nature tourism essay

What is nature tourism and why is it so popular?

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Nature tourism is a fantastic type of tourism and it is on the rise! But what is it and why is it so popular? Read on to learn more…

What is nature tourism?

Why is nature tourism important, what is the difference between nature tourism and ecotourism, types of nature tourism, bird watching, scuba diving, scenic driving, bush walking, visiting parks, fishing , cycling , nature tours, nature tourism- further reading.

Nature tourism is all about visiting natural areas and is closed aligned with the concept of rural tourism . Places that nature tourists might visit include might include beaches, forests or national parks. Activities focus on the natural environment rather than visiting man-mad features; think stargazing and hiking, for example. There are locations right across the globe which are perfect for nature tourism.

The CBI (Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries) in the Netherlands define nature tourism as follows:

Nature tourism, also called nature-based tourism, is tourism based on the natural attractions of an area. It consists of responsible travel to experience natural areas and their landscape, flora and fauna, protecting the environment and improving the quality of life of locals.

Nature tourism is important as it allows people to see and appreciate the beauty of our natural environment. Through this kind of tourism, we are able to escape the pollution and pressures of city life – it is good for our physical and mental wellbeing to be out in nature, breathing in fresh air and seeing lush greenery or sparkly blue seas. Nature tourism also encourages visitors to take an interest in the natural environment, which may then translate to them making a more conscious effort where environmental issues are concerned. With climate change being an ever-present and ongoing issue, this is definitely a good thing.

Following on from this, nature tourism gives land owners, local communities and local governments more reason to preserve and take care of natural areas. If they know people will come to visit, it is in their best interest to look after these places and is a great incentive for developing their sustainable tourism provision. Visiting tourists can do wonders for local community pride this way.

As with all tourism, nature tourism brings in money . This economic boost trickles down through a whole community; people need places to stay, and food to eat, and they want to buy souvenirs. Hikers may need to buy replacement walking boots, and weary explorers will always need somewhere to rest their heads at night. Jobs are created and economies are boosted through natural tourism, in the surrounding areas of the specific locations too.

Is nature tourism different from ecotourism? Put simply, yes. They are very similar, but ecotourism is perhaps a more specialised branch of nature tourism if we were looking to clearly define the difference in some way. Nature tourism is about visiting an area – responsibly, yes – rather than actively aiming to learn about the environment and participating in its protection. A nature tourist might visit a beach and admire its beauty, while an ecotourist might join in with a beach clean-up. The lines are blurred, of course, as they so often are when we try to differentiate between types of tourism .

There are different types of nature tourism. This is where we will see similarities with another kind of tourism: adventure tourism. You can read all about adventure tourism here if you’re interested! However, the similarity is that both can be split into two ‘types’: hard and soft.

Soft nature tourism might involve bird watching, visiting a beach to sunbathe, gentle walks through country parks and so on. Hard nature tourism is a bit more tough going: mountain climbing, bush walking and scuba diving, for example. Below I’ll go into some of these specific examples, so you can see how diverse nature tourism is!

Nature tourism examples

There are many examples of nature tourism to be found. Keep reading to see what they are, and whether they fall into the hard or soft category.

Bird watching is an example of soft nature tourism. People of all ages and abilities can do this, with or without a guide. You just need some background knowledge of bird species (or a book explaining them) and perhaps some binoculars. the Gambia is a hotspot for bird watching!

This is more of an example of hard nature tourism. It’s much more adventurous, and requires specialist equipment and a guide or a lot of training/experience. Head under the water to see what kind of nature is on display down there: coral, fish, shells and so much more. It’s subjective, but Barracuda Point in Malaysia is apparently the most beautiful place in the world to scuba dive… and I am a big fan of diving in Dahab , Egypt too!

This is another ‘soft’ activity in that it is low-risk and doesn’t require physical exertion. The North Coast 500 in Scotland is an example of a famous scenic drive – this is a great way to experience nature. From rolling hills to winding rivers, there is so much to see out of the window from the comfort of your car. Another fantastic example is the Kings Highway in Jordan , where you will see endless desert, canyons and incredible rock formations.

Camping is, again, an example of soft nature tourism. While it’s a little more ‘involved’ than scenic driving, for example, it is still relatively low risk and most of us are able to participate. Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand is said to be one of the most beautiful places in the world to camp, with its green landscapes and snowy mountain scenery. Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro gives you some fantastic camping opportunities too- just make sure you buy the best wild camping tent !

While controversial, hunting tourism is an example of nature tourism as it takes place in natural spaces. It is definitely one for the hard category, as you need special equipment to do so and it can obviously be quite dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. It is also often a discussion point for ethical tourism .

For the most part, this is a very safe activity and therefore falls into the soft category again. Guided tours are available in all of the very best stargazing locations, such as El Teide National Park in Tenerife, and it has even spawned its own branch of tourism. This is known as dark sky tourism, and there are many examples of activities that fall within this. They include stargazing, of course, alongside seeing the Northern Lights, watching an eclipse, astronomy tours and staying in accommodations that offer a clear view of the night sky such as glass domes.

This can be dangerous in that it is all about going off the beaten track, and walking through bushes/on rough ground. Therefore we can categorise this as hard nature tourism; it is something you would do when hiking, and gives you a bit of an adrenaline kick!

One of the easiest and most common forms of nature tourism is simply visiting a park. Whether this is a UK national park or your local green space at home, visiting a park is a definite example of this type of tourism. You’ll see birds, insects, flowers, trees, grass and more. Have a leisurely stroll, cycle through or sit and eat a picnic surrounded by nature.

Fishing falls in the middle of the soft and hard categories. You do need specialist equipment, but with most types of fishing there is little to no risk to life involved. But you need to be in nature – by or even on a lake or river – to do it, so it definitely counts as a form of nature tourism. People have obviously been fishing for years as a source of food gathering, but it is also a recreational hobby enjoyed by many.

This is another middle of the road activity. Kayaking can be dangerous, although it usually isn’t – you’ll often have a guide with you, and of course specialist equipment (the kayak) is required. It’s a really fun activity that many people enjoy!

You can visit a beach and simply do… nothing! This is still an example of nature tourism, as beaches are natural environments. Bali has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and tourists flock there to relax and soak up the sunshine. Beaches are also usually near to bars and restaurants, and you might find people doing beach yoga or watching the sunrise/sunset. Thailand even has all-night moonlight beach parties. They are versatile and beautiful locations!

Again, another activity that could be considered hard or soft. It depends where you go, really. A gentle bike ride along a specific cycle lane through a park is nothing like mountain biking in harsh terrains. It’s all about the level of ability you have and what risks you’re willing to take. But cycling is definitely a great way to get out and about in nature. It is also a low-cost and eco-friendly activity, which makes it a winner from many angles.

These tend to be a longer duration than many activities mentioned above, which you may do regularly but for a few hours at a time. Nature tours are days or even weeks-long trips, out into the wilderness with nature and wildlife experts. You might travel by air or train, or go on a cruise, and your guide will be on hand to point out every aspect of nature there is to see. These nature tours will take visitors to some of the most beautiful destinations on earth, such as trekking in Chiang Mai , Croatia, seeing the glaciers in Iceland and Alaska, and gazing at the best waterfalls in Finger Lakes . They’ll set you back a fair bit, but the memories you’ll make seeing bears and waterfalls and glorious sunsets will more than make up for it!

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How Tourism Benefits Nature and Wildlife

The Great Barrier Reef. Yellowstone. The Amazon Rainforest. One of the top reasons that tourists are drawn to destinations such as these is because of their rich biodiversity and unique landscapes.

According to Brand USA, 2 of the top 5 motivators for selecting vacation spots are ecotourism and nature. Wanderlusters are seeking experiences that reflect the true essence of the places they are visiting. In other words, they want to visit places with unspoiled environments and thriving native wildlife.

We often hear about all of the ways that humans are destroying wild places and jeopardizing the health of the planet – and rightfully so. Over 75% of land environments have been severely altered by humans and species are facing extinction at up to 1000x the natural rate. While there’s no denying that irresponsible tourism contributes to this devastation, we shouldn’t overlook the important role that sustainable and well-managed tourism plays in advancing conservation and protecting our world’s treasured ecosystems. These benefits have only been further evidenced by the current COVID-19 crisis and the resulting halt in tourism.

In this blog post we’ve highlighted just a handful of the different ways that tourism benefits nature and wildlife. Read on to learn more!

Increasing Community Support for Conservation

Over the last decade, nature-based tourism has become increasingly popular. In total, wildlife tourism now supports nearly 22 million jobs around the world and contributes more than $120 billion to global GDP.

This growing interest in wildlife tourism, and the economic benefits that come along with it, can change community attitudes towards conservation. Without tourism, local communities may merely view wild animals as a danger to their farms and families, and only value natural resources for consumption. But when animals and natural areas bring tourism dollars and jobs to their community, it can help residents see the importance of keeping their natural assets intact and healthy.

In Cambodia, for instance, ecotourism is motivating communities to conserve critically endangered bird species, such as the giant ibis and white-shouldered ibis. Thousands of tourists come from across the world to see these rare and iconic species. The birding operator Sam Veasna Conservation Tours incentivizes community-based conservation in the region by training and employing locals as guides and ecotourism providers, and requiring visitors to donate to village development projects. In return for this income and employment, community members agree to not hunt or cut down trees. To date, Sam Veasna’s visitors have contributed over $500,000 to local communities, making a strong case for the importance of protecting their unique birdlife.

Creating Sustainable Livelihoods

Beyond changing mindsets, tourism can prevent ecosystem degradation by creating more sustainable livelihoods for local communities. Jobs as guides, cooks, or housekeepers offer alternative income sources to environmentally-destructive activities such as logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, quarrying, or illegal hunting.

In Rewa, Guyana, poor job security led villagers to illegally harvest and trade wild animals. As a result, wildlife species such as arapaimas, giant river turtles, and giant otters were beginning to disappear. In 2005, the village opened a community-run eco lodge to improve livelihoods while protecting its ecological diversity. By employing community members as sport fishing guides and boat captains, the lodge allows villagers to maintain rainforest-based livelihoods without causing damage to the ecosystem. Thanks to tourism, arapaimas, turtles, and otters are now common in the Rewa River. Not to mention, visitors contribute far more money to the local economy than wildlife exploitation did. In fact, research shows that globally wildlife tourism is 5x more lucrative than illegal wildlife trade!

Raising Environmental Awareness of Tourists

Tourism not only bears the capacity to shift local mindsets and behavior, it can also raise environmental awareness among tourists. From camping to beach lounging, tourism provides countless opportunities for individuals to learn about the natural world and experience it firsthand.

When people connect with nature during their travels, it can lead them to appreciate it more and become invested in protecting it. Tours, parks, and other travel experiences often facilitate this type of environmental learning through interpretive techniques such as educational brochures, exhibits, or guided excursions. Whale watching, for instance, has been shown to raise visitors’ knowledge of aquatic mammals and increase their support for whale conservation. And on the Great Barrier Reef, guided boat tours and marine biology talks have been found to influence visitor behavior and minimize the damage that they cause to the reef.

In Chilean Patagonia, interpretive panels have been installed along one of the world’s most iconic trekking circuits in Torres del Paine National Park. The panels, which were designed by the Torres del Paine Legacy Fund , educate visitors about the wetland ecosystem they’re traversing, and provide information about the plants and animals found there.

A hiker reads about the types of wildlife that reside in Torres del Paine National Park. Photo: Torres del Paine Legacy Fund.

Prompting Conservation Policies & Protected Areas

Tourism can also provide a compelling incentive for governments and organizations to institute environmental policies and conservation measures. This includes the creation of national parks, nature reserves, and other protected areas to preserve their biodiversity and correspondingly boost their tourism appeal.

Due to the popularity of coastal tourism in particular, reef-based activities such as scuba diving, snorkeling, boat trips and whale watching are a particularly important source of economic revenues. In fact, it is estimated that coral reefs generate $36 billion in global tourism value per year. Many countries rely on the income that comes from marine-based tourism and see the importance of protecting their coastlines, coral reefs, and beaches.

In the Galapagos, for instance, marine-based tourism is worth over $178 million per year, and supports over a third of all jobs. The islands are a hotspot for large and rare marine life, including the highest abundance of sharks on the planet. Thanks to spending by divers and other marine tourists, a single shark in the Galapagos is worth about $5.4 million over its lifetime, while a dead shark only brings in $200 to fishermen. Realizing the economic importance of its life below water, the government introduced no-fishing zones in 2016 to prevent the extraction of sharks and safeguard the island’s marine tourism value.

Mountain gorillas are another species that has benefited from tourism-motivated conservation policies. These endangered apes can only be found in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Uganda, gorilla trekking permits start at $600 and the economic value of gorilla tourism is estimated to be as much as $34.3 million . This has led to policies and strategies that support conservation, such as veterinary interventions, intensive law enforcement, community conservation projects, regulated ecotourism, and transboundary collaboration among government institutions and NGOs. Thanks to these efforts, the number of gorillas within the Virunga Mountain region rose from 240 in the 1980s to 604 in 2016 . Now they are the only wild ape population whose numbers are increasing !

Financing Conservation

But simply establishing protected areas isn’t enough on its own. Ensuring the conservation of the sensitive environments and vulnerable species that these areas aim to protect requires effective management and conservation measures.

However, this is easier said than done. Around the world, many protected areas are under-funded. In fact, the global funding gap for effectively managing these sites is estimated to be up to $440 billion dollars per year. Tourism plays an essential role in bridging this gap by providing an additional source of funding. Proceeds from visitor entrance fees, operating permits, accommodations, and guiding services can help pay the salaries of park rangers and guards, and fund necessary management activities such as ecosystem monitoring, anti-poaching patrols, invasive species eradication, and environmental educational programs.

In Africa, tourism is an important source of funding for land and wildlife conservation. SANParks, the public entity responsible for managing South Africa’s national parks, raises more than 80% of its funding from tourism. Chumbe Island Coral Park, a marine protected area off the coast of Zanzibar, takes this model a step further and is funded entirely by ecotourism income. Thanks to effective management, Chumbe Island is home to one of the most pristine coral reefs in the region.

In addition to financing protected areas, tourists and tourism businesses may also contribute directly to local conservation initiatives. In St. Kitts, local tourism businesses donated $18,500 to fund the planting of fruit trees to protect coastal areas. At Vail Resorts, guests are invited to donate $1 when they purchase a season pass, lift ticket, hotel stay, or shuttle ride. In 2019, Vail’s program raised over $975,000 for on-the-ground conservation efforts that help restore habitat, improve forest access, and preserve land.

Carbon offsetting is another way that individuals and businesses can contribute to environmental conservation projects, while also mitigating their own emissions. Luxury tour operator TCS World Travel, for instance, partners with Sustainable Travel International to offset the carbon emissions generated by their jet trips. Through this partnership, TCS supports the Madre de Dios project which protects critical rainforest habitat and endangered species in the Peruvian Amazon.

Aiding Ecosystem Monitoring

While park rangers and guards play a critical role in patrolling sensitive environments, tracking ecosystem health, and warding off threats, it is often impossible for them to monitor such vast areas by themselves. The mere presence of tourists in natural areas can protect wildlife by providing an extra set of eyes on the ground.

In Africa, safari vehicles and guests deter poachers from wildlife conservancies, helping to safeguard highly targeted species such rhinos. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the critical role that tourism plays in deterring poachers and creating safe havens for wildlife. As visitation has come to a halt, rhino poaching has reportedly increased in tourism hotspots.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s “Eye on the Reef” program is an even more intentional effort to engage tourists and operators in ecosystem monitoring. The program engages divers and marine tourism providers in watching over the Great Barrier Reef by reporting the coral, fish, pollution, and invasive species they see via a citizen science app. Sustainable Travel International is currently developing NEMO, a similar reef monitoring program for use on the Mesoamerican Reef.

There are countless other citizen science programs that aim to fill different research gaps, and that visitors can participate in during their trip. Whale watchers, for example, can contribute to whale identification and tracking by submitting their photographs of humpback whales via the HappyWhale website. To date, more than 260,000 photos have been submitted to HappyWhale, and more than 38,000 individual whales identified.

Tourism businesses may also aid researchers in collecting environmental data. In Nevis, the Four Seasons Resort helps researchers study the migration patterns of critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles that nest on the island’s beaches. Resort guests help look for nesting sea turtles which are then fitted with a satellite transmitter and released into the sea. To date, 21 turtles have been released through this program.

Supporting Habitat & Ecosystem Restoration

Along with putting on their scientist cap, visitors and tourism businesses can support conservation by participating in ecosystem restoration.

In Bonaire, local dive operators are lending a hand in restoring the island’s coral reefs by training tourists and divers on basic reef restoration techniques. Once they are trained, visitors can help maintain coral nurseries and outplant coral fragments onto degraded reef sites. To date, more than over 22,000 corals have been outplanted onto Bonaire’s reefs.

Visitors and tourism businesses can also participate in the removal and eradication of non-native species which devastate local habitats. In Mexico, divers and guides lend a hand in hunting invasive lionfish which are a serious threat to the Mesoamerican Reef. After they are captured, the fish are grilled up and served to tourists as a special local dish.

Visitors and tour guides can also help restore ecosystem health by cleaning up the environments they visit. For example, more than 86,000 scuba divers have removed litter from the oceans as part of Project Aware’s “Dive Against Debris” program.

Advancing Green Technologies & Fueling Innovation

Because of its economic importance and influence, tourism can trigger environmental innovation through the advancement of green infrastructure, processes, and technologies. For instance, tourism can lead the way in the development of renewable energy infrastructure, like wind and solar farms, on remote islands or rural areas that would not usually be exposed to clean energy.

In Aruba, tourism is the primary economic activity, representing 73% of GDP. Realizing that the future of its tourism industry depends on environmental sustainability, Aruba’s public and private sector have invested in innovative solutions. Aruba’s Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort, for instance, is considered an eco-pioneer in the Caribbean due to the novel sustainability initiatives that it not only implements, but also develops. Among its achievements, the property heats its water via solar panels, installed exercise equipment that produces electricity, utilizes water saving devices in its bathrooms, and reuses greywater to irrigate its gardens. The resort aids the sustainability transition on the island by offering tours of their grounds and sharing their practices with others.

In Oregon, tourism supported the expansion of electric vehicle infrastructure along the state’s rural roads and scenic highways. The state’s tourism commission, Travel Oregon , helped facilitate the installation of electric vehicle charging stations near tourism businesses and developed Electric Byway itineraries. Now, Oregon is home to one of the largest networks of electric vehicle fast charging stations in the country!

Still Progress To Be Made

But of course, all of the benefits above will only occur when tourism happens in a well-managed and sustainable way. As we’ve gained a better understanding of how humans impact the natural world, there have definitely been great strides towards making tourism more eco-friendly. However, our work is far from done. There’s still a lot of room for improvement by everyone involved in tourism – businesses, governments, communities, and tourists – to maximize tourism’s benefits for the planet.

To learn more about how we are helping to amplify the environmental benefits of tourism and ensure that tourism safeguards local ecosystems through our work, click here .

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June 26, 2020
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What Is Ecotourism? Definition, Examples, and Pros and Cons

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Ecotourism Definition and Principles

Pros and cons.

Examples of Ecotourism
Frequently Asked Questions

Ecotourism is about more than simply visiting natural attractions or natural places; it’s about doing so in a responsible and sustainable manner. The term itself refers to traveling to natural areas with a focus on environmental conservation. The goal is to educate tourists about conservation efforts while offering them the chance to explore nature.

Ecotourism has benefited destinations like Madagascar, Ecuador, Kenya, and Costa Rica, and has helped provide economic growth in some of the world’s most impoverished communities. The global ecotourism market produced $92.2 billion in 2019 and is forecasted to generate $103.8 billion by 2027.

A conservationist by the name of Hector Ceballos-Lascurain is often credited with the first definition of ecotourism in 1987, that is, “tourism that consists in travelling to relatively undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with the specific object of studying, admiring and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals, as well as any existing cultural manifestations (both past and present) found in these areas.”

The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of ecotourism since 1990, defines ecotourism as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education [both in its staff and its guests].”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) looks at ecotourism as a significant tool for conservation, though it shouldn’t be seen as a fix-all when it comes to conservation challenges:

“There may be some areas that are just not appropriate for ecotourism development and some businesses that just won’t work in the larger tourism market. That is why it is so important to understand the basics of developing and running a successful business, to ensure that your business idea is viable and will be profitable, allowing it to most effectively benefit the surrounding environment and communities.”

Marketing an ecosystem, species, or landscape towards ecotourists helps create value, and that value can help raise funds to protect and conserve those natural resources.

Sustainable ecotourism should be guided by three core principles: conservation, communities, and education.

Conservation

Conservation is arguably the most important component of ecotourism because it should offer long-term, sustainable solutions to enhancing and protecting biodiversity and nature. This is typically achieved through economic incentives paid by tourists seeking a nature-based experience, but can also come from the tourism organizations themselves, research, or direct environmental conservation efforts.

Communities

Ecotourism should increase employment opportunities and empower local communities, helping in the fight against global social issues like poverty and achieving sustainable development.

Interpretation

One of the most overlooked aspects of ecotourism is the education component. Yes, we all want to see these beautiful, natural places, but it also pays to learn about them. Increasing awareness about environmental issues and promoting a greater understanding and appreciation for nature is arguably just as important as conservation.

As one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry, there are bound to be some downsides to ecotourism. Whenever humans interact with animals or even with the environment, it risks the chance of human-wildlife conflict or other negative effects; if done so with respect and responsibility in mind, however, ecotourism can reap enormous benefits to protected areas.

As an industry that relies heavily on the presentation of eco-friendly components to attract customers, ecotourism has the inevitable potential as a vessel for greenwashing. Part of planning a trip rooted in ecotourism is doing research to ensure that an organization is truly providing substantial benefits to the environment rather than exploiting it.

Ecotourism Can Provide Sustainable Income for Local Communities

Sustainably managed ecotourism can support poverty alleviation by providing employment for local communities, which can offer them alternative means of livelihood outside of unsustainable ones (such as poaching).

Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that communities in regions surrounding conservation areas in Costa Rica had poverty rates that were 16% lower than in areas that weren’t near protected parks. These protected areas didn’t just benefit from conservation funds due to ecotourism, but also helped to reduce poverty as well.

It Protects Natural Ecosystems

Ecotourism offers unique travel experiences focusing on nature and education, with an emphasis on sustainability and highlighting threatened or endangered species. It combines conservation with local communities and sustainable travel , highlighting principles (and operations) that minimize negative impacts and expose visitors to unique ecosystems and natural areas. When managed correctly, ecotourism can benefit both the traveler and the environment, since the money that goes into ecotourism often goes directly towards protecting the natural areas they visit.

Each year, researchers release findings on how tourist presence affects wildlife, sometimes with varying results. A study measuring levels of the stress hormone cortisol in wild habituated Malaysian orangutans found that the animals were not chronically stressed by the presence of ecotourists. The orangutans lived in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, where a local community-managed organization operates while maintaining strict guidelines to protect them.

Ecotourism May Also Hurt Those Same Natural Ecosystems

Somewhat ironically, sometimes ecotourism can hurt ecosystems just as much as it can help. Another study in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution found that ecotourism can alter animal behaviors in ways that put them at risk. If the presence of humans changes the way animals behave, those changes may make them more vulnerable by influencing their reaction to predators or poachers.

It's not just the animals who are at risk. As ecotourism activities become too popular, it can lead to the construction of new infrastructure to accommodate more visitors. