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But are tourists satisfied? Importance-performance analysis of the whale shark tourism industry on Isla Holbox, Mexico
... Tourist demand for marine megafauna interactions has grown exponentially in the past 30 years (Lester et al., 2019;Ziegler et al., 2012), particularly close proximity encounters afforded by in-water activities such as swimming, snorkeling, and kayaking (Bertella, 2019). Rhincodon typus or whale sharks are a popular target species for swim-with encounters due to their large size, nonthreatening nature (Gallagher & Hammerschlag, 2011), and predictable aggregation in warm seas around the world (Lester et al., 2019). ...
... In addition, advertising, whether online or traditional, influences consumer reactions, including emotions and judgments (Curtis et al., 2017). For example, false advertising resulted in dissatisfaction in Isla Holbox (Mexico), when images from Australia and Asia were used to promote whale shark experiences in Mexico where water visibility is comparatively lower (Ziegler et al., 2012). ...
... Managers of wildlife tourism face the challenge of providing experiences that ensure visitor satisfaction while maintaining a safe environment and protecting the target species (Verbos et al., 2018). Understanding the drivers of satisfaction is therefore a key aspect of the sustainable management of wildlife attractions (Catlin & Jones, 2010;Ziegler et al., 2012). As indicated in Figure 1, a major aspect of achieving visitor satisfaction often discussed in the literature is proximity in wildlife tourism (Bertella, 2019;Verbos et al., 2018). ...
This study explored tourists’ blogs to identify sustainability challenges and opportunities that help to inform best-practice management of the whale shark tourism industry worldwide. Few researchers have investigated blogs in the context of swim-with whale shark experiences as recounted from the tourist perspective. This research was based on a content analysis of a sample of 58 tourist blogs, amounting to 31,509 words of content. The findings explored common sustainability themes within the whale shark tourist experience including proximity of the encounter, nature of the interaction, and whale shark tourist behaviour. By comparing three whale shark tourism destinations, Mexico, the Philippines and Australia, several sustainability challenges and opportunities were identified. The findings contribute to previous knowledge by advancing our understanding of whale shark tourists’ perception of critical aspects during their swim-with whale shark experience, which guided recommendations for improved and sustainable management.
... Therefore, there is much discussion in the literature about the best practices for whale-watching management (Finkler and Higham, 2020), such as approach manoeuvres and speed, distance from the animals, duration of contact with the whales, the number of operator licenses granted or daily tours allowed, boat design, and zoning, among others (Amerson and Parsons, 2018;Arias et al., 2018;Higham et al., 2009;Mallard, 2019). However, to design integrated and adaptive management strategies, it is necessary to explore the complexity of human-environmental relations (Duffus and Dearden 1990;Higham et al., 2009;Neves, 2004;Simpson et al., 2019;Ziegler et al., 2012). ...
... Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) has been applied in marine wildlife-watching studies to ascertain which attributes of the tours influence tourist satisfaction, with the aim of identifying management areas for improving firm performance (Bentz et al., 2016a;Lück and Porter, 2019;Ziegler et al., 2012). IPA is a simple, effective and useful analysis tool that assesses the importance and performance of services (activities) or experiences based on customer responses in order to assist practical management decision-making (Martilla and James, 1977;Oh, 2001). ...
... To deliver comprehensive information about the performance of the experience, the definition of the attributes is one of the most important steps in IPA. Table 1 summarises the IPA attributes utilised in previous wildlife-watching studies (Bentz et al., 2016a;Cornejo-Ortega et al., 2018;Lück and Porter, 2019;Ziegler et al., 2012). Previous results show that the attributes with higher performance and contributing most to customer satisfaction are those related to the 'watching' performance, followed by the cost of the activity and other service features (Bentz et al., 2016a;Ziegler et al., 2012). ...
Whale-watching faces the dual challenge of ensuring whale welfare and preserving marine environments in coastal areas and the open ocean while providing a satisfactory tourism experience. This study shows that importance-performance analysis (IPA), in combination with cluster analysis, provides insights into how to tailor the segments for the sustainable management of whale-watching. The segmentation analysis reveals differences in the perceptions of the activity's importance between specialist and generalist whale-watching tourists. These differences concern the factors relating to observation performance, learning about whale culture and preservation and a comfortable trip. The results suggest that operators may increase competitive advantage by focusing on those product features that are ecologically compatible, as well as investing in education and innovation. Moreover, from the point of view of coastal and ocean management and governance, the identification of consumer segments with ecological preferences raises opportunities to work towards sustainability.
... No entanto, essas experiências podem ser influenciadas por alguns aspectos das áreas protegidas, como a presença de espécies carismáticas, a singularidade e atratividade da paisagem, a qualidade das instalações, a segurança, a acessibilidade, o comportamento e a qualidade do serviço por parte dos funcionários (Vespestad;Lindberg, 2011;Zhang;Chan, 2016). Esses aspectos constituem os atributos das áreas protegidas que geralmente afetam as experiências e contribuem para a satisfação do visitante (Ziegler et al., 2012). ...
... Manter experiências de alta qualidade é essencial para que as áreas protegidas permaneçam como destinos atrativos. Ao desenvolver essa perspectiva, os gestores de Parques precisam entender as expectativas e experiências dos visitantes como base para a entrega de produtos e serviços que atendam à satisfação das suas necessidades (Ziegler et al., 2012). ...
Os Parques Estaduais bem como os Nacionais têm entre seus objetivos o desafio de sensibilizar os visitantes por meio do desenvolvimento de atividades de educação e interpretação ambiental. Entretanto, para obter sucesso nesse propósito é necessário conhecer o perfil das pessoas que o visitam. Nessa perspectiva, conduzimos uma pesquisa a campo para identificar o perfil do visitante do Parque Estadual do Turvo no período de 2018 a 2019, bem como analisar as motivações e expectativas do turista ao percorrer o território da unidade de conservação. Para tal, aplicamos um questionário em 144 visitantes para avaliar a percepção dos visitantes na chegada (antes da visita) e na saída (após a visita). Os resultados permitem crer que a gestão do uso público no período avaliado não alcançou o “environmental friendly” pretendido. Para tal, o Parque Estadual do Turvo deve investir em diferentes formas interpretativas sobre a biodiversidade e, especialmente, sobre o ecossistema da onça-pintada, de forma a envolver e sensibilizar os visitantes quanto à importância das áreas protegidas, bem como quanto à conservação da natureza.
... Research suggests that certain experience elements have stronger satisfaction-generating potential making them more likely to influence expectancy disconfirmation (Coghlan, 2012). For example, some research suggests that providing information in situ may help to influence positive disconfirmation by contextualising the actual experience and introducing visitors to new knowledge and perspectives (Coghlan, 2012;Morgan & Dong, 2008;Ziegler et al., 2012). This may be particularly true for experiences that are new or unfamiliar as visitors are likely to have pre-trip expectations based on limited knowledge or idealised representations, such as those often portrayed in the media (Fenton et al., 1998). ...
... This adds to the growing evidence that debunks assumptions that climate change information will 'ruin people's day' and aligns with research which suggests that provision of in situ information can influence positive disconfirmation through a range of mechanisms (Coghlan, 2012;He & Hinch, 2021;Morgan & Dong, 2008;Roese & Vohs, 2012;Ziegler et al., 2012). For example, in our study, many visitors were surprised to learn that some coral species are resilient and can 'bounce back' from bleaching events, and that some brown coloured corals are healthy. ...
Nature‐based tourism has a unique opportunity, and arguably responsibility, to promote widespread action on climate change. However, research suggests an aversion to providing information that might appear divisive or ‘ruin’ peoples day, particularly in places that are vulnerable to degradation.
We explore how exposure to climate change information in vulnerable nature settings influences indicators of (i) the visitor experience and (ii) climate change engagement. Using a quasi‐experimental approach, we provided climate information on tourist boats operating on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia and compared visitor experiences with a control condition where climate information was not provided. Visitor surveys (n = 656) assessed perceptions and experiences.
Overall, visitors on trips where climate information was provided were more likely to report that the reef experience exceeded their expectations and did not report any reduction in subjective trip satisfaction.
However, we detected minimal effects of climate information on indicators of climate engagement (threat awareness, action awareness, or information seeking), suggesting room for improvement in interpretation approach and design. Indeed, visitors reported high levels of acceptability for incorporating more information about climate change, particularly about actions.
Synthesis and applications: These results suggest that providing climate information does not undermine visitor experiences and while further research is required to determine the most effective approach for influencing climate change engagement, an appetite for more information exists. It is possible that what tourism operators are fearful of, may be an opportunity to improve outcomes aligned with both industry and environmental objectives.
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... At least 45 countries provide shark tourism opportunities (Cisneros-Montemayor et al., 2013). Inadequate advertising or information, high costs, and crowds are the main tourist complaints (Ziegler et al., 2012). Shark provisioning can be done by cage diving (e.g. ...
... Demographic parameters may also affect feelings (Prokop et al., 2009;Prokop & Tunnicliffe, 2008). Results of a previous study identified inadequate education, false advertising, crowding, and cost as the main compliments of tourists participating in shark tours (Ziegler et al., 2012). This study aimed to examine if priming by photos of aggressive sharks can negatively affect the respondents' level of interest in shark tourism. ...
Shark tourism is considered a type of enjoyable and exciting ecotourism that can simultaneously be effective in protecting sharks. However, the human fear of sharks may affect the level of interest in shark tourism. The present study investigated the effect of viewing images/videos of aggressive sharks on people's interest in shark tourism. For this purpose, Participants were asked to rate their preference for the type of outdoor recreation, action mode, and encounter activity in shark tourism, level of trust in shark tourism, and covariates related to cost, distance travelled, waiting time, and desired number of shark visits in each tour. The experimental treatments of the study included viewing a picture/film (or animation) of an aggressive shark display (ASD) and a peaceful shark display (PSD). Our results indicated that viewing images or videos of aggressive sharks may negatively affect tourists' interest levels in shark tourism, particularly in activities including physical contact. Also, the exposed individuals had less confidence in the safety of shark tourism and opted for lower tour charges. Nevertheless, prior information can mitigate the detrimental influence of the aforementioned aspect on attitude.
... Notably, Simon et al. (2020) found that tourists to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, reported higher levels of satisfaction, perhaps as a result of the city's attractive attractions and the natural ambience of its tourist destinations. Similar research was conducted by Ziegler et al. (2012) on wildlife tourism on the Mexican island of Isla Holbox, revealing the impact of deceptive advertising, traffic congestion, tour fees, and inadequate information on visitor satisfaction. In the context of adventure tourism in India's mountainous Uttarakhand region, Bagri and Devkant (2015) emphasised the significance of visitor satisfaction with destination features. ...
... Due to its simplicity and straightforward results, the IPA technique has been widely used in many different fields for analysing the food industry (Hong et al., 2020), healthcare services (Lee, 2015), adventure tourism (Bagri & Devkant, 2015), city tourism (Irwana et al., 2015;Sasithornwetchakul & Choibamroong, 2019), education (McLeay et al., 2015 and wildlife tourism (Nguyen et al., 2021;Ziegler et al., 2012). Nonetheless, the current research focusing on visitor contentment with the tourism encounter in marine parks remains relatively limited. ...
Tourism in the marine park is vital to tourist satisfaction. Tourism and sustainability must be balanced in sensitive regions like marine parks. Tourist feedback helps balance and sustain marine park management. Kapas Island Marine Park (KIMP) in Terengganu receives a high number of tourists annually. The resources and the tourist experience may be adversely affected by excessive utilisation of marine resources. It may have long-term effects on the travel industry. This research has adopted an Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) to scrutinise how visitors view the execution of 23 attributes of KIMP. The objective of this study is to show that various tourism attributes affect tourist satisfaction, as well as to discover the satisfaction- and dissatisfaction-generating attributes that may be found in the marine tourism experience. In addition, this research discusses how IPA may be used to influence future visitor research and management at marine park sites. The findings of this research were obtained by a questionnaire survey of 310 visitors to the KIMP during May and June 2022. The results are displayed on a grid with four quadrants; facilities are available to ensure the safety and security of the visitors (Quadrant One); attributes are already providing good service, and therefore, performance must be sustained (Quadrant Two); the fundamental amenities or necessities as seen by visitors (Quadrant Three); attributes that have a low significance score but obtained a high-performance score (Quadrant Four). These findings potentially provide a reference for thorough development strategies for a marine park tourism destination.
