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The sustainability and efficiency of ecotourism regarding biodiversity conservation are under constant scrutiny and often dismissed based on negative effects arising from other types of nature-based tourism. Our study assess the impacts of infrastructure, human activity, and environmental factors on medium-large ground terrestrial species within the Lapa Rios Ecolodge Nature Reserve; results indicate that restoration, preservation, and conservation efforts are responsible for the wide range of species found within their reserve, including increased abundance of highly threatened rodents and ground birds. There is no indication that visitation or tour activities have negative impacts on wildlife; instead, the Ecolodge effectively created a 'human shield' that weakens threats to wildlife arising from hunting, logging, and gold mining. This shield effect ripples across the Osa Peninsula through the socio-economic benefits provided by ecotourism. Our results support a conservation model incorporating private reserves and parks to sustain biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wildlife tourism industry faces increasing threats of climate change and human demand, both of which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The decrease in human activity resulting from the pandemic has created disruptions for wildlife tourism destinations that are being felt by the local communities, the wildlife, and the surrounding environment. This paper examines the impacts of these disruptions and highlights the opportunity for wildlife destinations to start building back towards the goal of sustainability with increased resilience. The principles of resilience and ecotourism are examined, with the intersecting and applicable fundamentals further explained. A framework for wildlife destination sustainability is then presented alongside a conceptual model for policymakers, tourism operators, and community leaders to consider. This study argues that wildlife tourism destinations should apply and promote sound ecotourism principles to better prepare for and recover from disruptions, promote biodiversity conservation, and support socio-economic stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since tourist behavior plays the primary role in protecting the environment, this study has been conducted to extend the psychological perspectives of visitors' environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) in one of the most important natural heritage sites in Iran (Damavand Mountain) in the COVID-19 pandemic timeline and provide awareness for destination environmentalists as well as managers on how to control visitors' behavior. Likewise, Robbins (2002) Organizational Behavior model has been tested on ERB in ecotourism. Generally, 260 reliable questionnaires have been analyzed by using PLS-SEM2.0. The findings showed that (1) Visitors' attitude and ability toward nature would positively affect their ERB; (2) Motivation and learning mediate the impact of visitors' attitude and ability on their ERB; (3) Ability plays a significant role in the formation of visitors' ERB. Thus, the best way to change visitors' behavior is to educate them to make ERB more like a habit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The purpose of this research note was to introduce a novel system of animal health warning labels to (i) contribute to better welfare (health) of animals used at nature-based ecotourism and wildlife (NEWT) attractions and (ii) provide a method to communicate to tourists in a language they are already exposed to daily. Two different frameworks inform the development of the proposed system, both of which are new to the tourism studies domain. The first situates an animal health warning label system within a 'health and social-ecological systems' mode of thinking, while the second focuses on the psychological, social, and philosophical mechanisms that determine participation at NEWT attractions. The research note concludes with policy, practice, implementation and monitoring recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Indonesian Journal of Forestry Research is the property of Indonesian Journal of Forestry Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

National forest parks are important ecotourism destinations for locals and out-of-town visitors worldwide. The increase in protected areas is accompanied by challenges. The major challenge is the tension between conservation and exploitation. However, over-exploitation is causing irreversible damage to tourism resources by neglecting to accelerate conservation and satisfying the needs of only tourists. Therefore, it is a prerequisite to evaluate the value of ecotourism resources, especially non-use values. Liugong Island National Forest Park is a seaside forest park in Shandong Province, China. Tourist activities have negatively impacted the amenity and values of the park and increased management and maintenance costs. This study aimed to enhance the protection awareness of ecotourism resources by evaluating non-use values with the contingent valuation method (CVM). Ecotourism attitude factors were extracted by factor analysis, and the ecotourism market was segmented by cluster analysis. Then, an empirical assessment model was designed. Furthermore, through a double-bounded dichotomous choice model of the CVM, non-use values of ecotourism resources were estimated, and differences in non-use values among the groups with different attitudes were discussed. The results indicated that (1) Tourists with conservation backgrounds tended to pay more for general non-use values, while high-income tourists were willing to pay more for the Altruistic value; (2) The willingness to pay (WTP) of tourists was highest for the Bequest value, followed by the Existence value or Altruistic value, and finally the Option value; (3) The WTP was highest for the group valuing pluralism, followed by the group concerning resources, and lowest for the group concerning the environment. This study can provide valuable information for ecotourism planning and management that corresponds to current issues and tourist needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delivers a critical review and assessment of the last 15 years of experience design research in an NBT context. We employed a systematic approach to review the literature and identified 99 relevant out of 1378 studies published in selected databases. The analysis has demonstrated that research on NBT experience design is cross-disciplinary and faces increasing interest. Despite significant progress, the concept of the NBT visitor experiences is still vague and lacks systematic understanding. Destination managers must focus on structuring