No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Differentiating Settings of Tourist-Animal Interactions: An Anthrozoological Perspective
Despite the progression of animal welfare within the tourism literature and the industry itself, a significant change in public behaviour remains to be seen. Anthropocentric views of animals as objects are still widespread. This paper proposes a new approach to engaging the public in ethical behaviours by meeting visitors where they are in terms of their values and priorities. Drawing on Susan Wolf’s work, we propose a realistic line of attack to ethics that offers an opportunity for researchers and advocates to think more critically about the many ways that people might relate to morality, particularly regarding animals encountered in travel. We suggest that this approach may serve to better the lives of the animals by appealing to tourists’ nuanced ethical stances regarding animals.
Son yıllarda hayvanlarla ilişkilendirilen turizm türlerine olan ilginin giderek artmasıyla birlikte turizm endüstrisinde hayvan kullanımı ve dolayısıyla hayvan etiği konuları yoğun olarak tartışılan konular arasına girmeye başlamıştır. Turistlerin hayvanlara bakışı ve tutumu, gruplar hatta milletler arasında farklılık gösterebilmektedir. Pek çok turist, hayvan kullanımının söz konusu olduğu turizm türlerinin arkasında büyük acıların yaşandığını bilmeden, sadece hayvanları sevdikleri için ilgili turizm hareketliliklerine dahil olabilmektedir. Hayvan refahına ve korunmasına önem veren bu turistler hayvanların kullanıldığı turizm faaliyetlerine katılmakta, talep neticesinde gerçekleşen ticari ilişki de daha fazla hayvanın endüstriye konu olmasına paradoksal olarak sebebiyet vermektedir. Yaşanan bu bilinçli ya da bilinçsiz istismarın önüne geçilebilmesi ve hayvanların endüstri içerisine sürdürülebilir bir algıyla dahil edilmesi gerekliliği, hayvanların turizm endüstrisindeki kullanımının tüm yönleri ile açıkça ortaya koyulması ve incelenmesi ile mümkün olabilir. Bu çalışma turizm endüstrisinin hayvanlar ile ilişkisini, turist-hayvan ilişkisinin ortamını ve türünü incelemektedir. İlgili incelemeler; Turist-hayvan temasının gerçekleştiği alanlar, gerçekleşen temasın yapıcı veya yıkıcı oluşu, hayvanın doğal ortamından koparılıp koparılmadığı gibi unsurlar üzerinden gerçekleştirilmektedir.
A review of research on animal ethics and tourism, based on a sample of 74 articles in ten tourism journals is presented. A range of ethics positions was identified including rights, ecofeminist, ecocentric, welfare, utilitarian, and instrumental. Some studies challenge the ontological bases, and therefore the moral considerability of animals used in tourism: speciesism, native/introduced, a wild-captive continuum and domestic animals. Other themes include the harm caused to animals, and an ‘animal gaze’ which commodifies animals as objects. The ethical positions of the tourism industry, regulatory groups and tourists were also identified. Overall, the articles challenge the use of animals for entertainment, and confirm the imperative for a developing body of research in the field of animal ethics.
This chapter will consider the history of whale and dolphin watching as a tourism activity, based on visitors’ experiences. The analysis was based on 468 visitors’ comments on a familiar travel forum under the four categories developed in Ballantyne, Packer and Sutherland’s research in (Tourism Management 32(4):770–779, 2011b). These categories are sensory impressions, emotional affinity, reflective response, and behavioural response. The comments were analysed using a content analysis method. It was found that the behavioural response dimension reported by visitors was lower than the other experience dimensions. The study concluded with some suggestions for both business owners and wildlife tourism researchers.
This article investigates the changing forms of human engagement with tigers—in terms of manner of interaction, perceptions, experiences, and activation of the senses—in a four-fold sequence of settings. It outlines the process by which the fascinating ‘Otherness’ of the tiger in the wilderness has been gradually attenuated, as he was mastered by humans, first by virtual extermination, and then by increasingly strict forms of subjugation, eventually to become an apparently harmless plaything for patting tourists. The article dwells upon the tiger's resistance to domination, expressed in occasional outbursts of aggression, perceived by his masters as ‘accidents’. It concludes that the consequences of contemporary tourism for the conservation of wild tigers are predominantly negative, even as tourism encourages the proliferation of captive tigers, and argues that without political will the problems engendered by tiger tourism cannot be resolved, even with the best professional advice.