... They assess their actual aesthetic experiences against these expectations, leading to a confirmation or disconfirmation (AEC), which influences their overall satisfaction (SA) (Figure 1). Satisfaction in tourism is often derived from juxtaposing pre-visit expectations with actual experiences at the destination [41], highlighting the critical role of accurate marketing in setting realistic expectations [42]. Similarly, in service industries, customer satisfaction hinges on the alignment between pre-service expectations and post-service perceptions [13]. ...
... H1c. Aesthetic expectations of the economic environment significantly influence satisfaction. Satisfaction in tourism is often derived from juxtaposing pre-visit expectations with actual experiences at the destination [41], highlighting the critical role of accurate marketing in setting realistic expectations [42]. Similarly, in service industries, customer satisfaction hinges on the alignment between pre-service expectations and post-service perceptions [13]. ...
Aesthetic expectations often constitute the primary focus in marketing nature-based tourist destinations. However, academic research has insufficiently explored the disparity between tourists’ aesthetic expectations and the actual aesthetic quality maintenance in shaping satisfaction. Employing the Expectation Confirmation Theory, this study utilized structural equation modeling techniques to analyze survey data (n = 446). It proposed and tested an Aesthetic Expectation Confirmation Model to examine the relationship between aesthetic expectations, experiential qualities, and tourist satisfaction in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. The empirical findings show that aesthetic expectations have a direct, negative impact on satisfaction, while aesthetic expectation confirmation has a positive direct impact on satisfaction. Moreover, aesthetic expectation confirmation also plays a mediating role in the influence of aesthetic expectations and experiential quality on satisfaction. Specifically, aesthetic expectations indirectly impact satisfaction negatively through aesthetic expectation confirmation, whereas aesthetic experiential qualities have a positive, indirect impact on satisfaction through the same process. These findings offer theoretical contributions to the literature on forest recreation aesthetics and hold practical significance for the planning and management of destination aesthetics.
... Many areas can benefit from IPA's applicability, including tourism branding (perceptions, satisfaction, service standards, interests, customer service, online reviews (Bi et al., 2019;Deng, 2007;DiPietro et al., 2019;Lee, 2015;Wang et al., 2016;Yuan et al., 2018;Zhang & Chow, 2004;Ziegler, Dearden, & Rollins, 2012;Garbin Praničević, & Mandić, 2020). ...
... It is also applicable to management, namely in the areas of sustainable tourism, destination competitiveness, planning, quality of work life, and hospitality (Albayrak et al., 2018;Coghlan, 2012;Frauman & Banks, 2011;Lai & Hitchcock, 2016;Murdy & Pike, 2012;Pan, 2015;Sörensson, & von Friedrichs, 2013;Zhang & Chan, 2016). It may also be used to gauge how effectively a company or location is satisfying the needs of its customers in addition to the value that visitors put on various experiences, services, and products (Boley, et al., 2017;Chen, 2014;Chu & Choi, 2000;Coghlan, 2012;Deng, 2007;Sheng, Simpson, & Siguaw, 2014;Taplin, 2012;Tonge & Moore, 2007;Ziegler, Dearden, & Rollins, 2012). The competitiveness of a destination or sector may also be quantified using a supply-side method, in which professionals within that destination are polled to evaluate the relative importance and performance of key components (Dwyer, Cvelbar, Edwards, & Mihalic, 2012;Griffin & Edwards, 2012;Murdy & Pike, 2012;Cvelbar & Dwyer, 2013 Syah, A. M., Yuan Li, L., Syukur, M., Adhitra, A., Rosman, R. (2022) Business Capabilities In Thailand's Lower-Tier Cities: Importance-Performance Analysis As a means of prioritizing the use of limited resources, IPA uses a four-quadrant layout to highlight regions of highest importance (Sever, 2015;Martilla & James, 1977). ...
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Purpose: Officially published on October 11th, 2021, Thailand government under Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) expanded the areas for MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions) cities development nationwide and took pride in its inclusive initiative in developing the lower-tier cities, regardless of the uncertain pandemic. Based on the report by TCEB Annual Report (2021), the 13 primary MICE to be developed under "MICE City Initiative'' include the tier-one, tier-two and tier-three cities. This research aims to explore Thailand's lower tier cities' MICE attributes (the lower tier cities under MICE development) as to underpin an informed data for all scholars, MICE professionals and government Theoretical framework: This research recommends the development of dynamic and internal capabilities over their implications on MICE and destination level attributes Design/methodology/approach: By enabling the importance-performance (IP) analysis, and with 435 volunteers from the scholars and professionals in tourism, hospitality, MICE, travel businesses, this research has been able to serve the novelty within the study of lower-tier city development and capabilities. Findings: The finding of this study highlights (i) the first underpinning of the MICE capabilities analysis from the context of Thailand's lower-tier cities-the research area that is oftentimes overlooked and consequently lacking; (ii) the overarching exploration on MICE attributes; (iii) the responsive and in-depth informed-research for the development of the lower-cities in Thailand; (iv) the offer of fresh MICE capabilities benchmarks for other ASEAN regions. In specific, the study discovered two significant concerns in the current MICE business in Thailand's lower-tier cities; (i) the expected service standards in MICE facilities are still underperformed; (ii) whilst, the friendliness of tourism destinations is overperformed, hence, overkilled the importance. Research, Practical & Social implications: This research would serve a wide variety of travel and tourism and MICE professionals as well as scholars. Specifically for destination management; this research would navigate clear guidance for the holistic development of lower-tier cities in Thailand, and as a benchmark for other emerging countries. RESUMO Objetivo: Publicado oficialmente em 11 de outubro de 2021, o governo da Tailândia sob o Departamento de Convenções e Exposições da Tailândia (TCEB) expandiu as áreas para o desenvolvimento de cidades MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions Cities) em todo o país e se orgulhava de sua iniciativa inclusiva no desenvolvimento das cidades de nível inferior, independentemente da pandemia incerta. Com base no relatório do Relatório Anual do TCEB (2021), as 13 principais cidades MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions) a serem desenvolvidas sob a "Iniciativa MICE City" incluem as cidades de nível um, dois e três. Esta pesquisa visa explorar os atributos MICE das cidades de nível inferior da Tailândia (as cidades de nível inferior sob desenvolvimento do MICE) para sustentar dados informados para todos os acadêmicos, profissionais do MICE e governo Referencial teórico: Esta pesquisa sustenta o desenvolvimento de capacidades dinâmicas e internas sobre suas implicações em MICE e atributos de nível de destino Desenho/metodologia/abordagem: Ao permitir a análise de importância-desempenho (IP), e com 435 voluntários de acadêmicos e profissionais de turismo, hospitalidade, MICE, empresas de viagens, esta pesquisa foi capaz de atender à novidade no estudo do desenvolvimento e das capacidades de cidades de nível inferior. Resultados: A descoberta deste estudo destaca (i) a primeira base da análise de capacidades MICE a partir do contexto das cidades de nível inferior da Tailândia-a área de pesquisa que muitas vezes é negligenciada e, consequentemente, carente; (ii) a exploração abrangente dos atributos MICE; (iii) a pesquisa informada e responsiva e aprofundada para o desenvolvimento das cidades mais baixas da Tailândia; (iv) a oferta de novos benchmarks de capacidades MICE para outras regiões da ASEAN. Especificamente, o estudo descobriu duas preocupações significativas no atual negócio de MICE nas cidades de nível inferior da Tailândia; (i) os padrões de serviço esperados nas instalações MICE ainda estão abaixo do desempenho; (ii) enquanto a simpatia dos destinos turísticos é superada, portanto, supera a importância. Pesquisa, implicações práticas e sociais: Esta pesquisa serviria a uma ampla variedade de profissionais de viagens e turismo e MICE, bem como acadêmicos. Especificamente para o gerenciamento de destinos, esta pesquisa forneceria orientações claras para o desenvolvimento holístico de cidades de nível inferior na Tailândia e como referência para outros países emergentes. Originalidade/valor: Este estudo tem muito orgulho da nova contribuição acadêmica das capacidades de negócios do MICE em economias emergentes. Esta pesquisa é capaz de promover a aplicação da pesquisa anterior de J. Whitfield, et al. (2014) sobre atributos MICE e as teorias de capacidades dinâmicas e internas-enquanto, ao mesmo tempo, oferece referências para o desenvolvimento de outros destinos MICE da ASEAN. Palavras-chave: MICE, MICE Cities, Cidades de Nível Inferior da Tailândia, Capacidades de MICE City, Análise de Importância-Desempenho. CAPACIDADES EMPRESARIALES EN LAS CIUDADES DE NIVEL INFERIOR DE TAILANDIA: ANÁLISIS DE LA IMPORTANCIA Y EL RENDIMIENTO RESUMEN Propósito: Publicado oficialmente el 11 de octubre de 2021, el gobierno de Tailandia bajo la Oficina de Exposiciones y Convenciones de Tailandia (TCEB) amplió las áreas para el desarrollo de ciudades MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions) en todo el país y se enorgulleció de su iniciativa inclusiva para desarrollar las ciudades de nivel inferior, independientemente de la pandemia incierta. Según el informe del Informe anual de TCEB (2021), las 13 ciudades MICE principales que se desarrollarán bajo la "Iniciativa de ciudad MICE" incluyen las ciudades de nivel uno, nivel dos y nivel tres. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo explorar los atributos MICE de las ciudades de nivel inferior de Tailandia (las ciudades de nivel inferior bajo desarrollo MICE) para respaldar datos informados para todos los académicos, profesionales MICE y el gobierno. Originality/value: This study takes a huge pride towards novel scholarship contribution of MICE business capabilities in the emerging economies. This research is able to further the application of previous research by J. Whitfield, et al. (2014) on MICE attributes, and the theories of dynamic and internal capabilities-while at the same time, offer benchmarks for other ASEAN's MICE destination development. Marco teórico: esta investigación sustenta el desarrollo de capacidades dinámicas e internas sobre sus implicaciones en MICE y atributos de nivel de destino. Diseño/metodología/enfoque: al permitir el análisis de importancia-desempeño (IP), y con 435 voluntarios de académicos y profesionales en turismo, hospitalidad, MICE, empresas de viajes, esta investigación ha sido capaz de servir la novedad dentro del estudio de menor-nivel de desarrollo y capacidades de la ciudad. Hallazgos: El hallazgo de este estudio destaca (i) el primer fundamento del análisis de capacidades MICE del contexto de las ciudades de nivel inferior de Tailandia, el área de investigación que a menudo se pasa por alto y, en consecuencia, carece; (ii) la exploración general de los atributos MICE; (iii) la investigación informada receptiva y profunda para el desarrollo de las ciudades bajas en Tailandia; (iv) la oferta de nuevos puntos de referencia de capacidades MICE para otras regiones de la ASEAN. En concreto, el estudio descubrió dos preocupaciones importantes en el negocio MICE actual en las ciudades de nivel inferior de Tailandia; (i) los estándares de servicio esperados en las instalaciones MICE aún no se cumplen; (ii) mientras que la amabilidad de los destinos turísticos se supera, por lo tanto, se exagera la importancia. Investigación, implicaciones prácticas y sociales: Esta investigación serviría a una amplia variedad de profesionales de viajes y turismo y MICE, así como a académicos. Específicamente para la gestión de destinos, esta investigación ofrecería una guía clara para el desarrollo holístico de las ciudades de nivel inferior en Tailandia y como punto de referencia para otros condados emergentes. Originalidad/valor: Este estudio se enorgullece enormemente de la novedosa contribución de las becas de las capacidades empresariales MICE en las economías emergentes. Esta investigación puede promover la aplicación de investigaciones previas de J. Whitfield, et al. (2014) sobre los atributos MICE y las teorías de las capacidades internas y dinámicas, al tiempo que ofrece puntos de referencia para el desarrollo de otros destinos MICE de la ASEAN. Palabras clave: MICE, Ciudades MICE, Ciudades de nivel inferior de Tailandia, Capacidades de la ciudad MICE, Análisis de Importancia y Rendimento.
