Some see Antarctica as `last chance' destination; for others, it's a
backdrop
Date:
April 12, 2022
Source:
North Carolina State University
Summary:
Travel to nature-based destinations to socialize -- to celebrate
anniversaries, honeymoons or to spend time with family for a
holiday - - is a growing trend in tourism, and it was a significant
motivator for travel to Antarctica before the pandemic, researchers
found in recent study.
FULL STORY ==========================================================================
In a new study, researchers found a significant reason why many people
travel to Antarctica is to socialize -- to celebrate anniversaries,
honeymoons or to spend time with family for a holiday -- rather than
because of a particular interest in the land and its wildlife.
==========================================================================
The finding raises questions about the effectiveness of the conservation appeals and educational efforts for this emerging group of Antarctic
tourists.
"Some people go to Antarctica for learning and experience, some people go
to fulfill a lifetime dream, and some people go there as an adventure --
they have been to many places, but they haven't been there," said study co-author Yu-Fai Leung, professor of parks, recreation and tourism
management at North Carolina State University. "The social bonding
group's motivations were interesting.
They didn't mention anything about penguins or seeing other wildlife
as a principal motivation; they're going for a vacation, birthday or anniversary celebrations, and they chose Antarctica as the backdrop." Researchers launched the pre-pandemic study on tourism to Antarctica as
travel to the continent has grown and diversified. The pre-pandemic,
2019-2020 tourist season saw more than 74,000 travelers -- double the
number of travelers seen five years prior. While tourism can be a tool
to inspire people to become ambassadors for conservation for Antarctica
-- a fragile ecosystem facing crumbling glaciers, invasive species,
and wildlife diseases -- it also can create challenges.
"During the last two decades, a lot of new, different activities have
been introduced in Antarctica that are drawing the interest of a bunch of people," said the study's lead author Daniela Cajiao, a former visiting
scholar at NC State and former graduate student at the Universidad
Auto'noma de Madrid.
"There are also new ways of traveling there. This is diversifying how you
can access Antarctica, but also the profile of the tourists who visit."
To understand tourists' motivations, researchers surveyed people before
and after they traveled by ship or airplane to Antarctica during the
2019-20 season. They found four main motivations for tourists traveling
to Antarctica: experience and learning (31%), social bonding (28%),
adventure (23%), or to take a trip of a lifetime (17.5%).
==========================================================================
They observed people in the "social bonding" and "trip of a lifetime"
groups who saw Antarctica as a last-chance tourism destination; a finding
that researchers have also documented with other sites endangered by
climate change, like the Great Barrier Reef and the Arctic.
"Now that we have more people traveling to Antarctica for adventure
or social bonding, how do we think about communicating with these
tourists?" Cajiao said.
"They may not want to attend all lectures. We need to think about how we
can better deliver conservation and environmental messages so that any
changes in people's environmental concerns or behaviors last in the long
term." When they analyzed whether tourists in certain groups were more
or less likely to have learned something from the trip -- or perceived
they learned something -- they found tourists in the "trip of a lifetime"
group were more likely to have higher perceptions of learning. Tourists
in the "experience and learning" group had the highest overall average
score for actual learning.
Surprisingly, they also found there was a relationship between tourists' perception of how much they learned, and their intentions to change
their environmental behaviors.
"We found that it's not just about whether you actually learned facts
or lessons about Antarctica, the continent, or the ecosystem," Leung
said. "It's also about how much you feel you learned. This suggests that perception means a lot to people; it's part of the experience.
==========================================================================
"If you feel you got something from the learning experience, then it
will more likely change you and what you do after the trip. That has
important implications for educators, communicators and tour operators." Researchers said getting a large or representative sample on Antarctic
tourists is extremely difficult, and this study was no exception. They
want to extend their study to continue to examine tourist types and relationships.
They also said they want to study actual behavior changes in future
work, as well as look at Antarctic tourism after the pandemic slowdowns
and closures.
Leung said that while tourism may not have full recovered to pre-pandemic levels yet, they expect it will.
"We are curious to see how this shifts again after COVID," Cajiao
said. "Maybe people see the world a little bit differently." The study, "Tourists' motivations, learning and trip satisfaction facilitate pro-environmental outcomes of the Antarctic tourist experience," was
published in the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism. Co-authors
included Lincoln Larson of NC State and Pablo Tejedo and Javier Benayas
from the Universidad Auto'noma de Madrid. The study was funded by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) as part of
the Fellowship Program for early- career researchers awarded in 2019-2020
to support Cajiao's scholarly visit to NC State.
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided
by North_Carolina_State_University. Original written by Laura
Oleniacz. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Daniela Cajiao, Yu-Fai Leung, Lincoln R. Larson, Pablo Tejedo,
Javier
Benayas. Tourists' motivations, learning, and trip satisfaction
facilitate pro-environmental outcomes of the Antarctic tourist
experience. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, 2022; 37:
100454 DOI: 10.1016/j.jort.2021.100454 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220412141055.htm
--- up 6 weeks, 1 day, 10 hours, 51 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)