visitor opportunities in line with market requirements and consistent with their legal and organizational mandates. This requires understanding the linkages between visitor participation, expectation, and outcomes from NBT activities to influence settings and co-design memorable experiences, reduce hassles, and promote proenvironmental behaviour and visitor commitment. Monitoring visitor experiences remained poorly defined, with few advances to its definition and measurement. Major lessons learned and new avenues for research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourists' intention to visit a local destination and the awareness of preservation is one of the key factors that lead to sustainability. The engagement of tourists in ecotourism enables them to demonstrate a sense of responsibility in contributing to the development and preservation of a destination while having their vacation. The current study employed the Model of Goal-Oriented Behaviour (MGB) to predict tourist attitudes and sense of responsibility as a moderator to examine the relationship between personal behaviour intention. Questionnaire was utilised to collect responses from 200 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the proposed research model. The findings indicated that escape, hedonic and social interaction significantly influenced tourists' attitudes toward ecotourism sites, and the sense of responsibility has moderated the relationships between the visitors' intention to visit and preserve ecotourism destinations. The findings also stated that tourists' intention to visit ecotourism sites was least significantly influenced by their attitudes, despite their attitudes to preserve ecotourism sites. The study is one of the few to investigate factors affecting the attitude of tourists in the context of ecotourism and utilised social responsibilities as moderators to study the intention to visit and to preserve. It provides new insight to the government sectors, communities, and other stakeholders regarding the motivations influencing the tourist intention to visit and preserve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development of ecotourism industry, it has become a common concern in ecotourism industry to utilize the available data to realize the change of ecotourism industry and promote the product development and business expansion of ecotourism industry. To this end, we propose a personalized ecotourism route recommendation (PTIR) algorithm based on the popularity of points of interest (POI) and users' interest preferences. First, we analyze the real historical ecotourism footprints of users, propose a time-based user interest preference, and design a method to calculate the best ecotourism route given the travel time limit, departure point, and end point. Experiments were conducted on a real dataset of the Flickr social networking site, and the results showed that this personalized ecotourism route recommendation algorithm has greatly improved accuracy and recall compared with the traditional algorithm that only considers POI popularity, and the results were visualized through specific experimental cases based on user image clustering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Society & Leisure / Loisir & Société is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In celebration of the twentieth anniversary, this research provides a comprehensive overview of the Journal of Ecotourism (JE) between 2002 and 2020. The main objectives of the study are to determine the publication trends, the conceptual, intellectual and collaboration structure in JE. Co-citation, co-word and collaboration techniques were used to understand and interpret the intellectual, conceptual and social structure in JE respectively. Bibliographic data were obtained from Scopus and analysed using 'bibliometrix' tool. The findings reveal that JE has made significant progress in terms of publications and citations and its articles are cited by the premier journal in tourism. Co-word and co-citation analysis identified five and three clusters, respectively. Collaboration structure revealed that there is a good collaboration between authors in JE and 70% of the works are completed through collaborative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined a model linking perceived negative environmental impacts, support for tourism development, environmentally responsible behavior (ERB), and community participation in the ecotourism setting. The findings reveal that perceived negative environmental impacts restrained residents' ERB. This relationship was mitigated by the moderation of community participation such that the suppression effect of perceived negative environmental impacts on ERB became less strong as community participation increased. Moreover, support for tourism development mediated the moderating effect. This study provides novel insights on understanding residents' attitudes and behaviors towards environmental impacts and identifying the role of community participation in empowering residents' ERB. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an influx of ecotourism research since the term was first coined, it is still not entirely clear why tourists choose ecotourism over other tourism experiences. While most of the previous literature assumes that ecotourism is preferred by travelers for moral reasons, emerging evidence suggests that opportunities to project one's social status are increasingly salient factors in decision-making about travel. This article compares the relative influence of two possible predictors of ecotourism intention: environmental values (measured through the value-belief-norm theory) and symbolic conspicuous consumption (measured through expected social return). Respondents were drawn from a panel of U.S. tourists who had taken an overnight trip within the last year (n = 786). Results of a structural equation model suggest that both personal norms (β = 0.22, p < 0.001) and social return (β = 0.60, p < 0.001) explain a considerable amount of variance in ecotourism intention (R2 = 0.44), with social return having the stronger influence. These results suggest that environmental values are not the sole reason for travelers' choice of ecotourism alternatives, and that ego-enforcing motives play an important role. The positive and negative implications of demand for ecotourism extending beyond those with strong environmental values are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of whale encounters on tourists' pro-environmental intentions, and possible influences of individual characteristics. Data were collected from whale watching/swim-with-whale experiences within Australia and the Kingdom of Tonga. Comparison of pre and post trip survey data (N = 