... Tourism sectors on specific tourism services, e.g. whale shark tourism, ski-resort, outdoor recreation etc. (Ziegler et al., 2012;Ahmad Puad et al., 2012) are also known to use this method but lacks in terms of studies on adopting a destination perspective (Edward & George, 2008;De Nisco et al., 2014) and in protected areas (Wade & Eagle, 2003). According to Wade & Eagle (2003), it is known that national parks rarely monitor visitors' satisfaction or when they do, park performance was normally measured without reviewing the importance of the attributes towards the visitors. ...
... Educating tourism players about the importance of sustainability practices is a great opportunity that should be taken on. All eight items in this quadrant should be placed appropriately for Kota Kinabalu city to gain competitive advantages to other travel destinations and would result in repeat visits (Ziegler et al., 2012). Strengthening all items in this quadrant could mean more economic and tourism benefit for the state and its people. ...
The Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) is widely used in many fields of study as it produces simple and straightforward results. However, it is rarely used by managers of ecotourism and urban green spaces. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) was adopted from a destination perspective to understand industry demand. This study explores the visitors’ satisfaction level on ecotourism attributes i.e. attraction, urban green spaces and accessibility that affect tourist satisfaction towards Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia using IPA scheme. A total of 384 tourists to Kota Kinabalu were provided with a list of environmental features and asked to rate the importance of and satisfaction with each attribute. IPA was performed to compare mean scores and identify areas of concern. The analysis identified eight (8) attributes which were applauded with excellent performance on highly important features and should maintain its competitiveness as a tourist destination. Six (6) attributes resulted under the poor performance on an extremely important category; indicates the areas that should be given improvement interventions, while four (4) attributes were identified as possible overkill that implies divergences of resources elsewhere are needed. Finally, six (6) attributes faired as low in priority and effort may not be necessary on those features. Although six (6) out of 24 attributes were found to be less advantageous, an interview simultaneously conducted during the survey however found that 97% of respondents perceived that Kota Kinabalu city has the potential as an Urban Ecotourism destination. This study resulted in some findings for those at managerial level to pursue and areas that should be improved as it provides a greater understanding on the Urban Ecotourism potential in Kota Kinabalu industry, by using the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) tool as it facilitates the interpretation of data. This study fosters that ecotourism product does exist in Kota Kinabalu city, and steer the industry towards sustainable development in urban centres.
... Análisis económico de la actividad turística de avistamiento de tiburón ballena en la Bahía de La Paz, Baja California Sur El turismo de apreciación del tiburón ballena es un nicho de mercado creciente en México (Ziegler et al., 2012). No obstante, este ha impactado considerablemente las poblaciones de Isla Holbox, Quintana Roo y La Paz, Baja California Sur. ...
... No obstante, este ha impactado considerablemente las poblaciones de Isla Holbox, Quintana Roo y La Paz, Baja California Sur. Para el caso de Holbox (Ziegler et al., 2012), se encontró que altas tasas de contacto físico pueden causar daños al tiburón ballena, contacto que se incrementa con el número de embarcaciones en el área de avistamiento al favorecer la aglomeración de nadadores. En el caso de La Paz, Ramírez-Macías y colaboradores (2012) mencionan que en el área de agregación del tiburón ballena hasta un 67 % de esta especie marina se ve afectado por los barcos, lo que da muestra de la necesidad de un área de protección que limite y controle los barcos y otras actividades humanas que puedan representar una amenaza. ...
... Most IPA studies inherently have the inconsistent classification of quadrants and indistinguishable priorities within one quadrant. There are different methods to draw the crosshair placement for the four quadrants: the scale-centered method (Oh, 2001;Tonge and Moore, 2007) and the data-centered method (Azzopardi and Nash, 2013;Ryan and Cessford, 2003;Ziegler et al., 2012). And different methods can classify varied attributes into different quadrants. ...
... Traditional IPA analysis can highlight strategic areas by displaying four types of priority through four quadrants, but it cannot reveal the priority of some attributes in the same quadrant. Some research proposed a diagonal or iso-rating line to split the plot into two separate areas (Azzopardi and Nash, 2013;Ziegler et al., 2012), but the interpretation of results based on visual perspective produces less information and offers limited distinction, especially for objects that are visually very close (Sever, 2015). By offering each attribute a specific score, SMII provides more distinctive differences among all attributes. ...
Urban renewal to fulfill the updated needs of urban residents is an inevitable product of urbanization at certain stages. And how to effectively prioritize varied attributes to be renewed across scales is a challenging process for urban governance worldwide. This study aimed to fill the existing gaps by merging the prioritization capacity of importance-performance analysis (IPA) and the scalability potential of social media data. The study pioneered establishing a social-media-based improvement index (SMII) for urban renewal. Based on the framework of importance-performance analysis, SMII takes the most overkilled point (the lowest importance but the highest performance) as the origin and calculates the area between other points and the origin. SMII always has the highest value in the quadrant with high importance but low performance. We demonstrate the usage of SMII taking the landscape services of urban park systems as an example. We used SMII to understand the users' evaluation of parks' services across scales and then clarified the priority sequence for future renewal. Among selected parks, we identified three parks that need immediate renewal. Among all the services, we found that recreational activities and social interactions are in highest priority for renewal in Beijing's park systems. The findings suggest that the history and culture services of the Old Summer Place Park need to be improved first for a wide variety of reasons. The findings also reveal multiple temporal changes of varied services. Our study concludes that SMII can clarify problem prioritization and cost-effective guide decision-making for urban park renewal with high scalability both temporally and spatially. Meanwhile, SMII can extend its applications to analyzing various issues in the urban environment on multiple scales for the effective allocation of resources during urban renewal.
... IPA helps identify areas where improvements are needed to enhance overall satisfaction and prioritize resource allocation for maximum impact. The Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) has emerged as a widely embraced and extensively documented management tool within the domain of tourism studies (Oh, 2001;Fuchs and Weiermair, 2003;Janes and Wisnom, 2003;Ziegler et al., 2012;Lai and Hitchcock, 2015;Wang et al.;2022). Many studies have employed IPA to assess tourist satisfaction across destinations, attractions, and services. ...
... This constellation of behavior has made whale sharks the subject of a highly profitable ecotourism industry worldwide (Rowat and Engelhardt, 2007). In several countries with regular seasonal constellation patterns, whale shark ecotourism areas have developed and attracted many tourists, such as in Oslob, Philippines (Craven, 2012), Isla Holbox, Mexico (Ziegler et al., 2012) and Ningaloo Reef, Australia (Mau, 2008). In Indonesia, several locations have been developed into whale shark tourism destinations such as Kwatisore Waters, Cendrawasih Bay National Park, Papua (Maruanaya et al., 2022), Bentar Beach Waters, Probolinggo (Kapinangasih et al., 2022), Labuhan Jambu Waters in Saleh Bay, Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara and Botubarani Waters, Gorontalo (Djunaidi et al., 2020). ...
The whale shark (Rhincodon typus Smith, 1828) is the largest extant fish species in the world, and it is endangered, with population numbers declining in the last three decades. The appearance of whale sharks in the Botubarani Waters has attracted a lot of attention. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the whale shark's appearance, their habitat constellation pattern, and its oceanographic conditions. This research was conducted during the 2019-2022 period. The Photographic Identification (Photo-ID) method is used to observe and determine whale shark individual's number and pattern of presence. Oceanographic data includes chlorophyll-a concentration using Ocean Color Image (CCI) data and sea surface temperature (SST) using OSTIA image data processed with Interactive Data Language (IDL) software. The research showed there are 38 individuals with an estimated total length ranging from 2.3 to 7.3 meters. All whale sharks appearing in Botubarani include juvenile male individuals with a composition of 53% new individuals (N=20) and 47% (N=18) old individuals seen again with a rare seasonal and sporadic presence pattern mainly in the Eastern season (June). The average SST value during the study period ranged from 28.36-30.29⁰C while chlorophyll-a ranged from 0.174-0.698 mg.m-3. Although the present findings show that the whale shark's appearance in Botubarani waters was not significantly influenced by SST and chlorophyll-a, it might be affected by other oceanography factors such as Sea Surface Height Distribution (SSHD) and depth (Bathymetry). As the Botubarani aggregation site is the only whale shark emergence area with easy access throughout the year and is rapidly developing into a new ecotourism industry in Indonesia; the information on whale shark appearance provides useful support for the sustainable protection and Whale Sharks conservation in the future.
... On the other hand, any evaluator-perceived significant item with poor performance suggests a need for remedial action. Priority is placed on enhancing evaluation criteria positioned above the dividing line (Ziegler et al., 2012). The original model's interpretation of the parts below the diagonal has stayed the same. ...
Tour Guides are the country's unofficial faces to visitors, and their ability to convey information effectively may make or break a trip. This study examines tour guides' communication skills and overall performance. The data were collected from 225 expert tour guides in the Jordanian cities: Aqaba, Wadi Rum, and Petra. Factor analysis is performed on 32 communication competence measures to discover the underlying performance characteristics. The study used importance–performance analysis to determine the difference between how tour guides rate their performance and how important they think certain things are. The study revealed that tour guides need improvement in verbal skills such as grammar, manner of speech, and choice of words, as well as non-verbal behaviours such as approachability and the ability to remain friendly while maintaining a specific personal space. The study revealed that the importance–performance analysis mode, a valuable management tool, may determine where marketing resources might be invested to develop and increase the quality of tour guide operations. While most professional tour guides acknowledge the significance of the abovementioned things, they often fail to use them when dealing with and communicating with visitors. This suggests that administrative attention be focused on enhancing tour guides' verbal communication skills with visitors.
... We used an importance-performance analysis (IPA) to compare expectations (importance) scores with corresponding perceived performance (satisfaction) scores (Ziegler et al., 2012;Agyare, 2013;Deng and Pierskalla, 2018). We then used an isorating line to determine the relationship between expectations and performance for each outcome (Hawes and Rao, 1985;Sampson and Showalter, 1999;Bacon, 2003), where points above the line represent outcomes with higher mean scores for importance than satisfaction, and points below the line with higher mean scores for satisfaction than importance. ...
Nature conservation and sustainable development goals are challenged by powerful economic incentives to exploit natural resources, particularly in many tropical countries. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) projects have been encouraged worldwide for over 40 years to improve the sustainability of nature-based livelihoods and facilitate natural resource governance in accordance with cultural and spiritual traditions. CBNRM has been implemented in Ghana, West Africa, for over 20 years in the form of Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs), but their success in supporting conservation and sustainable development goals remains the subject of debate. We evaluated participant views of 33 conservation, economic, and sociocultural outcomes through 881 interviews with people from 89 communities associated with eight CREMAs. Participants reported highest expectations and performance for outcomes including conservation awareness, increased food and honey production, and collective community action and unity. However, perceived performance failed to meet participant expectations for all 33 outcomes and particularly for conservation and economic outcomes. Expectation-performance gaps were largest for conservation outcomes such as reduced illegal logging, economic outcomes including increased income, financial assistance, and employment, and sociocultural outcomes such as the constancy of children's school attendance. Successfully addressing these gaps will depend largely on external factors, such as government effectiveness in controlling illegal logging and investments in credit and education. While this and other CBNRM approaches cannot stand alone to achieve conservation goals, with sufficient external support they can provide substantial benefits to participants and play a supporting role in conservation and as buffers to successful protected areas.
... Importance acts as both a standard and goal, such that if performance is lower than importance, performance should be improved through intensive resource input. In the case of activities being performed much more than their importance warrants, it is necessary to redistribute the recovered resources to more-urgent management activities (Ziegler et al. 2012). • Four centered axes: There are two x-axes and two y-axes. ...
... ;Sever (2015);Wade and Eagles (2003);Ziegler et al. (2012) EducationAlberty and Mihalik (1989);Ford et al. (1999); Hanssen and Mathisen (2018); Nale et al. (2000); O'Neil and Palmer (2004); Ortianu et al. (1989) Healthcare Ábalo et al. (2007); Dolinsky and Caputo (1991); Hawes and Rao (1985); Yavas and Shemwell (2001) Food Aigbedo and Parameswaran (2004); Sampson and Showalter (1999); Tontini and Silveira (2007) Banking Joseph et al. (2005); Matzler et al. (2003); Yeo(2003) ...
