular low energy Fermi liquid behavior. Consequently the Luttinger integral can be taken to characterize these phases, and the quantum critical points separating them interpreted as topological.Comment: 5 pages 7 figure

Wildlife tourism: tourist expectations, experiences and management implications.

The literature demonstrates that wildlife tourism, which can incorporate anything from insects (dragonflies, butterflies, glow-worms), flowers, mammals and birds, has become a potentially lucrative activity which is attracting attention from tourists and destinations. There are both positive and negative impacts associated with wildlife tourism. It can contribute to the conservation of threatened habitats / species, provide economic benefit to local communities attract new types of tourists to remote and economically peripheral areas, and provide environmental education and psychological benefits to tourists. Less desired outcomes of wildlife tourism imply that as places and their wildlife become more popular, tourist numbers and infrastructure increases and so too do incidences of disturbance which directly impact upon the well-being and sustainability of the focal wildlife populations such as the disruption of daily behaviour including feeding, breeding, and resting. Whether the positives outweigh the benefits has yet to be tried or tested and may well depend upon how the resource and visitors are managed which in turn depends upon understanding the expectations, the behaviour and the experiential benefits sought by tourists. Given the spectrum of tourist-wildlife opportunities, it follows that wildlife tourists are by no means an homogenous market, there are significant variations in typologies, from the 'serious' to the 'casual' and from the 'specialist' to the 'generalist'. Therefore planning and management become more difficult as the behaviour and needs of each segment differ enormously. Up until now, the human dimensions of watching wildlife have been rather overlooked in the tourism literature; and particularly the experiential and psychological benefits of wildlife tourism have not been adequately explored or applied to the management and marketing of destinations. Using a sample of British tourists, the aim of this research was, therefore, to explore the culture of wildlife tourism in order to contribute a better understanding of what it means to enjoy wildlife experiences, the content of what exactly is enjoyed, the process through which people attend to and perceive wildlife and the emotional responses it provokes. Inherent in this thesis is the discussion of the human dimensions of wildlife, namely how wildlife tourists perceive the natural world, whether they have eco, anthropocentric or anthropomorphic views of the animal kingdom, and whether the application of biophilia, our supposed inherent desire to connect with other, non-human, living things, can be applied to wildlife tourism. In addition the author explored the field skills involved in wildlife watching with regards to identification and photography, what constitutes a memorable experience, and finally the expectations and benefits of travelling on an organised wildlife holiday. In order to satisfy this aim, an ethnographic approach to data generation was employed in two distinct stages. First in-depth interviews were carried out with British tour operators to investigate the business of wildlife tour operating, to discover who the main operators are, the types of products that they offer, the profile of the clients that they attract as well as the management and delivery of their tours. This showed that the wildlife tourism market can be divided into different typologies, for example, birders, `listers' and general naturalists. Secondly, the author joined two tour groups within the general naturalist market, one birdwatching tour to Andalucia to watch the Autumn migration and one whale and bird-watching tour on the Sea of Cortez, Baja California. Whilst on tour, field journals were kept to record the days' events, participants emotional responses to wildlife, and her own observations of tour leading. These journals were coupled with in-depth interviews of tour participants whilst on tour and later in-depth interviews with people who regularly take dedicated wildlife holidays. This ethnographic study of these dedicated general naturalists reveals a number of important themes which may be of use for future studies such as: how interest in wildlife began, how wildlife watching is part of everyday life not just a holiday activity, the fascination with how wildlife adapts to human / urban environments and the relationship with regular wildlife visitors in their garden. In addition it highlights how wildlife tourism is used as a symbol of self presentation, how it is important to develop skills such as identification of species and photography, and how spontaneity, close proximity to wildlife, high numbers and first sightings all make for memorable experiences. There are a number of profound and psychological benefits which the nature of this study allowed to come to the fore, and that was the wonderment and sense of awe at the beauty and diversity of the natural world, of really feeling alive and in 'flow' when watching wildlife and how being in 'flow' distorts time. Linked to this is the spiritual fulfilment and sustenance provided by nature. The physical attributes of the wildlife holiday highlight the important role of the tour leader, their knowledge of species and of where to see them as well as the demonstration of responsible wildlife watching behaviour. Participants voiced their desire for relaxation, for meeting like-minded people and for sharing experiences with others. Finally participants appeared to be aware of potential negative impacts and liked to see responsible tour operating. The thesis ends by discussing the practical implications of these findings for industry and for wider society, and concludes by suggesting areas for future research. "An honest experience of nature would find that the natural world is an arena of endurance, tragedy and sacrifice as much as joy and uplift. It is about the struggle against the weather, the perils of migration, the ceaseless vigilance against predators, the loss of whole families and the brevity of existence. The natural world is like a theatre, a stage beyond our own, in which the dramas that are an irreducible part of being alive are played out without hatred or envy or hypocrisy. No wonder they tell us so much about ourselves and our own frailties" (Mabey 2006: 13).

Examining Mental Health and Well-being Provision in Schools in Europe: Methodological Approach

Schools are considered an ideal setting for community-based mental health and well-being interventions for young people. However, in spite of extensive literature examining the effectiveness of such interventions, very few studies have investigated existing mental health and well-being provision in schools. The current study aims to extend such previous research by surveying primary and secondary schools to investigate the nature of available provision in nine European countries (Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, the UK and Ukraine). Furthermore, the study aims to investigate potential barriers to mental health and well-being provision and compare provision within and between countries

A Flavor Protection for Warped Higgsless Models

We examine various possibilities for realistic 5D higgsless models and construct a full quark sector featuring next-to-minimal flavor violation (with an exact bulk SU(2) protecting the first two generations) satisfying electroweak and flavor constraints. The "new custodially protected representation" is used for the third generation to protect the light quarks from flavor violations induced due to the heavy top. A combination of flavor symmetries, and RS-GIM for the right-handed quarks suppresses flavor-changing neutral currents below experimental bounds, assuming CKM-type mixing on the UV brane. In addition to the usual higgsless RS signals, this model predicts an exotic charge-5/3 quark with mass of about 0.5 TeV which should show up at the LHC very quickly, as well as nonzero flavor-changing neutral currents which could be detected in the next generation of flavor experiments. In the course of our analysis, we also find quantitative estimates for the errors of the fermion zero mode approximation, which are significant for higgsless-type models.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures. v2: References added, typos fixed, corrected C4 bounds (now less severe), slightly extended discussion of result