“The end of the ice age?”: Disappearing world heritage and the climate change communication imperative

Rapid environmental change in vulnerable destinations has stimulated a new form of travel termed “last chance tourism” (LCT). Studies have examined the risks of LCT, while leaving potential opportunities within this new tourism market largely underexplored. Results of survey (n = 399) research in Jasper National Park, Canada reveal that a LCT motivation influences decisions to visit this iconic Canadian destination, and suggest that this motivation is linked to a desire to learn about the impacts of climate change on the Athabasca Glacier. Findings suggest there may be short to medium term opportunities associated with LCT, including promoting climate change ambassadorship through management interventions. This paper discusses a range of possible education, interpretive, and outreach activities that might be employed at LCT destinations. It outlines the relative merits (or what we refer to as “uneasy benefits”) of promoting the glacier and other LCT destinations within a protected areas management and climate change adaptation context.This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 430-2012-0441]

Environmental Sensibility and Human Values as Factors for Forming European Ecotourist Market Segments

This study examines the relationship between environmental attitudes and human value sets in forming an eco-tourist market segment within the European region. Different studies indicated that environmental attitudes reflected in general motivations were closely and positively related. Some findings showed that the examination of environmental attitudes that concern psychological factors (motivation) could be more powerful and meaningful than socio-demographic characteristics. The purpose of this study is to examine if human values that indicate basic motivational aspects, when inter-related with high environmental sensibility shared by different people from Europe, could be used for the creation of a specific market segmentation model. The findings identified three main factors that determine tourist values, while at the same time, the multiple discriminant analysis indicated the existence of several clusters, allowing for an identification of ‘eco-friendly’ tourist segments. By using data collections from the European Social Survey, the model also allowed comparability between surveyed countries by crosschecking multiple psycho-sociological and demographic factors, focusing on the environmentally sensitive groups, the so-called ‘eco-careful’ (hard) and ‘eco-sensible’ (soft) tourists. Furthermore, the study looked at potential demand markets that are interested in preserved nature, recreation, and adventure tours. The study confirmed that basic human values play an important role in explaining motivation aspects in tourism-related choices

Avitourism Tribes: As diverse as the birds they watch

There is a temptation to consider birders, or more specifically, avitourists, as a homogenous group of individuals that single-mindedly seek to add new and exotic species to their personal list of conquest birds. To make this generalisation under-appreciates the diversity of this niche tourism market as well as their drivers and motivators. Avitourists do indeed vary in terms of what tourism experience they seek and how the level of dedication to the act of birding is related to these experiential expectations. In this chapter, we will explore this diversity, but also the themes that unite avitourists. One of the most important unifying themes is the fact that almost all avitourists expect to see wild birds, as opposed to captive species. This underlines the need for effective management of the tourism product in natural areas and wild bird conservation, to ensure the avitourism industry can continue to provide the suite of benefits afforded to its participants and the communities avitourists visit