... The species is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and especially the Indo-Pacific subpopulation has seen a drastic decline (Pierce & Norman, 2016). Seasonal gatherings of whale sharks attract considerable attention from tourists and tourism operators (Catlin & Jones, 2010;Wong et al., 2019;Ziegler et al., 2012), and much of what we know about the species comes from areas where tourists and whale sharks interact (Dove & Pierce, 2022). Occasionally, whale sharks get stranded or fishermen land them on beaches or in the shallows, although proper documentation of this is rare (Wosnick et al. (2022) recorded only 107 whale shark strandings globally, mostly from the period 1980-2021, including 45 in South Africa, 29 in Mexico and 2 in Indonesia). ...
... IPA is a means to notify management decisions about the method to respond to a specific management problem. IPA has gained widespread acceptance in the hospitality and tourism researches (Vaske, Beaman, Stanley, and Grenier, 1996;Go and Zhang, 1997;Oh, 2001;Ziegler, Dearden, and Rollins, 2012). Generally, IPA model provided a highly transparent and replicable approach to clarify the agency's pros and cons and to point out areas for resource appropriation with the target of enhancing individual and collective adaptive capacity within agencies responsible for the management of natural resources in authority complex regions. ...
In terms of promoting Vietnam's agriculture to compete with Southeast Asian countries, macroeconomics' support plays a vital role in differentiation for sustainable development. Nevertheless, the insignificant analysis corresponding with the STEEPLED + Institution in sustainable agricultural development created a barrier in the effectiveness of the management of the national competitive strategy. This study adopts the integration of the Fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) and Importance-Performance analysis (IPA), aiming to consider the influence of the macroeconomic aspects on the maintenance of agricultural sustainability. The finding concluded that Government Policies (AS1), Institutions (AS2), and Social-Cultural (AS5) are the essential aspects of sustainable agriculture. Toward successful practice in sustainable agriculture, this study requires raising awareness of the quality of agricultural products (C9) and combating price manipulation from the unfair competition (C1).
... But less frequent tourists may be surprised and dissatisfied with a trip if they do not feel a closeness with Macau residents. The resulting dissatisfaction is attributed to a travel experience that does not meet expectations (Ziegler et al., 2012); therefore, the number of visits may have the power to reduce dissatisfaction caused by tourists' perceptions of residents' low emotional closeness. ...
This study aims to examine the effect of tourists’ perceptions of residents’ emotional solidarity with tourists on their trip satisfaction and word-of-mouth intentions toward a destination, taking into consideration the moderating effect of visitation frequency. It also aims to compare the impacts of tourists’ perceptions of residents’ emotional solidarity and the impacts of tourists’ perceptions of their emotional solidarity with residents. The results indicate that residents’ welcoming nature and emotional closeness as perceived by tourists have significant effects on tourists’ satisfaction and word-of-mouth intentions, while perceived residents’ sympathetic understanding does not. Visitation frequency significantly moderates the effects of perceptions of residents’ welcoming nature and emotional closeness on satisfaction. For tourists’ emotional solidarity, their sympathetic understanding has a significant effect on word-of-mouth intentions, and no moderating effect exists. This study has implications for exploring the differences in how tourists both receive from and offer to residents in terms of emotional solidarity.
... With the application of this method in research, some scholars have proposed that the method of dividing four quadrants for factor positioning would reduce the accuracy of a conclusion because some factors may have similar attributes. To solve this problem, many scholars generally employed MIPA by introducing a 45-degree slash into the IPA matrix to further subdivide the position of factors [62,63]. Factors falling on the slash indicate that their importance is consistent with their satisfaction, factors falling on the lower right of the slash indicate that their satisfaction is higher than their importance, and factors falling on the upper left of the slash indicate that their satisfaction is lower than their importance, which means that the overall attitude of tourists is one of dissatisfaction. ...
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on the tourism of Seoul, which is deeply dependent on international tourists. It is now more crucial than ever to make preparation for tourism recovery. Hence, this study took the travel notes posted by Chinese tourists in Seoul as a data source and applied manual content analysis to encode urban tourism experience (UTE) elements from travel notes, scoring them one by one and, consequently, obtaining the Seoul UTE element structure table. On this basis, the paper used social network analysis (SNA) and modified “importance–performance” analysis (MIPA), which complement each other, to thoroughly analyze the structural characteristics of elements and experience quality. The content analysis concludes that the Seoul UTE includes twenty-eight elements; SNA analysis shows that the network structure has high internal coordination and that UTE elements present aggregation with an indication of obvious differentiation of tourist sources; MIPA analysis reveals that overall experience quality is high, and an evaluation of traditional elements such as shopping and catering found them to be good; however, the evaluation of some core elements is low. With the help of our findings, it is hoped that this study can provide a better understanding and mastery of Chinese tourists’ demands and experiences to further improve tourism competitiveness for the industry’s recovery after post-COVID-19.
... The pre-pandemic rapid increase in marine tourism at manta ray sites in Indonesia (present study;Germanov et al., 2019a;Purwanto et al., 2021), and a greater than five-fold increase in general tourist numbers from 30,000 in 1996 (Pet & Yeager, 2000) to >175,000 in 2018(Komodo National Park Office, 2018), doubling from 2014(80,626) to 2018, underscores the need for effective tourism management to avoid potential negative impacts on manta rays (i.e., reviewed by Stewart et al., 2018a;Trave et al., 2017;Tyne, Loneragan & Bejder, 2014). Further, overcrowding of tourist vessels, viewers and divers can reduce the quality of the experience and tourist satisfaction (Mustika, Ichsan & Booth, 2020;Ziegler, Dearden & Rollins, 2012). Tourism in the Komodo NP has increased greatly since the Dewar et al. (2008) study, which aimed to improve the understanding of the spatial distribution of manta rays residing in the Komodo NP and help establish a viable manta ray tourism industry. ...
Background
The reef manta ray ( Mobula alfredi ) is a globally threatened species and an iconic tourist attraction for visitors to Indonesia’s Komodo National Park (NP). In 2013, manta ray fishing was banned in Komodo NP and its surroundings, preceding the nationwide manta ray protection in 2014. Over a decade ago, a previous acoustic telemetry study demonstrated that reef manta rays had high fidelity to sites within the park, while more recent photo-identification data indicated that some individuals move up to 450 km elsewhere. Characterization of manta ray demographics, behavior, and a focused assessment on site use of popular tourism locations within the park is vital to assist the Komodo NP Management Authority formulate appropriate manta ray conservation and management policies.
Methods
This study uses a long-term library ( MantaMatcher.org ) of photo-identification data collected by researchers and citizen scientists to investigate manta ray demographics and habitat use within the park at four sites frequented by tour operators: Cauldron, Karang Makassar, Mawan, and Manta Alley. Residency and movements of manta rays were investigated with maximum likelihood analyses and Markov movement models.
Results
A total of 1,085 individual manta rays were identified from photographs dating from 2013 to 2018. In general, individual manta rays displayed a higher affinity to specific sites than others. The highest re-sighting probabilities came from the remote southern site, Manta Alley. Karang Makassar and Mawan are only ~5 km apart; however, manta rays displayed distinct site affinities. Exchange of individuals between Manta Alley and the two central sites (~35.5 km apart) occurred, particularly seasonally. More manta rays were recorded traveling from the south to the central area than vice versa . Female manta rays were more mobile than males. Similar demographic groups used Karang Makassar, Mawan, and Manta Alley for foraging, cleaning, cruising, or courtship activities. Conversely, a higher proportion of immature manta rays used the northern site, Cauldron, where foraging was commonly observed. Fishing gear-related injuries were noted on 56 individuals (~5%), and predatory injuries were present on 32 individuals (~3%). Tourism within the park increased from 2014 to 2017, with 34% more dive boats per survey at Karang Makassar and Mawan.
Discussion
The Komodo NP contains several distinct critical habitats for manta rays that encompass all demographics and accommodate seasonal manta ray movements. While the present study has not examined population trends, it does provide foundational data for such work. Continued research into manta ray abundance, long-range movements, and identifying and protecting other critical aggregation areas within the region is integral to securing the species’ recovery. We provide management recommendations to limit undue pressure on manta rays and their critical habitats from tourism.
... Its vast biodiversity characterizes Yum Balam, since it has around 400 plant species and different types of fauna, such as amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and other groups (CONANP, 2018). One of the tourist attractions in this area is whale shark sighting, which has had significant growth in recent years (Ziegler et al., 2012); in fact, it has acquired great international recognition, which has triggered accelerated growth in tourism and population. Thus, Holbox went from being a small fishing village to an international tourist destination (Medina-Argueta and Palafox-Muñoz, 2020). 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Journal Pre-proof 2.2 Selection of the study zones in the urban area A walk was made through the entire beach zone located in the urban area, characterized by hotels, bars, restaurants, boats, the sale of handicrafts, and the practice of recreational activities. ...
Solid waste (SW) and microplastics (MP) are present in different parts of the marine and coastal environment, including remote areas such as islands. In the Mexican Caribbean, there are around 87 islands that are characterized by their white sand beaches, blue sea, and vast diversity of flora and fauna; protected natural areas have been established in some of these islands to preserve ecosystems and their integral functions. This research aimed to study the presence of MP, SW, and plastic containers (PC) on the Mexican island “Holbox”, which is part of the Yum Balam protected area. The MP were studied in three beach areas of the urban area with different tourist influx, SW was studied in a beach area with high tourist influx, and the PC were studied in a virgin beach. The mean concentration of MP and SW was 49.37 ± 45.55 MP/m2 and 0.116 ± 0.023 pieces/m2, respectively. On the virgin beach of the island, 72 plastic containers were found, 28 of which came from other countries, mainly from the Caribbean islands. The results provide information on marine pollution by SW, MP, and PC on Holbox island; all these kinds of waste can come from unsuitable waste management in the island (in the dumpsite) or be transported to the island by marine currents.
... In addition, the division would be the same for all the studies regardless of the data recorded and for the same study different interpretations can be obtained depending on the chosen scale (Araña and León 2013). Azzopardi and Nash (2013) and Ziegler et al. (2012) use an iso-valuation line dividing the plan into two. Above the line there are the attributes that have a higher performance than importance and those below the line require improvement. ...
Following the United States, China is the second largest trade partner of the European Union (EU). In turn, the EU is China’s biggest partner in general trade. The prospects for the development of mutual trade relations are promising. Citizens of the EU and China constitute a quarter of the entire population of the world. The rapidly developing trade exchange between these two entities is subject of the analysis in this dissertation. The main objective of the dissertation is to assess
the importance of agri-food products in trade turnover between the EU and China and to identify the main determinants of mutual trading. Three main factors determining the dynamic development of mutual turnover in the field of agri-food products were identified: (1) dynamic growth of GDP and demand for food products in China, (2) admission of China to the WTO, (3) Chinese policy of “New opening” in trade cooperation with the EU countries.
... Also the YU triggers the phytoplankton bloom and consequently the energy flow of the pelagic ecosystem (Enriquez et al., 2013;Furnas and Smayda, 1987;Merino, 1997;Okolodkov, 2003;Reyes-Mendoza et al., 2019). In fact, several ecosystem goods and services from the Yucatan Peninsula coast rely on the YU (Angeles- Gonzalez et al., 2017;Cárdenas-Palomo et al., 2015;Juárez et al., 2018;Ziegler et al., 2012Ziegler et al., , 2015. However, it has been reported long-term thermal variability over the whole region, warming the sea surface of oceanic locations of the north of the Yucatan Shelf, and cooling the coastal zone around May-September. ...