267) indicated that engaging and reflecting during the experience was positively associated with pro-environmental intentions following the encounter. However, tourists who reportedly lacked mutualistic values, displayed a low awareness of consequences, or adopted non-nature-based tourism motivations were less likely to engage and reflect. Therefore, tour operators should aim to facilitate cognitive and affective processing during wildlife encounters, especially for groups that are less likely to engage as this could both increase experience satisfaction and the potential for attitude and behaviour change. Further exploration of these complex relationships and their application are recommended to maximize environmental protection efforts while minimizing the ecological impacts of wildlife tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing concern about climate change and the potential impacts of tourism on the environment, little is known about visitor responses toward climate mitigation strategies in nature-based tourism settings or factors that influence them. This study examined the influence of travel distance and Experience Use History (EUH) on visitor willingness to engage in climate friendly behavior in state parks and their support for management actions to minimize climate change impacts. Following a stratified-cluster sampling approach, a total of 1,775 visitors (69.7% response rate) completed online or paper surveys at 20 pre-selected Missouri state parks and historic sites. Results indicated that visitors living within 100 miles of these locations were more willing to engage in climate friendly behavior, but less supportive of climate friendly management actions, as compared to those living farther away. Visitors' EUH was only associated with their willingness to engage in climate friendly behavior, but not with support for climate friendly management actions. In addition to some theoretical and methodological contributions, this paper sheds light on management of nature-based tourism destinations such as state parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motorcycling is not a new experience; however, research about this phenomenon in the tourism context is relatively incipient and limited to specific places and groups. In the tourism literature, the characteristics of this activity and its practitioners also require closer inspection. Unlike other forms of tourism, motivation for motorcycling, in the context of adventure and ecotourism, is not yet well defined and delimited. The main objective of this work is to fill the knowledge gap regarding motorcyclists' motivations to tour and to evaluate the activity from the perspective of adventure and ecotourism. Motivations for adventure and ecotourism serve as the theoretical and methodological support for this research. The results of this study revealed that the experience during a motorcycle trip is as exciting as the destination itself, transforming a journey into a destination on the move. The main interests of motorcycle tourists include the natural environment and the local culture. Finally, structural modelling confirms that these two constructs emerge as the main concepts associated with motorcycle tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor mental health costs about a tenth of global GNP. For many people, nature exposure improves mental health. This generates a newly recognised health service value for national parks worldwide, estimated at trillions of dollars annually. It creates a correspondingly large potential new market for commercial nature tourism, as a provider of nature therapies, especially in national parks. Before this opportunity can be realised, however, we must establish whether voluntary park visits generate mental health gains for everyone. Currently, psychology researchers and protected area managers hold opposing views. I therefore interviewed 238 outdoor nature and adventure tourists of all ages and backgrounds, at subtropical national parks in Queensland, Australia, to determine whether they visit parks because they are happy, or they are happy because they visit parks. A large majority, 82%, picked the latter. Of those asked, 87.5% reported short-term emotional benefits; 60%, medium-term recovery from stress; and 20%, long-term changes in worldview. Each timescale corresponds to a different opportunity for commercial nature tourism. Future research priorities include: economic scale; experiential components and commercial design for different market segments; comparisons of individual benefits for people with different personalities; and tests of mental health benefits for other types of tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National parks are key for conserving biodiversity and supporting people's well‐being. However, anthropogenic pressures challenge the existence of national parks and their conservation effectiveness. Therefore, it is crucial to assess how people perceive national parks in order to enhance socio‐political support for conservation.User‐generated data shared by visitors on social media provide opportunities to understand how people perceive (e.g. preferences, feelings, opinions) national parks during nature‐based recreational experiences. In this study, we applied methods from automated natural language processing to assess visitors' sentiment when describing experiences in Instagram posts geolocated inside four national parks in South Africa.We found that visitors' sentiment was positive, and mostly included emotions such as joy, anticipation, trust and surprise, with only a small occurrence of posts with negative feelings. Appreciation of nature, in association with a diverse set of other aspects, such as activities, geographical features and tourist attractions, was used to describe experiences related to nature, wilderness, travelling, holidays and adventures. The type of nature‐based experience described by visitors was park specific, revealing different profiles of parks providing wildlife or scenery experiences.Findings support and highlight the societal role of national parks in providing visitors with opportunities to develop positive connections with nature. Social media data may be used to understand visitors' perceptions, and how the image of national parks is constructed by users in the virtual social environment. This may help inform management for promoting a high‐quality tourism experience, as well as conservation marketing aimed at fostering socio‐political support for national parks and their long‐term conservation effectiveness. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conducting a periodical systematic review on a given field of study enables to comprehend the conceptual development of a discipline. A decade has passed since the last in-depth systematic review on contemporary ecotourism research has been published. This study is, therefore, executed to systematically analyze ecotourism research articles published in the previous twenty-five years and thereby to reassess the past, understand the present and envisage the future of ecotourism development. 470 articles published in nine top-tier tourism journals are screened and analyzed. Thematic and summative content analyses are employed to examine the contents of each publication. The findings highlight that over the years, researchers have examined myriads of ecotourism research themes. Despite fluctuations over the years, the overall publication trend shows growth. Most ecotourism studies are conducted in developing countries, with Asia taking the lead followed by Africa and Latin America. However, in terms of researchers' domicile, the USA becomes the first followed by Australia, the UK, and Canada. Despite modest successes, overall, the contribution of ecotourism towards sustainable destination development remains indiscernible. The current study provides up-to-date insight into the ecotourism literature by highlighting the main themes and trends of ecotourism research over the last twenty-five years. Research findings also enhance our understanding of the evolution of ecotourism research and ignite further study in ecotourism by suggesting issues that merit rigorous investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applied and operationalized Bandura's (1977, 1986) four-step observational learning process (i.e., attention, retention, production, and motivation) to investigate how tour-guides, peer ecotourists, and local community members influenced a convenience sample of South Korean ecotourists' environmentally responsible behavioral (ERB) intentions. Questionnaires were administered immediately after an ecotourism experience (n = 207). Path analysis results largely supported a hypothesized Ecotourist Observational Learning Model and predicted ecotourists' ERB intentions moderately well. Production (i.e., opportunities to engage in modeled ERBs) and motivation (i.e., positive reinforcement for engaging in these ERBs) predicted participants' ERB intentions. Production was predicted by retention (i.e., observation of tour-guides and peer ecotourists' modeled ERBs), which was, in turn, predicted by attention (i.e., physical, verbal and cognitive engagement). The findings indicate that Bandura's (1986) four-step observational learning process helps explain how ecotourists develop ERB intentions. The implications of the study indicate that tour-guides should model ERBs for participants, encourage participants to model ERBs for each other, provide opportunities for participants to engage in ERBs, and provide them with positive feedback for doing so. Others who seek to understand the processes underlying ecotourists' ERBs during and after their experiences are encouraged to further test and build on the Ecotourist Observational Learning Model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whales are popular tourism attractions in many coastal areas of the world. Although not without disagreement, vessel-based whale viewing is widely considered to be a form of ecotourism, in which experiential and learning opportunities exist to engender pro-environmental awareness and behavior. Guides are considered to play an important interpretive role in this respect, although there is little research that explores what guides themselves desire to impart to their passengers. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we compared what whale watching guides in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (n = 9) desire their passengers experience and learn to that reported by the whale watchers themselves (n = 283). Guides placed a higher importance on education, while whale watchers indicated experiential elements such as viewing whales close up and spectacular behaviors. Furthermore, the guides held a strong view that emotional feelings of respect and love for whales were important for whale watchers to experience and learn about marine conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On-going discussion surrounds the definition of ecotourism. Definitions are usually constructed by policy-makers involved in developing ‘ecotourism’ destinations, tour operators, organisations such as the International Ecotourism Society, certification bodies and academics who wish to bring some order to the multiplicity of definitions that exist. This paper seeks to add information relating to tourism provider understandings of ecotourism, by assessing evidence based on in-depth interviews against diagnostic criteria compiled by Fennell, D. A. [2001. A content analysis of ecotourism definitions.Current Issues in Tourism,4, 403–421. doi:10.1080/13683500108667896]. The research was conducted in the Greenbox ecotourism destination in the north midlands of Ireland. The Greenbox provides an example of an emerging destination, without a strongly developed image, providing a multiplicity of ecotourism products, the providers of which held narrow understandings of ecotourism for the most part. It was a short-term ‘top-down’ experiment but had longer-term impacts in contributing to a provider-led initiative. Ecotourism was understood principally as being based on the natural environment which needs to be protected and conserved; more detailed understanding was influenced by the personal background and experience of a minority of providers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Russia - Ecotourism Development (Aleksey Pavlovich Anisimov and Anatoliy Jakovlevich Ryzhenkov) 545Brazil - The Role of Regulatory Agencies (Vladimir Passos de Freitas) 552Philippines - Wetlands-Dependent Displaced Persons "Prospects for a Law" (Amado S. Tolentino, Jr) 561 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migratory species provide diverse ecosystem services to people, but these values have seldom been estimated rangewide for a single species. In this article, we summarize visitation and consumer surplus for recreational visitors to viewing sites for the Mexican free-tailed bat(Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana)throughout the Southwestern United States. Public bat viewing opportunities are available at 17 of 25 major roosts across six states; on an annual basis, we estimate that over 242,000 visitors view bats, gaining over $6.5 million in consumer surplus. A better understanding of spatial mismatches between the areas where bats provide value to people and areas most critical for maintaining migratory populations can better inform conservation planning, including economic incentive systems for conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]