Antarctic tourists, wildlife and the environment: Attractions and reactions to Antarctica

Provides background on the development and nature of Antarctic tourism and associated environmental issues, as well as agreements and regulations affecting environmental management in Antarctica. Following an outline of the survey methodology and provision of information on the socioeconomic profiles of the respondents, results of a survey of Antarctic tourists on the Russian registered ship the ‘Akademik Ioffe’ are reported. The importance of Antarctic wildlife as an attraction for these Antarctic tourists is then given particular attention. The study considers amongst other things how important Antarctic wildlife was in convincing these tourists to undertake their trip to Antarctica, the importance to the tourists of seeing different species of wildlife and the relative importance of wildlife compared with other attractions of the tour to Antarctica. Views both prior to and following visits to Antarctica are given. The views of the tourists about selected environmental issues involving Antarctica were canvassed. These are reported and discussed. Amongst the subjects discussed is whether the sampled tourists favour an expansion in tourism to Antarctica and why. An overall assessment completes the study.

Antarctic tourists: A case study of their evaluation of Antarctic wildlife and environmental issues

Reports the results of surveys of Antarctic cruise ship passengers on the ‘Akademik Ioffe’ who undertook their Antarctic journey in January 2003. The prime purposes of the surveys were to determine the socio-economic profile of these travellers, evaluate the importance of Antarctic wildlife for their travel, their attitude to Antarctic wildlife conservation as well as environmental issues involving Antarctica, both prior to their tourist visit to Antarctica and following it. This paper reports on the socio-economic profile of respondents, their willingness to pay for their Antarctic trip, and their knowledge of Antarctica. The comparative importance of Antarctic wildlife as a factor motivating respondents to undertake their journey is assessed and the evaluation of travellers following their Antarctic visit is considered. The relative importance of different Antarctic wildlife species is taken into account as well as Antarctic attractions other than wildlife. The attitudes of respondents to several environmental issues involving Antarctica, (eg. the commercial use of its natural resources and global environmental change impacting on Antarctica) are canvassed and summarised. In conclusion, the relevance of the survey results for Antarctic conservation are discussed. Particular attention is given to the question of whether Antarctic tourism favours or threatens Antarctic nature conservation.

International tourists and road safety in Australia: developing a national research and management programme

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury death for international tourists. This makes road safety an important issue for tourism authorities. Unfortunately, as it is in other areas of tourist health, the common response from the travel and tourism industry is to remain silent about this problem and to leave any mishaps in the hands of insurers. At the same time, but for different reasons, international tourists are not usually targeted for road safety initiatives by transport authorities. Given that there are considerable 'hidden' costs associated with international tourists and motor vehicle crashes, the topic should be of concern to both tourism and transport groups. This paper examines issues concerned with driving in unfamiliar surroundings for international visitors in Australia, and proposes a national research and management programme to guide policy and planning in the area. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

An exploratory study of gendered differences in young tourists perception of danger within London

This paper studies young tourists' perception of danger within the urban holiday environment of London, England. The study of perceived danger is important not only in its own right, but also because of the influence it may have on use of leisure spaces and times. This research assesses gender and group composition differences in perception of danger, addressing the relatively neglected issues of men's perception and the relationship between the genders. For the purpose of this paper 'danger' was assessed by studying how safe, relaxed, vulnerable, threatened, and at risk people felt while in London. The study found a number of similarities and differences between the men and women studied, in terms of how they perceived danger and their group composition during the day and nigh-time. These results indicate that gender may not be the only influence on perception and behaviour, and that men and women should not be regarded as-homogenous cohorts. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

A comparative analysis of the behaviour of domestic and international young tourists

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the behaviour of young, single, British international and domestic tourists during their holidays. The research was located in Torquay, on the Southwest coast of England, and Cala Millor, on the Northeast of Mallorca. These locations represent two of the most popular destinations for young British tourists on domestic and international vacations, respectively. The findings of this research suggest that young, single, British tourists on domestic vacations behave in a different manner compared to those holidaying at the international level. Indeed, compared to domestic tourists, young people on international vacations tended to behave in a more passive and hedonistic manner. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Segmenting the market of West Australian senior tourists using an artificial neural network

Measuring perceptions of customers can be a major problem for marketers of tourism and travel services. Much of the problem is to determine which attributes carry most weight in the purchasing decision. Older travellers weigh many travel features before making their travel decisions. This paper presents a descriptive analysis of neural network methodology and provides a research technique that assesses the weighting of different attributes and uses an unsupervised neural network model to describe a consumer-product relationship. The development of this rich class of models was inspired by the neural architecture of the human brain. These models mathematically emulate the neurophysical structure and decision making of the human brain, and, from a statistical perspective, are closely related to generalised linear models. Artificial neural networks or neural networks are, however, nonlinear and do not require the same restrictive assumptions about the relationship between the independent variables and dependent variables. Using neural networks is one way to determine what trade-offs older travellers make as they decide their travel plans. The sample of this study is from a syndicated data source of 200 valid cases from Western Australia. From senior groups, active learner, relaxed family body, careful participants and elementary vacation were identified and discussed. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.