Since the historic marine temperature has been changing and consequently the ecological processes, this work studies the presence and magnitude of anomalous events at the sea surface temperature (SST) from a climate change perspective in a Non-eastern upwelling system. Concepts and metrics for Marine Heatwaves (MHW) and Marine Cold–Spell (MCS) were applied over the marine region of the Yucatan continental shelf and Yucatan Channel. To calculate the MHW/MCS and climatology between 1982 to 2019, a remote historic dataset of SST was used. Temporal differences of MHW/MCS events were calculated to assess the increase of MHW reported at a global scale in the last 10–20 years, splitting the resulting metrics of the study period. Furthermore, a frequency-domain cross-correlation analysis between SST and Chlorophyll-a was conducted to analyze a temporal relationship among those anomalies and the Red tide that struck the coastal region, in the year 2011. Results indicate that MHW/MCS have varied spatially and temporarily over the marine region of the Yucatan shelf, and have become more frequent and longer in the last twenty-years, tending to keep increasing in some sub-regions. MCS events are of equal or greater significance than MHW, mainly in the inner–shelf sub-region, where more than 110 days of MCS were recorded in 2011. The extreme biological event reported that year could be explained by MCS. Variability of the Yucatan current and upwelling, as well as large-scale synoptic atmospheric events are discussed as possible drivers for MHW/MCS.
... Parks and protected areas [64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77] Destination [36,57,[78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87] Meetings and exhibitions [35,[88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95] Tour services and travel agents [96][97][98][99][100][101] Tourism policy and development [65,[102][103][104][105][106] Tourism Accommodation Sector ...
Tourism has a key role in the global economy, and it is a significant contributor to environmental degradation and climate change. Concurrently, it is one of the most exposed businesses to the deterioration of environmental quality. Inside the tourism sector, the hospitality industry accounts for nearly 30% of emissions and in recent years has begun to introduce voluntary tools to manage the environmental impacts of its operations. Among these instruments, ecolabels ensure compliance with specific environmental performance criteria and reliable communication. In Italy, Legambiente Turismo is the most widespread tourism ecolabel that awards over 300 hotels. Previous investigations have shown that firms implementing environmental sustainability practices may gain economic advantages in terms of savings thanks to increased efficiency and reduced waste. At the same time, when evaluating firms’ performance, it is relevant to explore how customers perceive the actions implemented by the accommodation industry to minimize the environmental impact of its activities. Through a survey addressed to the customers of an eco-labeled hotel, this paper investigates if green practices form a specific dimension of service quality and if these green practices are considered by hotel guests as excitement factors among hotel service quality attributes. Results show that customers identify environmental practices as a specific dimension of eco-labeled hotels. Moreover, applying the three-factors theory of customer satisfaction, findings identify hotel green practices as delighting guests if properly delivered and communicated. Findings have significant implications both from a theoretical and managerial viewpoint, as they show that customers positively recognize the hotel’s commitment toward the natural environment, representing a significant differentiation strategy on the market.
... Consequently, many small islands face burgeoning tourism economies, triggering a social transformation of fishing communities into popularly global touristic sites [2,6,14]. Tourism is growing especially on small islands such as Holbox with attractive landscapes and outdoor activities for international tourists such as snorkeling tours with whale sharks [15,16]. For example, in November 2021, Idelfonso Cetina Alcocer, an authority of Holbox, said that many islanders left fishing given the fall in catches. ...
Knowledge gaps exist in the socio-ecological systems of small touristic islands in Latin America. Understanding tourists’ perceptions of their environmental knowledge can help plan actions to prevent natural capital loss necessary for local economies. Tourists’ perceptions of a touristic hotspot, Holbox Island, were documented. Surveys demonstrated that tourists are aware of their environmental impacts and are interested in minimizing these. Results were compared with results on Bocas del Toro, Panama. Tourists’ perceptions had similarities among sites driven by similarities in tourists’ populations with a common geographic origin. Tourists lack site-specific knowledge to steer them towards environmentally conscious decisions in both regions. Findings suggest the need to promote local actions to gain tourists’ understanding about their destination and support education programs on island conservation. Addressing these needs can help build resilience to overcome the adverse socio-environmental effects of tourism, environmental disasters, and health crises as COVID-19 on small islands.
... Introduced by Martilla and James (2019), IPA has been applied in a range of contexts in tourism marketing, including perceptions, satisfaction, service quality, preferences, customer management and online reviews (Bi, Liu, Fan, & Zhang, 2019;Deng, 2007;DiPietro, Levitt, Taylor, & Nierop, 2019;Lee, 2015;Wang, Li, Zhen, & Zhang, 2016;Yuan, Deng, Pierskalla, & King, 2018;Zhang & Chow, 2004;Ziegler, Dearden, & Rollins, 2012;Garbin Praničević & Mandić, 2020), and management, e.g. sustainable tourism, destination competitiveness, planning, job satisfaction and hospitality (Albayrak, Caber, Rosario González-Rodríguez, & Aksu, 2018;Coghlan, 2012;Frauman & Banks, 2011;Lai & Hitchcock, 2016;Murdy & Pike, 2012;Pan, 2015;Sörensson & von Friedrichs, 2013;Zhang & Chan, 2016). ...
In this research we explore smart governance (SG) elements, strategies and outcomes using a sample of small cities located in two Croatian regions, coastal and continental. These differ from one another not only in terms of their history and administrative culture but also the intensity of their tourism development, significantly affecting the way the city is governed with regard to the main SG categories. Historic city status was chosen as a common denominator for the cities in the sample. Building on an extensive literature review, an extended version of the smart governance model inaugurated by Bolivar and Meijer (2016) was suggested, to encompass contextual factors (size – referring mostly to small cities; location - associated with different administrative cultures; tourism development intensity - measured by the set of intensity indicators; the status of the historic city as a specific local condition) and end with some policy measure proposals. A mixed-method approach was employed to address these issues. Firstly, an importance-performance analysis was conducted to evaluate the cities' mayors or deputies' perception of each of the proposed smart governance categories. Subsequently, a qualitative analysis exploring the cities' strategic documents was conducted to determine progress on smart governance and their development orientation. The research results have demonstrated the existence of an importance-performance gap between smart governance categories, with a few of them proving to yield significant impact. The findings are discussed in the light of contextual factors. The conclusions facilitate further understanding of this phenomenon and shed light on the specifics of governance in historic urban destinations within a given context. The major limitation of this study is the relatively small sample (42 out of 94 historic cities) and its focus on just one country (Croatia). Nevertheless, the findings may be valuable in the sense that they broaden the understanding of smart governance in historic cities. Furthermore, implications may be derived from the results obtained for both researchers and practitioners. There is a lack of studies on smart governance taking into account specific contextual factors, and we hope this research may help fill that gap.
... Rapid growth in marine tourism is associated with boat crowding and other negative human impacts (Catlin & Jones, 2010;Ziegler, Dearden & Rollins, 2012;Conaghan, Hanrahan & McLoughlin, 2015). This is a concern for Ireland, as recent research in County Clare has found that hotel and tourism operators value sustainability, but lack clear codes of conduct and formalized policies (Conaghan, Hanrahan & McLoughlin, 2015;McLoughlin & Hanrahan, 2016 (Rawles & Parsons, 2005;Draheim et al., 2010;Bentz et al., 2016a;Sitar et al., 2017). ...
Basking sharks ( Cetorhinus maximus ) visit the coastal waters of Ireland annually, and while protected in Northern Ireland, they are not protected by domestic legislation in Ireland. In Ireland, basking shark conservation relies heavily on publicly reported sightings to assess population size and migration patterns.
While basking shark tourism is popular in nearby Scotland, Irish tourism materials rarely feature basking sharks.
In order to determine public awareness about basking sharks, public support for basking shark conservation and interest in shark tourism, 173 residents and visitors in Buncrana, Ireland were surveyed in July 2018.
The results indicated that public knowledge of basking sharks is low, whilst support for basking shark conservation and interest in tourism are high.
Despite the fact that conservation groups rely on publicly reported sightings as a cost‐effective research tool that is important for conservation policy, only 7% of survey respondents were aware that they could report a basking shark sighting to local research organizations (Irish Whale and Dolphin Group or Irish Basking Shark Group).
Individuals who support conservation were significantly more likely to believe that others would be willing to pay to view basking sharks, indicating a link between tourism potential and support for conservation.
This study showed that there may be an untapped tourism market for basking shark viewing in Donegal as well as public support for shark conservation.
Deceptive advertising, characterized by the dissemination of misinformation to consumers, poses significant challenges to consumer welfare and market integrity. This study tries to explore the academic landscape surrounding deceptive advertising over the past three decades through a systematic bibliometric analysis. Leveraging data from Elsevier's Scopus database, this study maps the trajectory of deceptive advertising literature from 1993 to 2023, identifying key publication trends, influential authors, journals, institutions and countries. It also delves into the realm of deceptive advertising, analyzing author-generated keywords and the dynamic landscape of emerging research trends within this domain. Through quantitative analysis and visualization using VOSviewer, the paper investigates the evolution of scholarly interest in deceptive advertising, prominent publications and thematic clusters. Findings reveal distinct phases in research activity, from nascent interest to heightened scrutiny, reflecting the dynamic nature of deceptive advertising practices. Notable publications and authors are highlighted, along with the global distribution of research contributions and collaborative networks. Emerging research themes, including ethical considerations, technological solutions and regulatory challenges, underscore the interdisciplinary nature of deceptive advertising research. Our findings reveal a significant growth in scholarly interest, reflecting the escalating concern over deceptive practices in advertising and their implications for consumers, businesses, and regulatory frameworks. The analysis uncovers the multidisciplinary nature of the research, with contributions spanning marketing, law, psychology and information technology, indicating the complex and multifaceted approach required to address deceptive advertising effectively. This study not only provides a comprehensive overview of literature but also lays the groundwork for future research aimed at developing innovative strategies to combat deceptive practices and protect consumer rights.
La comunidad de Holbox, en la península de Yucatán, México, es considerada actualmente como uno de los sitios de mayor y más rápido crecimiento en el mundo en turismo relacionado con el tiburón ballena Rhincodon typus. El presente estudio tuvo como objetivo determinar el valor recreativo del turismo de “nado con tiburón ballena” en Holbox. Se entrevistaron a 176 y 111 turistas nacionales e internacionales, y se determinó su perfil socioeconómico, así como su nivel de satisfacción con su experiencia recreativa. Utilizando el método de valoración contingente de elección dicotómica, se obtuvo una disposición a pagar (DAP) promedio de US 8,8 millones. Los resultados del estudio muestran el alto potencial económico del turismo asociado con esta especie en el Caribe mexicano y la urgente necesidad de fortalecer las políticas de otorgamiento de licencias y tarifas de ingreso a las áreas naturales protegidas.
The tourism business has grown dramatically in recent years. The tourism industry contributes significantly to a country's economic development as it provides various employment generation opportunities. Goa, India's smallest state, is a popular tourist destination that draws visitors from all over the world. Numerous people in Goa, particularly those living around the coast, earn their livelihood by engaging in tourism related activities. The sun and sand of Goa are well-known. It is surrounded by natural beauty and includes a variety of heritage sites, churches museums and temples. Goa is promoted internationally as a beach tourism resort that has reached its peak. As a result, there is a need to promote additional tourism options. The current research focuses on Goa's ecotourism. An attempt is made to identify latent motivational factors. Latent motivational factors were identified and categorised. Exploratory Factor Analysis and Chi square test were employed to analyse the data. This study also aimed to investigate how demographic characteristics affect travellers' intentions to engage in ecotour-ism and their willingness to spend more on ecotourism. The study revealed that demographic considerations have no bearing on tourists' desire to participate in ecotourism. Tourists' willingness to spend more for ecotourism is also unaffected by demographic factors.
The Bay of La Paz (BLP) is in Baja California Sur, just North of the city of La Paz, Mexico. This region is known for the seasonal aggregations of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), primarily juvenile males, during the months of October to March. The seasonal aggregation is due to an increase in planktonic organisms, determined by shifts in the cyclonic eddy system of the closed bay. Seasonal shifts in this circulation system influence nutrient richness and therefore whale shark abundance and distribution. In recent years, the whale shark aggregations have shifted from the eastern part of the bay to El Mogote, or the sandbar. This research aims to investigate and analyze the relationship between these aggregations and tourist vessel infractions. Data collected from the 2020-2021 season from Pelagios Kakunjá and a WWF report was used in this project.
Using the Getis-Ord Gi* Hotspot Analysis test to describe the distribution of tourist boat speed infractions and whale shark observations resulted in identification of highest and lowest risk areas for R. typus. These conclusions were mapped in order to illustrate both the location and frequency of high, medium, and lowest risk areas in whale shark refuge zones I and III. Additionally, statistical analysis was conducted to identify the depths at which each whale shark observation during the 2020-2021 season occurred. This was consistent with the bathymetry map created to illustrate Zones I and III being the shallowest parts of the Bay of La Paz.
