Ecotourium

The UCSB brown-bag forum on spatial thinking presents

Assisting Endangered Spaces: Protected Area Visitor Willingness to Participate in Site Enhancement Activities

David Weaver, School of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel and Sport Management, Griffith University

12:00 p.m. Tuesday, 6 November 2012 in Ellison 5824

Abstract. The ideal of conservation/tourism symbiosis may be achieved if protected area visitors are willing to engage in activities that directly or indirectly assist those sites, but little is known about these proclivities to assist endangered spaces. Survey responses from 804 visitors to national parks in the hinterland of Australia’s Gold Coast yielded distinctive segments ranging from the ‘enthused’ to the ‘disengaged’, and associations between willingness and proximity of residence, altruistic values, self-empowerment, ‘hard ecotourism’ affiliation, and age. Aspirationally, the results will inform the creation of the world’s first ‘ecotourium’, a protected area where visitor engagement is a core management consideration.


David Weaver is Professor of Tourism Research in the School of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel and Sport Management at Griffith University, on Australia’s Gold Coast. He has formerly held academic positions in Canada and the USA, and is the author or co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, chapters and books. He specializes in sustainable tourism, ecotourism, and destination evolution dynamics, and his introductory textbook Tourism Management is widely used around the world. David is a Fellow of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism and sits on the editorial boards of seven peer-reviewed international journals.