Tourism and grey seals in south Devon: management strategies, voluntary controls and tourists’ perceptions of disturbance

Managing the wildlife tourism experience: The importance of tour leaders

“…Indeed, there have been occasional studies which indicate that there is notable visitor support for management actions including both educational and regulatory strategies such as controlling visitor numbers, their behaviour and access (Davis et al, 1997;Chin et al, 2000;Lewis and Newsome, 2003;Curtin et al, 2009). This again points to the need for a critical understanding of the wildlife tourism experience and tourist expectations, as well as a revised study of how wildlife tourism is interpreted by tour leaders, particularly how they can use their expertise, knowledge and experience in promoting appropriate tourist behaviour.…”

“…Instead, you get the sense that they aren't purely perceived as a commodity; that they genuinely seem to assume some guardianship over them. (Baja, California) Disturbance of wildlife (see Freddy et al, 1986;Stockwell et al, 1991;Yarmoloy et al, 1998;Curry et al, 2001;Curtin et al, 2009) implies a change of behaviour and this is perceived to affect the authenticity of the sighting. Tour participants want to see the focal species behaving 'normally': 'I always worry that my being there is going to change what they are doing' (Joe, Baja, California).…”

“…Managers (and tour leaders) have an opportunity to reduce impacts substantially by informing visitors of management concerns and by teaching them about the focal species and about low-impact behaviour through visitor interpretation (Armstrong and Weiler, 2002). Education also has an important role in terms of communicating the reasons behind management actions to visitors so that visitors are more likely to support management strategies; especially those that restrict their activities (Chin et al, 2000;Curtin et al, 2009).…”

Who's watching whom? – an interdisciplinary approach to the study of seal-watching tourism in Iceland

“…Muloin, 1998;Curtin et al, 2009). Nevertheless the lack of knowledge transfer between wildlife ecologists on the one hand, and tourism researchers as well as the tourism sector on the other, leads to uncertainty about how and when animals are affected by tourism and, even more importantly, how such disturbance can be prevented.…”

“…Although tourists and the tourism industry usually are supportive of the codes (Muloin, 1998;Curtin et al, 2009) the codes have not always appeared to work as intended when their use and effect have been monitored (Garrod and Fennell, 2004;Quiros, 2007). One reason for this is that codes of conduct are often ontological, banning "wrong" behaviour without explaining why (Orams, 1996a(Orams, , 1996bGrant, 2000;Hughey et al, 2004).…”