Exploring the implications of cultural diversity for environmental learning at an African aquarium

Abstract

Zoos and aquariums, which are visited by over 700 million people each year, can play a vital role in exposing and sensitising visitors about the importance of environmental conservation and encourage them to engage in environmentally responsible behaviours after their visit. To attract visitors, zoos and aquariums offer a range of experiences that focus on the viewing of live animals. These may include animal presentations, personal interactions between staff and visitors, opportunities to physically interact with the animals and, most commonly, the use of interpretive signage. Most zoo and aquarium experiences are aimed at increasing visitors' awareness of, interest in and concern for environmental issues. To improve the design of visitor experiences, research is needed to evaluate the impact of a visit on visitor environmental learning outcomes, which are a major part of the zoo and aquarium raison

Understanding and Influencing Perceptions about Marine Protected Areas Through an Aquarium Exhibit: A Multi-phase Case Study from South Africa

“…Demographics. Consistent with other research undertaken at uShaka Sea World (Mann, 2016), more females (61.2%) than males responded to the questionnaire and 67% of the respondents were tourists from outside of KZN. Just under half (43.8%) of the visitors were from coastal provinces.…”

“…Over 10 million people have visited the site since opening in 2004. Most (95%) visitors are South Africans, and of these (64%) are tourists from outside of KZN (Mann, 2016). The high percentage of local visitors made the site ideal for this case study, which was focussed on South Africans.…”