Ecotourism is a major contributor to the local economy in La Paz, especially whale shark tours which often include the ability to swim with the animal. Using depth profiles and Getis-Ord Gi* Hotspot Analysis allowed for identification of highest and lowest risk areas for whale sharks. This study will allow for a better understanding of R. typus spatial distribution and migrations in BLP and provide useful data necessary for local policy changes.
After COVID-19, all art exhibitions in 2020 were forced to close and postponed until 2021 in Japan. The current paper studies the dynamic evaluation model and exhibition-driven event tourism promotion strategies based on previous/prospective tourist satisfaction surveys. Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (ETAT) was selected for the evaluation case. A new methodology, prospective-importance previous-performance analysis (PIPPA), was used for the previous tourist satisfaction questionnaire survey (by term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF)) and prospective tourist satisfaction questionnaire survey for the restart. It is an attempt not only for ETAT 2021 but also a sample for the others (hundreds of art exhibitions) in Japan and other countries.
Background and Aim: Competitive consumption creates competition in the tourism industry. Improve client satisfaction and repeat business by improving the hotel brand. This paper aims to study the level of customer perception of satisfaction and brand loyalty of the Bo Man Qing She Hotel, Xichang, China, and to study the guideline of customer perception of satisfaction on brand loyalty of the Bo Man Qing She Hotel, Xichang, China. Materials and Methods: This research is a quantitative research method; the total sample size for the research will be 385 customers who used the service of Bo Man Qing She Hotel, Xichang, China. The questionnaire was used as a tool to collect data in this study. To present the first research objective, the calculation of the mean and standard deviation was utilized to investigate the customer perception regarding their level of customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Results: The study's findings revealed that each of the variables demonstrated a high level, with a mean score of 3.93 and a standard deviation of 0.50. Hotel managers must nurture customer loyalty by providing high-quality service and a favorable brand image. Attitudinal, emotional, and conative loyalty form attitude, and managers should deliver high-quality service and offer training and awards to motivate staff. Conclusion: Hotel managers must provide high-quality service and a favorable brand image to nurture customer loyalty and create a positive attitude. 5-star hotels should focus on a beautiful environment, warm service, friendly staff, brand loyalty, Chinese-style services, and traditional nationality styles.
Dynamic labour structures within the tourism industry require employees to be adept and prepared for industry demands to deliver quality products. In South Africa, the role of tertiary institutions is to equip future tourism employees with these abilities; however, employers feel that graduates cannot fulfil industry’s demand, which creates challenges for students and tertiary institutions. As such, this research aimed to determine the managerial skills required by the accommodation sector in South Africa.
The study’s findings reflect industry role players’ viewpoints regarding new graduates and their employability and may be utilised to improve current tourism management qualifications at tertiary education institutions.
The City of Mati, Davao Oriental is one of the few places that can boast of a wide variety of natural attractions ideal for promoting eco-tourism enterprises. Dahican Beach is unique because it is the habitat of several charismatic marine megafauna, namely: dugongs, whale sharks, dolphins, and three species of nesting marine turtles. Yet, very little is about the marine species that have made Dahican their home. In 2013, the Regional ICRM Center XI simultaneously conducted two studies in Dahican: one was the baseline study on the status of marine megafauna in Mayo Bay, and the other was a willingness-to-pay study for the feasibility of collecting environmental fees. Both projects have implications on the sustainability of these resources as well as that of future tourism endeavors. Around the same time, however, the operation of a personal watercraft (PWC) - popularly known as Jet Ski® had been observed in Dahican. Such an activity has and will result to a number of issues including but not limited to conflict with other beach recreationists, disruption in the conduct of RIC Xl's research, and the potentially grave threat to the survival of marine organisms, especially the large marine vertebrates. To elucidate to the reader the possible threats of PWCs on the marine wildlife of Dahican, a literature review is provided.
Sustainable tourism plays a pivotal role in the conservation of endangered mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei); however, few studies have investigated tourist expectations and satisfaction from a tourism management perspective. We conducted a questionnaire survey (N = 303) from December 2019 to January 2020 in Bwindi, Uganda, and measured tourists’ expectations and satisfaction of 21 specific aspects on 5-point Likert scale. We also collected socio-demographic data and measured the overall satisfaction, recommendations to their friends and/or relatives, and the willingness to revisit on 10-point Likert scale. Tourists had high expectations, especially regarding observation experience, conservation, and education, while they had high satisfaction levels for most items, but with large variances in several aspects such as the costs and easiness of tracking. Mean satisfaction levels outweighed mean expectations in most items except for the sense of crowdedness and observation manner. The overall satisfaction and recommendation levels were very high but the willingness to revisit varied among tourists (negatively correlated with age), suggesting gorilla tourism is once in a lifetime experience for many tourists. The results indicated that mountain gorilla tourism performed well, but also highlighted implications for maintaining a sustainable tourism-conservation balance.
Olive oil tourism offers enormous potential in rural areas where extra virgin olive oil is produced. This sector is characterized by the high seasonality of its economic activity (from November to February), which generates huge inequalities between rural and urban areas, leading to high rates of unemployment and depopulation due to the lack of stable work throughout the year. The set of activities that revolve around olive oil tourism help to structure the offer and generate satisfaction with the service. This could generate a constant flow of income throughout the year and complement agricultural activity, thus reducing the seasonality problems mentioned above. In this respect, the configuration of these olive oil tourism activities represents a challenge from the supply-side perspective, especially if we take into account the differences that may arise between different groups of tourists. This article seeks to analyse and structure the main olive oil tourism activities using Importance-Performance (I-P) analysis in relation to national and international tourists’ satisfaction. The aim is to select and structure the key activities in the supply of olive oil tourism, and determine which need to be improved in order to offer a better service. These key activities differ between the two study target audiences, where a higher requirement is observed on the part of international tourists, so a series of strategies are recommended to help the management of these destinations.
Desde el marco de la ecología política se analizan conflictos socioambientales producidos por el desarrollo del mercado turístico de avistamiento y nado con el tiburón ballena en la Bahía de La Paz. Se trata de entender un proceso de despojo legitimado dentro de un marco legal que beneficia a ciertos actores y vulnera a otros, así como analizar los mecanismos de resistencia oculta de pescadores ribereños frente a este proceso. La existencia de un plan de manejo vigente ha sido un detonante que legitima el despojo por la restricción de acceso a un espacio de uso común, afectando la pesca ribereña y al esparcimiento de habitantes locales; y lejos de ayudar a mejorar las condiciones ecológicas y de conservación del tiburón, este ha sido un instrumento que beneficia al sector turístico al construir un espacio exclusivo para su efectiva operación, a costa de impactos negativos directos hacia esta especie.
Resumo | O presente trabalho corresponde a uma revisão sistemática da literatura sobre a satisfação e insatisfação turísticas no âmbito insular. A (in)satisfação turística geral apresenta muitos estudos um pouco por todo o mundo e revelam que este tema da (in)satisfação turística, a nível insular ou continental , pode ser investigada a partir de várias áreas como são exemplos as caraterísticas gerais do destino (atrativos culturais e naturais, equipamentos e infraestruturas), a capacidade tecnológica do destino e as instituições ou agentes da oferta turística. Este trabalho pretende identificar research gaps nesta área que compreendem aspetos da (in)satisfação turística pouco estudados nos destinos insulares. A meto-dologia aplicada nesta investigação corresponde a uma análise qualitativa bibliométrica e de conteúdo de artigos identificados a partir das bases de dados Scopus e a Web of Science. Palavras-chave | Satisfação turística insular, insatisfação turística insular, marketing e turismo insula-res, turistas, revisão da literatura Abstract | This work corresponds to a systematic review of the literature on tourist satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the insular context. The overall tourist satisfaction presents many studies all over the world and reveals that this topic, at an island or continental levels can be investigated from several areas such as examples the general characteristics of the destination (cultural and natural attractions, equipment and infrastructure), a technological capacity of the destination and the institutions or agents of the tourist oer. This work aims to identify research gaps in this area that comprise aspects of tourist (dis)satisfaction scarcely studied in island destinations. The methodology applied in this investigation corresponds to a qualitative bibliometric and content analysis of identied articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases.
Turizm, büyük bir büyüme potansiyeline sahip, sürekli genişleyen bir hizmet sektörüdür. Bu nedenle sadece ulusal değil, aynı zamanda bir bütün olarak uluslararası toplumun en önemli uğraşlarından biri haline gelmiştir. Turizm, ekonomideki farklı endüstrilerden ürün talep eden çeşitli tüketim faaliyetlerinin birleşmesinden oluşmakta ve farklı insanlar için farklı şeyler ifade etmektedir. Bu nedenle turistlerin, farklı nedenlerle seyahat etmeye motive olduğu söylenebilir. Turizm, turistlerin ihtiyaçlarını takip etmek ve karşılamak için toplum ve endüstri ile birlikte gelişmektedir. Yeni teknolojilerin ve internetin ortaya çıkışı, turizm alanında bir takım değişiklikler ve yenilikler getirmiştir. Çok sayıda verinin olması, insanların ilgisini, bilgi ve deneyimlerini etkilemiştir. Teknolojinin gelişmesi, birçok sosyal medya araçlarının kullanımı, ekonomideki gelişmeler gibi yaşanan değişimler tüketici istek ve beklentilerini etkilemiş ve bu beklentileri karşılayabilmek için turizmde yeni eğilimler ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu çalışmada turizmdeki yeni eğilimlerin kavramsal olarak incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu kapsamda uluslararası yazında son günlerde çalışılan fakat ulusal yazında çokça bilinmeyen yeni eğilimler bir arada incelenerek ulusal yazına kazandırılmaya çalışılmıştır.
Park and protected area visitors are important. They have political, economic, social and ecological impacts. Much of a reserve’s staff time and operational funds are dedicated to assisting, supporting and managing human use. Much of a reserve’s planning and development activities are centered on human factors. The same information needed by managers is also often important to residents and business people from local communities. All of the people living on the routes traveled by park visitors will be influenced by the flow of people to and from the park.
All management is dependent upon information. The better the quality of information; the better the opportunity for good management. Information about the visitors and their activities enables managers to deal with the challenge of increasing volumes of tourism.
This manual describes terms, approaches and techniques for gathering information about public use of parks and protected areas. The goal of the manual is to supply the information necessary to meet the needs of park and protected area management in this rapidly changing field.
This paper discusses one example of alternative tourism, trekking in Northern Thailand, to assess the nature of the interaction between the changes in the attraction and the motivations of the client group. Visitation does reduce the authenticity of the villagers, yet several adaptive strategies are successfully employed by the companies to counteract this. A survey of trekkers revealed high satisfactions, yet motivations are changing to emphasize the authenticity of the entire experience rather than the ethnic authenticity of the hilltribes. A transformation is taking place from primary ethnic tourism to cultural tourism with a strong recreational emphasis. While this bodes well for future sustainability, hilltribe response and involvement remain minimal.RésuméTourisme parallèle et mesures d'adaptation. Cet article aborde les voyages-randonnées au Nord de la Thaĩlande, afin d'évaluer l'interdépendance des changements caractérisant les goûts et les motivations du groupe-client. Le tourisme affecte l'authenticité ethnique des tribus visitées; néanmoins, les compagnies ont mis en oeuvre des movens d'adaptation pour contrebalancer cette situation. Une enquête a révélé un taux de satisfaction élevé, même si les motivations changent: le caractère authentique de l'expérience l'emporte sur l'authenticité ethnique des tribus. Le tourisme ayant comme but unique des destinations exotiques cède progressivement la place au tourisme culturel avec un fort accent sur la détente. Quoique cela augure bien de la viabilité du tourisme, la réponse et la participation des tribus demeurent minimales.
Although grey seals are relatively common in Britain, their numbers elsewhere are believed to be decreasing, and some populations in Europe are listed as endangered by the IUCN. This case study focuses on the impacts of seal tourism on a colony of seals on the South Devon coast in the United Kingdom, the effectiveness of current management policies and tourists’ perceptions of the voluntary controls adhered to by tour operators. To monitor impacts, covert observations of the site were undertaken on 60 designated survey days in the summer of 2006, while a survey of tourists taking part in wildlife cruises to the site was conducted during the same period. The observations found that the voluntary codes had reduced disturbance from operators; however, there were still disturbances, mainly from private vessels. The results of the survey showed that tourists were aware of their potential impacts upon the wildlife, and were generally supportive of the voluntary codes in place. Therefore if an honest explanation and interpretation of the potential impacts of seal tourism are provided, it may encourage a protectionist predisposition in wildlife tourists and render the compliance of voluntary codes a highly satisfactory tourist experience rather than a negative one.
Proponents of ecotourism within protected areas believe that tour design and interpretation can help mitigate the negative impacts of tourism, human and environmental, and build an educated and motivated constituency that supports environmental conservation and social improvements. However, ecotourism's claims to achieve those objectives are largely untested, and linkages between tourism's operational characteristics and positive changes in tourists” environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviours are largely unexplored. This exploratory research investigated the efforts of one Galapagos National Park tour operator to explore whether a well-conceived interpretation/ecotourism product could influence tourists” educational outcomes and support of environmental conservation. Results suggest that well-designed and delivered interpretation during the ecotourism experience can increase knowledge of the host-protected area, supportive attitudes towards resource management issues facing the host-protected area, general environmental behavioural intentions and philanthropic support of conservation.
Predictable and long-term whale shark (Rhincodon typus) aggregations can be observed in few locations around the world. In some places where this occurs the use of the species through ecotourism has become an important economic activity. Bahia de los Angeles, Mexico is an important habitat for whale sharks for up to 7 months per year. Based on their presence, ecotourism activities with the species have become more popular among the local community in recent years. Whale sharks and their habitat represent an important form of natural capital with high potential to produce economic value; however this has not translated in an improvement of the local communities’ quality of life due to several limitations that the activity, resource and users confront. The most evident threat is free access, carrying with it a potential loss of economic benefits due to resource saturation and when external groups use the resource or tourists observe the species without having to hire local tour operators. It is recognized that property right regimes are fundamental because they define the rights and obligations for the use of natural resources and the rules by which these rights and obligations are implemented. The present study recommends the implementation of a strategy for the sustainable management of whale sharks based on property rights; taking into account both the characteristics of the resource and the social context where it is used. Through the opinion of a consultant panel comprised of representatives from federal, state and municipal governments, as well as academics, non-governmental organizations and local users of the resource, three different options are analysed – free access; a limited number of permits for local users; a concession of the area in favour of the group of local users – by means of four qualitative criteria (efficiency, equity, transaction costs and acceptance) and a quantitative criterion (duration), using multicriteria analysis. The evaluation concludes that the scenario which is the most efficient, equitable, with lower transaction costs and more acceptable is a concession of the area in favour of the group of local users.
Over 100 million sharks are killed annually, putting enormous pressure on shark populations worldwide. Sharks have traditionally been considered a detriment to coastal tourism, but since the early 1990s, shifts in attitudes amongst divers have led to growth in the popularity of shark watching as a tourist activity. An estimated 500,000 divers a year find, photograph, feed, and swim with sharks, contributing millions of dollars to local and regional economies. This paper examines whether the economic value attached to shark watching can provide enough incentive to reduce consumptive exploitation levels. Although the economic value attached to shark watching has led to greater protection of sharks in some locations, analysis of available data suggests that incentives do not appear large enough to encourage a significant reduction in fishing pressure appropriate to the scale of threat facing sharks. Growth of the shark watching industry is constrained by a number of factors including perceived risks and benefits, declining shark populations, and government regulations. However, conservation strategies for sharks involving tourism can be envisaged, involving varying levels of non-consumptive and consumptive uses of sharks. Three kinds of interaction between the non-consumptive and consumptive use of sharks are outlined along with implications for shark conservation.
One activity with potential to provide a direct incentive for reef conservation is scuba diving. In the absence of effective management, diving can also have negative impacts. This study shows how an understanding of diver specialization can be used to help manage diving and increase its effectiveness as an incentive-driven conservation activity. Surveys were used to assess motivations, satisfactions and dive history of divers in Phuket (Thailand) and categorize divers by degree of specialization. Highly specialized divers were more likely to be on a live-aboard trip than less specialized divers and placed greater importance on the characteristics of the dive itself rather than the trip. Less specialized divers put more emphasis on non-dive characteristics. Satisfaction levels differed significantly among specialization groups in terms of overall satisfaction with the dive experience, satisfactions compared with motivations and satisfactions with specific trip characteristics. Overall there was a decline in satisfaction levels with increasing specialization. These finding are compared to a wildlife tourism model that links impacts with client characteristics and suggests a displacement of specialists by generalists and changes in the limits of acceptable change (LAC) over time. The dive data supported this progression leading to increased industry competition and reduced opportunities to sustain a broad-based dive industry that will act as an incentive-driven mechanism for reef conservation. Specific actions related to reef access and zoning according to a diver opportunity spectrum (DOS), establishing LAC and monitoring programmes, enforcing safety and environmental regulations are suggested to promote a more sustainable approach to dive management. Social science insights can be used to aid reef management strategies and increase the potential for diving to contribute towards reef conservation.
Marine wildlife tours provide a range of education and conservation benefits for visitors. These benefits derive from interpretation programs and close personal encounters with marine wildlife. Interpretive information covers the biology, ecology and behaviors of marine species, best practice guidelines, and human threats to marine life. There has been limited assessment of interpretation on marine wildlife tours to identify whether these increase tourist knowledge and promote changes in environmental attitudes. This article reviews the educational benefits of guided marine wildlife experiences with dolphins, whales, and marine turtles using Oram's (1999)64.
Orams , M. 1999. Marine tourism: Development, impacts and management, London: Routledge. View all references framework of outcome indicators to manage marine tourism. The key indicators assessed in this article are education/learning and attitude/belief changes in visitors that benefit marine wildlife. This analysis found tourist learning during mediated encounters with marine wildlife contributes to pro-environmental attitudes and on-site behavior changes, with some longer-term intentions to support and engage in marine conservation actions. Areas of research are suggested to examine the causal links between wildlife interpretation and pro-environmental outcomes.
The whale shark ( Rhincodon typus ) is a popular focal species within the global marine tourism industry. Although this has contributed to increased protection being granted to the species in several countries, tourism itself can be detrimental to the sharks in the absence of appropriate management. Potential impacts can be mitigated, at least in the short term, by adherence to well‐designed interaction guidelines.
A burgeoning marine tourism industry based on swimming with whale sharks has developed at Tofo Beach in Mozambique. However, no formal management is currently in place at this site.
The behaviour of whale sharks during interactions with boats and swimmers were recorded during 137 commercial snorkelling trips run from Tofo Beach over a 20 month period. Whale sharks were encountered on 87% of trips, which operated year‐round.
Boat proximity and shark size were significant predictors of avoidance behaviour. No avoidance responses were recorded at >20 m boat distance.
The mean in‐water interaction time between sharks and swimmers was 8 min 48 s overall. There was a significant decrease in interaction times during encounters where sharks expressed avoidance behaviours, and also in cases where sharks had expressed boat avoidance behaviour before swimmers entered the water.
It is suggested that mean encounter times can be extended through adherence to a basic Code of Conduct for operators and swimmers that enforces minimum distances between the sharks, boats and swimmers. Using encounter time as a measure of the ‘success’ of interactions holds promise, as longer encounters appear to be indicative of lower impacts on sharks while also providing higher customer satisfaction for swimmers. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The information available on the biology and ecology of the whale shark is reviewed, and is updated from material published since 1986. Research work carried out on the seasonal aggregation of whale sharks at the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia is summarized. Future research studies on whale sharks in the Ningaloo Marine Park are discussed in the context of management of sustainable whale shark interaction tourism.
This paper presents an application of the IPA technique, coupled with market segmentation, to a sample of visitors to Tanzania's National Parks. The utility of the technique in a protected area context is highlighted, by comparing it with the results from three programme perspectives – non-segmented data (a homogeneous IPA programme), segmented data that look at performance measurements only (a segmented performance-only programme), and segmented data (a segmented IPA programme). A few examples of non-parametric statistical analysis are presented to highlight the flexibility of the technique. When combined with market segmen-tation, IPA is a superior technique to that of a non-segmented approach, which views the sample as homogeneous and can lead to the displacement of visitors. It is also superior to that of a performance-only approach. The technique is achievable for a protected area agency with limited resources and expertise and is also a good starting point for agencies with suitable resources and expertise.
This study examines tourist compliance to the Code of Conduct for whale shark (Rhincodon typus) interactions and assesses impacts of tourists on whale sharks in Donsol, Philippines. Whale sharks feed in Donsol's nutrient rich waters between November and June, drawing up to 7100 visitors annually. Tourist, tour operator, and whale shark behavior were examined during human–whale shark interactions (n = 777) on 117 boat trips (March, April and May) in 2004, and on 76 boat trips in 2005 (n = 620). Average compliance to Code of Conduct regulations in 2004 and 2005 was 44% for the minimum distance kept; 82% for no touching, no path obstruction and a maximum of six swimmers per whale shark; 89% for a maximum of one boat per shark, 99% for no flash photography and no SCUBA, scooters, and jet-skis. Significant predictors of whale shark's directional changes were path obstruction and proximity of swimmer to whale shark, while for whale shark's dive response it was first-time sighting and whale shark feeding. The significant predictor of a violent shudder behavior was touching. Generalized linear modeling evaluated change in direction, dive response and violent shuddering variables, and found that touching, flash photography, and swimmer diving towards the whale shark significantly affected the magnitude of disturbance. Tourism impacts on whale sharks can be minimized through adaptive management that monitors tourism and alters interaction regulations to reflect tourist and tour operator actions that have detrimental effects on whale sharks.
Recreational non-consumptive use of wildlife has been attracting increasing numbers of people and generating growing economic benefits from tourism activity. More importantly this type of wildlife interaction has potential benefits to conservation from the long-term effect of changing attitudes towards wild animals and natural habitats. It does not, however, fit well into the existing wildlife management paradigm due to the nature of the final product, a recreation experience. This paper aims to provide an integrated framework that illustrates the major components of non-consumptive wildlife recreation and links between research areas in ecology, animal behaviour, recreation, tourism and existing wildlife management institutions. The fundamental purpose of this paper is to cast wildlife conservation in a new light that recognizes the need to formulate management plans in both a social and biological context.
This study offers an integrated approach to understanding tourist motivation and attempts to extend the theoretical and empirical evidence on the causal relationships among the push and pull motivations, satisfaction, and destination loyalty. The research model investigates the relevant relationships among the constructs by using a structural equation modeling approach. Consequently, destination managers should establish a higher tourist satisfaction level to create positive post-purchase tourist behavior, in order to improve and sustain destination competitiveness.
This book seeks to underscore the need for scientific approaches to first understanding and then managing tourist interactions with marine wildlife. It draws upon the work of leading natural and social scientists whose work serves the interests of sustainable wildlife-based marine tourism. Thus from within the natural science disciplines of marine biology, environmental science, behavioural ecology, conservation biology, and wildlife management come chapters that provide insights into the effects of human disturbance on marine wildlife, the impacts that tourists may have upon wild animals, and the management approaches to mitigating impacts that may in the long term be biologically significant. Equally from the social science disciplines of geography, sociology, management and social anthropology are drawn chapters that explore demand for marine wildlife experiences, the benefits that visitors derive from their experiences, ethical and legislative contexts, and management issues that arise when tourists interact with populations of wild animals in coastal and marine environments.
The planet's most fascinating and yet tantalisingly under-researched component is now a rapidly growing tourism frontier. The sea attracts millions of tourists annually with its diverse array of exclusive activities, but its sheer size brings with it considerable problems for management. Within the context of other economic activities that may compromise the success, if not the very existence of marine ecotourism, this text examines the wide range of marine ecotourism resources, not only natural, but also cultural and man-made. Covering economic, marketing planning and regulation issues, this book also considers the vital role of marine ecotourism in raising awareness of the significance of the seas and oceans to sustainable coastal livelihoods. At a time of great concern over the effects of climate change and high profile issues such as depletion of fish stocks and oil spillages, the insights this book provides are essential reading.
This chapter critically reviews travel motivation research which represents the development of the travel motivation concept over the years. The chapter applies Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory to travel motivational theory. Implicit and explicit applications of the Maslow hierarchy to tourism studies are discussed. Among those studies, the chapter highlights the approaches of the travel career ladder (TCL) and travel career pattern (TCP). The chapter examines the push and pull concept as another line of travel motivation studies. Mannell and Iso-Ahola's model of escaping and seeking dimensions, though developed as a framework of leisure motivation, informs the discussion leading to general implications and applicability in tourism studies. Also, the chapter discusses the merits of Plog's allocentrism/psychocentrism model. Plog's model helps explain the phenomenal rise and fall of travel destinations. In addition, the chapter discusses methodological issues in tourist motivation research. Building from the review the chapter closes with managerial implications.
Importance-Performance analysis is a technique for relating the measurement of attribute importance and performance to the development of marketing programs.
This study examines whether survey results profiling homogeneous recreation populations can be valid at lower response rates. Four similar, but separate national park visitor surveys using on-site interviews, mail-back questionnaires and follow-ups were conducted in 1988. The results at four different response rates (35, 50, 65 percent; and the final total response) were analyzed and compared. No substantive reason was found to reject results with a response rate of 65 percent compared to the final response rates of, on average, 86 percent. Rejecting study results with response rates in the range of 35 to 50 percent may be justifiable.
Several different approaches have been used to undertake Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), aka quadrant analysis or gap analysis. This study compares methods across 15 datasets and finds that the traditional 2×2 grid approach can be misleading. Using indirect (e.g. multiple regression) methods for determining importances may also be misleading. The most valid method of performing IPA is identified, and a method for confirming its validity is provided.
How an automobile dealer used a two-dimensional grid to relate consumers' views of the service they receive to identify priority areas for marketing effort.
A sample of 617 student respondents was drawn from 12 universities, in different parts of the United States. Semantic differential instruments were used to measure respondents' descriptive and importance dimensions of thei.- image of Mexico.
The analysis indicated major differences between the two image dimensions. Those image attributes which respondents considered to be important when considering a vacation in Mexico were related primarily to sanitation and safety. The most positive attributes respondents reported about Mexico related to climate and low costs.
Measurement of respondents' descriptive image of Mexico indicated that the farther away respondents resided from Mexico, the more favorable was their image of that country as a vacation destination. Analysis indicated that the regional differences were not significant. However, significant differences were found on 12 of the 30 individual attributes which were used to measure image.
Despite an extensive literature on novelty-seeking and the intuitive appeal of vacation behavior as a setting for its observation, the significance of a pleasure trip that is familiar or "commonplace" as opposed to one that is "novel" has not been investigated. The purpose of this study is to describe novel versus commonplace trips and to explore behavioral and demographic differences between travelers who experience different levels of novelty.
The present paper attempts to provide an answer to the much neglected sociological treatment of tourist motivation, with specific reference to the question, “What makes tourists travel?” A theoretical case is suggested for concentration on “push” factors, and, in particular, those stemming from “anomie” and “ego-enhancement” in the tourist himself. It is further argued that the presence of such factors is conducive to the creation of a fantasy world, one to which he plans a periodic escape. At the empirical level, the study evaluates the above two concepts in the light of a recent investigation of visitors' attitudes to Barbados. Thecomponents of the typology are also briefly examined.
Practical Surveys. Cornerstones of a Quality Survey. Deciding What Information You Need. Choosing a Survey Method. When and How to Select a Sample. Writing Good Questions. Questionnaire Design. Setting Your Survey in Motion and Getting It Done. From Questionnaires to Survey Results. Reporting Survey Results. Advice, Resources, and Maintaining Perspective. References. Index.
This paper explores the potential of tour guides to contribute to the protection of natural areas by educating their customers through interpretation and modeling environmentally appropriate behaviors. Applying Cohen's (1985) model of the guides' role, modified by Weiler and Davis (1993)60.
Weiler , B. and
Davis , D. 1993. An exploratory investigation into the roles of the nature-based tour leader. Tourism Management, 14(2): 91–98. [CrossRef]View all references, as a framework, it examines the potential role that kayak tour guides can play in shaping the experience of visitors to one marine area, the Pacific Rim National Park. It uses two approaches to explore the perceptions of clients about the role of kayak guides using: (1) a pre- and post-trip questionnaire and (2) participant observation. Results indicate that five of the six roles were rated high in importance, but one role, the communication role, was not as important. Comparing performance with importance attached to each role revealed congruence with five roles, but lower levels of performance in relation to importance with the role of “motivator of responsible behavior”. Variability within all of the importance and performance measures suggest that for some individuals, performance did not match importance, highlighting the need to consider market segmentation in future studies. These findings are discussed within the ecotourism paradigm, and their implications for protected area management and for visitor behavior modification are considered.
A study which tested the effectiveness of an education programme for managing tourists was conducted at Tangalooma, Australia. At this holiday resort tourists are able to hand-feed a group of wild dolphins which visit the shallow waters adjacent to the resort's beach. The education programme, which uses techniques derived from cognitive psychology and learning theory, attempted to prompt increased enjoyment, knowledge and improved environmental attitudes, intentions and behaviour in participants. The study, which compared a control group who were not exposed to the education with an experiment group who were, found that desirable changes did occur as a result of the programme. This research provides much needed evidence that education can be an effective means of managing tourists' interaction with wildlife and the natural environment © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This study identified potential mainland Chinese visitors' motivations and barriers of visiting Hong Kong. The push and pull motivation theory was used as the study foundation. Data were collected in China from 353 potential visitors. Results showed that sightseeing was the most important movitation. However, Hong Kong was perceived as an expensive place to visit. Demographic characteristics were not related to respondents' perception or importance ratings of travel motivations or barriers. Respondents who had visited Hong Kong rated the perception and importance of barriers significantly different from those who had not visited.
A crucial stage in the formulation of operations strategy is the
derivation of a ranked (or rated) list of competitive factors such as
quality, flexibility, cost. This list is used either to infer an
appropriate set of strategic operations decisions or alternatively it is
used in conjunction with an independently derived list of the
organization's performance to prioritize each of the competitive
factors. Martilla and James take the latter approach to derive an
importance-performance matrix. Examines how the matrix can be modified
to reflect managers' perceived relationships between “importance”,
“performance” and “priority for improvement”. Reports two investigations,
one dealing with operations improvement at the level of the whole
operations function, the other at the level of the department or
micro-operation. Proposes a different zoning of the
importance-performance matrix from that used by Martilla and James.
This study explored the concept of social carrying capacity to identify an acceptable use level for a marine park reserve. Many studies have examined a social capacity of the outdoor recreation sites, whereas few studies have been conducted in the ocean recreation settings. The study attempts to identify a social carrying capacity of a marine park based on the users' evaluation of crowding. Based on the perceived level of crowding, the results suggest that the use level of Hanauma Bay (the Bay) is exceeding capacity. This article provides suggested use levels to implement a social carrying capacity management system.
A widely accepted overall goal in marine protected area management is to allow for multiple uses that are appropriate and sustainable. An issue relevant to this goal is the quality of the experience perceived by users of marine protected areas. Understanding relationships between stakeholder values at different sites and their perceptions of crowding and other impacts is, therefore, important information for managers. As a consequence, the study reported here compares the perceptions of individuals involved in tourism, commercial and recreational fishing, scientific research, boating, yachting, and other activities with values derived from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park management and scientific databases. Surveys of regular reef users indicated that different activities were targeted at specific areas according to a combination of values that could be statistically analyzed and mapped across the region. Respondents considered that current levels of use were too high for many locations in the Cairns Sector. They preferred to see fewer people and vessels, but were more concerned by the number of vessels than the number of people. Acceptable levels of use varied widely depending on the location. At established tourism destinations and major recreational fishing sites, responses indicated that a large number of vessels (20-100) and people (100-1,000) could be tolerated. At areas visited only rarely, only low levels of use were acceptable. This suggests that there may be shifts in perceptions at sites that become used more frequently. The results have implications for management as reef use continues to increase and extend to other locations. Results from the survey were used to assess management settings to limit the level and type of activity in different areas. The techniques used have since been valuable in helping to plan for sustainable marine use in other regions in Australia and might be usefully employed elsewhere.
Services and products possess various attributes, some being more important than others. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) is a technique for prioritising attributes based on measurements of performance and importance. A weakness of IPA is that it conceptualises attribute importance as a scalar which is independent of attribute performance. In this article we theorise that importance is not adequately represented as a point estimate, but is a function of performance. When attribute performance changes, importance does also, which can change the relative priority of subsequent improvement efforts. Empirical results are presented which support our theory, The nature of the performance-importance response function is discussed, along with implications. Ideas for future research are also discussed, including application of the findings to quality modelling (SERVQUAL) and other decision support methodologies (Quality Function Deployment and the Analytic Hierarchy Process).
In this paper, we examine the expenditure of whale shark tour participants at Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia; the location of the world's first whale shark tourism industry, established in 1989. We demonstrate that in 2006, participants' expenditure in the region was 6.0 million (all figures are in Australian dollars), and between 4.6 million would have been lost to the region if whale shark tourism did not exist. Our measure of participants' expenditure is substantially lower than the calculation of $2370 per participant from a previous study of whale shark tourists using data collected in 1995. We argue that this is consistent with a change in the types of wildlife tourists that participate in an activity as the industry reaches the point of consolidation. Our results also suggest that using old data to forecast wildlife tourists' expenditure needs to take into account the industry's stage of development. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Wildlife tourism can be prone to unmitigated development to promote visitor satisfaction that is all too often progressed at the cost of ecological integrity. A manager is thus faced with the dual task of enhancing the tourist experience and protecting the wildlife species. Accordingly, this mandate requires research into how tourists would respond to proposed wildlife‐management plans.
This study examines the heterogeneity of tourist preferences for wildlife management at a stingray‐feeding attraction in the Cayman Islands, using a latent class stated preference choice model. A sample of visitors to Stingray City Sandbar (SCS) evaluated hypothetical wildlife viewing experiences in a discrete choice experiment. Its scenarios were characterized by seven attributes such as animal‐feeding and handling rules, ecological outcomes, social crowding, and management cost (defined as a conservation access fee).
The latent class segmentation identified two groups in the population: approximately 68% preferred the implementation of fairly strict management rules, while the other 32% valued more the maintenance of status quo with its intensive human — wildlife interactions. Despite the differences between the ‘pro‐management’ and the ‘pro‐current’ segments, both exhibited a preference for the continuation of feeding and handling the stingrays (albeit at different levels of intensity) suggesting that one effective way to implement any management actions is to alter the promotional and marketing strategies for SCS. Other survey questions on trip experience, conservation values, and socio‐demographics were used to define these classes further, with the main distinguishing trait being the level of concern for potential impacts occurring at SCS. The discrepancies between the two segments became most obvious when calculating their respective market shares of support for alternative management strategies.
This approach to determining visitor preferences can help explain how the various segments will be affected by management options, and therefore can provide the basis for developing feasible strategies that will assist wildlife managers in maximizing tourist satisfaction while achieving wildlife‐protection goals.
Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
One of the aims of wildlife tourism is to educate visitors about the threats facing wildlife in general, and the actions needed to protect the environment and maintain biodiversity. To identify effective strategies to achieve this aim, this paper examines participants’ memories of their wildlife tourism experiences and explores processes through which such experiences can lead to long-term changes in conservation behaviour. Findings are based on 240 visitors’ extended open-ended responses to a follow-up web survey administered approximately four months after a visit to one of four marine-based wildlife tourism venues in Southeast Queensland. Qualitative analysis revealed four levels of visitor response to the experience, implying a process involving what visitors actually saw and heard (sensory impressions), what they felt (emotional affinity), thought (reflective response), and finally what they did about it (behavioural response). Recommendations are provided for ways tourism managers and wildlife interpreters can maintain and strengthen these dimensions of memorable experiences in order to enhance visitor satisfaction and encourage visitors’ long-term adoption of environmentally sustainable practices.