A conceptual framework for the classification of the totality of settings of tourists' engagement with animals/based of the degree to which they are “framed,” is proposed. Four types of settings are distinguished, ranging from those offering the experience of Otherness of wild animals, to those offering entertainment by humanized animals. This framework is applied to a study of settings of tourist-animal engagement in Thailand; each type of settings is exemplified by a detailed case study. The study shows that, though Thailand is represented as a country rich in wildlife, destruction of the animals' natural habitats in the process of development, and poaching in nominally protected settings, has reduced tourists' chances to engage with the Otherness of wild animals in “fully-natural,” and even “semi-natural,” settings, like national parks; contemporary mass tourists to Thailand engage primarily with captured wild animals in “semi-contrived” settings, like zoos, and especially with tamed, trained or humanized ones in “fully-contrived” settings, like establishments offering elephant shows.
Wildlife tourism generates conservation cash that many endangered species now rely on to a startling degree. Curb it at their peril, warns Ralf Buckley
This paper reviews the results of a study of 267 children in the second, fifth, eighth and eleventh grades. A battery of tests was used to examine children's knowledge and attitudes toward animals, and behavioral contacts with animals. A typology of basic attitudes toward animals and appropriate scales were employed. Children's knowledge and attitudes toward animals were also compared to adults eighteen years of age and over. Major differences occurred among children distinguished by age, sex, ethnicity, and urban/rural residence. Additionally, significant knowledge and attitude variations occurred among diverse animal-related activity groups (e.g., among children who hunted, birdwatched, learned about animals in school). Perhaps the most important finding was the identification of three stages in the development of children's perceptions of animals. The transition from six to nine years of age primarily involved major changes in affective, emotional relationships to animals. The change from ten to thirteen years of age was marked by a major increase in cognitive, factual understanding, and knowledge of animals. The shift from thirteen to sixteen years of age witnessed a dramatic broadening in ethical concern and ecological appreciation of animals and the natural environment.
This article begins with analysis of four of the principal ‘modes of engagement’ which articulate the human/wild animal nexus: encounter; representation; presentation; and quasification. It then goes on to focus upon the zoo as a key site of animal presentation and of mass tourism. The argument is presented that the zoo in late modernity is undergoing crucial changes in its legitimating narratives. In addition, it is suggested that zoos are exhibiting a tendency towards Disneyization, which entails the following interlinked features: theming; dedifferentiation of consumption; merchandising; and emotional labour. We illustrate this tendency through the discussion of a variety of contemporary developments in zoos and wildlife parks.
This paper examines how the Japanese public perceives the natural world und its conservation, mainly wildlife. Limited comparisons are made to the United States. Data was collected in both countries using similar conceptual and methodological frameworks. Closed-ended surveys were conducted of random samples of the Japanese and American publics, and in-depth interviews were conducted with 50 environmentally knowledgeable Japanese.
A central interest was the apparent inconsistency of a presumed special Japanese appreciation of nature concurrent with u pattern of widespread environmental abuse extensive@ reported in the literature. The results of this study partially elucidate this paradox. Japanese appreciation for nature was found to be very narrow and idealized, primarily focusing on single species and lacking an ecological and ethical perspective. The Japanese and American publics were both found to possess strong affection for particularly favored species and enjoyed direct experiential contact with individual aspects of the environment. Both cultures were similarly pragmatic toward nature, and somewhat indifferent regarding the environment when it possessed little emotional value. The Japanese public placed far greater value on satisfactions derived from control and mastery over nature. Additionally, the Japanese expressed far less ethical or ecological concern for nature and wildlife than citizens of the United States. Americans also had significantly greater knowledge of wildlife.
Resumen: En èste documento se examina cómo es que el público japonés percibe al mundo natural y a su conservación, principalmente en relación a la vida silvestre; se hace una comparación limitada con el público de los Estados Unidos. Se tomaron datos de ambos países utilizando un marco de refiencia conceptual y metodológico similar. Sellevaron a cabo encuestus en muestras al azar de público americuno y de publico japones, y se hicieron entrevistas de fondo con cincuenta ambientalistas japoneses.
Un interés central fue la aparente inconsistencia de una presupuesta apreciación especial de la naturaleza por los japoneses en concordancia con una amplia distribución del abuso ambiental reportado extensamente en la literatura. Los resultados de este estudio aclaran parcialmente esta paradoja. La apreciación de los japoneses por la naturaleza se encontró muy cerrada e idealizada, enfocándose primariamente a especies únicas y careciendo de una perspectiva ecológica y ética. Se encontró que tanto el público japonés como el americano poseen una fuerte afeccion por especies particularmente fuvorecidas y gozan de la experiencia de contacto directo con uspectos individuales del ambiente. Ambas culturas fueron similarmente pragmáticas hacia la naturaleza y de alguna manera indiferentes en relación al ambiente cuando el ambiente poseiá poco valor emocional. El público japonés le dió mucho más valor a las satisfacciones derivadas del control y el dominio sobre la naturaleza. Adicionalmente, los japoneses expresaban mucho menos preocupaciones, éticas o ecológicas por la naturaleza y la vida silvestre, que los americanos. Los americanos también revelaron tener signifcativamente más conocimientos sobre la vida silvestre.
There are a wide variety of opportunities for people to interact with wildlife and the demand for these opportunities is growing rapidly. This range of opportunities can be viewed as a Spectrum of Tourist‐Wildlife Interaction Opportunities (SoTWIO). Within this spectrum are both situations where tourists view captive wildlife in facilities such as zoos and circuses and ones where tourists interact with wildlife in the wild, for example, in national parks or the marine environment. There are a wide range of management regimes and structures which are used to control the interaction between tourists and wildlife, and these regimes can be categorised as physical, regulatory, economic and educational. Currently, the management of interaction is dominated by physical and regulatory strategies, but considerable potential exists to increase the role of education‐based management strategies. The development of a conceptual model which clarifies the range of wildlife interaction opportunities and the management regimes used, and which specifies the outcomes desired, establishes a basis upon which the effectiveness of education can be tested.
The feeding of wildlife has become a popular means by which tourists and tourism operators can facilitate close observation and interaction with wildlife in the wild. These practices are widespread and have a variety of impacts on the wildlife—and on the tourists. Deliberate and long-term provision of food to wildlife has been shown to alter natural behaviour patterns and population levels. It has also resulted in the dependency of animals on the human provided food and their habituation to human contact. Intra- and inter-species aggression has also occurred where wildlife, in their efforts to obtain food, have harmed one another and harmed tourists. There are also important health implications arising from artificial food sources where injury and disease have resulted. While the great majority of cases show negative impacts arising from supplemental feeding of wildlife, this is not always the case. Certainly there are psychological, social and economic benefits that are experienced on the human side of the interaction and, in a limited number of cases, the wildlife can be shown to have benefited as well. The issue of feeding wildlife for tourism is a controversial one with little consensus regarding how it should be managed. Approaches range from complete prohibition, to active promotion and management, to simply ignoring the practices. Little empirical research, inconsistent management and differing views of the role of animals in humans’ lives ensure that this issue will remain a contentious one worthy of further examination and consideration.
The Value of Life is an exploration of the actual and perceived importance of biological diversity for human beings and society. Stephen R. Kellert identifies ten basic values, which he describes as biologically based, inherent human tendencies that are greatly influenced and moderated by culture, learning, and experience. Drawing on 20 years of original research, he considers: the universal basis for how humans value nature differences in those values by gender, age, ethnicity, occupation, and geographic location how environment-related activities affect values variation in values relating to different species how vlaues vary across cultures policy and management implications Throughout the book, Kellert argues that the preservation of biodiversity is fundamentally linked to human well-being in the largest sense as he illustrates the importance of biological diversity to the human sociocultural and psychological condition.
The Wild Animal in Late Modernity
Policy Implicatians if a National Stwiy rif American Attitudes and Behavioral Relations to Animals
- S Kellert
KELLERT, S.R (1978). Policy Implicatians if a National Stwiy rif American Attitudes and Behavioral Relations to Animals. Washington,
D.C. U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service.
Ed) Zoos and Tourism: Conservation, Education, Entertainment? Bristol
- Pizam Shani
SHANI, A and PIZAM, A (2011). A Typology of Animal Displays in Captive Settings. In Frost, W. (Ed) Zoos and Tourism:
Conservation, Education, Entertainment? Bristol, UK Channel View Publications: 33-46.
Submitted: January 18, 2013
Accepted: January 25, 2013
Department of the Interior
- S R Kellert