Tourism and adventure
The increasing urbanisation of Western societies has created a corresponding market for outdoor adventure. This sector includes both individual recreation and commercial adventure tourism, and is now estimated at around a trillion dollars a year in economic scale. ICER has published two books on this topic: Adventure Tourism (CABI, 2006) and Adventure Tourism Management (Elsevier, 2010). Our past research in this field focused on the structure of commercial adventure tourism products. Our current research focuses on the motivations and experiences of individual adventure tourists. This theme includes cross links into conservation tourism, as a number of marine and terrestrial adventure activities include wildlife watching and associated components. It also includes links into responsible tourism, through associated subsectors such as volunteer tourism and adventure philanthropy.
Tourism and conservation
In some circumstances, tourism can generate a net gain for conservation, i.e. a gain which outweighs its environmental impacts. The main mechanisms are: (a) financial, social and/or political support for public, private, and communally owned conservation reserves; and (b) modifications to the ownership, use and management of land, water and wildlife in ways which encourage conservation over primary production. ICER has published a number of books and journal articles relevant to this theme. Conservation Tourism (CABI, 2010) is to date the only book published specifically on this topic. The earlier volume Case Studies in Ecotourism (CABI, 2003) includes a number of examples which would also qualify as conservation tourism. Nature Based Tourism, Environment and Land Management (CABI, 2003) addresses some of the management impacts, and Environmental Impacts of Tourism (CABI, 2004) details the environmental costs which must be considered in calculating net outcomes. Practitioners’ perspectives in public protected areas are provided in Tourism in Parks (Griffith, 2004), and in much greater detail in two books by former ICER PhD student Graeme Worboys and co authors: Protected Area Management: Principles and Practice (Oxford, 2005) and Managing Protected Areas (Oxford, 2006). A new edition of the latter, with expanded reference to tourism, is currently in preparation.
ICER’s current research in this field includes:
- Triple bottom line evaluation of outcomes from longstanding ecotourism enterprises worldwide.
- Ecological accounting for the contribution of tourism to conservation of threatened species, by private enterprises (Nature, 2010, doi:10.1038/4671047d) as well as public protected areas, and including mammals, birds and frogs as key taxonomic indicator groups.
- Global review of privately owned tourism infrastructure inside public protected areas, including legal and financial models, history and outcomes.
Tourism and responsibility
This issue is of particular significance as societies become increasingly aware of global scale environmental impacts such as climate change. There are four threads to ICER’s research in this area.
- Applications of the global multi sector literature on corporate social and environmental responsibility, including both practical environmental management and political negotiation within the tourism sector.
- Correspondences and distinctions between ecotourism and responsible tourism, a similar or parallel concept but with greater emphasis on social rather than environmental aspects.
- How individual tourists perceive their own individual social and environmental responsibilities, and how this influences both their product purchases and their individual behaviour.
- Social processes in the definition and evolution of responsible practices amongst social groups, including tour participants and tourism host communities.
Tourism and climate change
Tourism contributes to climate change and is also affected by it, and there are numerous groups worldwide carrying out research on both mitigation and adaptation aspects. ICER’s current research in this field follows three main threads.
- The ways in which individual tourists respond to increased financial and social costs of travel, particularly longhaul air travel.
- The risks and responses of coastal tourism destinations worldwide to the impacts of climate change, notably those associated with coastal storms, floods, sea level rise and potential beach erosion.
- Effects on tourism of management responses to the consequences of climate change, e.g. via access restrictions.
Cross-theme reviews
Several books and one recent article provide broad reviews of relevant research:
- Tourism and environment, Annual Review of Environment and Resources 36, doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-041210-132637 (Buckley, 2011)
- Ecotourism: Principles and Practices (Buckley, CABI, 2009)
- Slides and study guide available for free download.
- Ecotourism, 2nd edn. (Weaver, Wiley, 2008)
- Tourism Management 4th edn. (Weaver and Lawton, Wiley, 2010)
- Encyclopaedia of Ecotourism (Weaver, CABI, 2001)