Akke Folmer

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Programme Leader Master International Leisure Tourism and Events Management at Stenden University of Applied Sciences

In the past few years, more human-wildlife conflicts have occurred as a result of increased human visitations, particularly in areas where space is scarce and functions need to co-exist. Nature organisations are increasingly challenged to improve nature protection on the one hand, while offering visitors high quality nature experiences on the other...

Nature can be a driver for both sustainable tourism and local development. Natural assets have the capacity to attract visitors. To utilize these potentials SMEs are required to take actions and initiatives, while they have to manage the limits of acceptable change (LAC) properly. This report aims to identify the potentials of nature as driver of s...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore domestic experiential travel by Chinese millennials, a group of consumers who will increasingly influence the global travel and tourism industry. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research method was adopted to explore motivations and memorable experiences of Chinese millennials who successfu...

Individuals can have meaningful experiences with iconic wildlife during holidays, but how important is experiencing ordinary wildlife near home? We investigated how wildlife shapes a bond with favourite local green places in the Netherlands. We conducted 13 walk-along interviews with participants of varying sociodemographics. Results show that expe...

In my thesis, I investigate how wildlife contributes to a bond with green places on different spatial scales among lay people in the Netherlands. The results show that wildlife matters in the bond with green places both near home, and further from home. Among nature lovers, wildlife experiences confirm, rather than create, their bond with protected...

Recent decades have seen a growing interest in experiencing wildlife and flora in nature-based tourism destinations, while at the same time it is far less clear whether wildlife and flora also matter in green places near home. This paper examines whether wildlife and flora affect the perceived attractiveness of green places, among the general publi...

National governments and regions make great efforts to obtain international recognition for their natural heritage, for instance through UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites list. Since June 2009, the Dutch Wadden Sea has been on the World Heritage List. Our study investigates to what extent the World Heritage status of the Wadden Sea matters to tourists...

Place attachment to protected areas has been associated with pro-environmental behaviour and visitor loyalty. It is therefore worth gaining insight into the factors that play a role in explaining attachment to nature-based tourism destinations. Various studies indirectly suggest that wildlife experiences play a role in visitor attachment to protect...

Interest in understanding emotional bonds with protected areas has been growing. However, attention has hardly been focused on the role of wildlife in emotional bonding. Our research first explored the relationship between the perceived importance of seeing wildlife and emotional attachment to a protected area, the Dutch Wadden Sea Area. Second, we...

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Stenden Research Group in Service Studies to complete this research. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Stenden Research Group in Service Studies to start with this research Abstract Giving attention to sustainable development in higher education is seen as a necessary step...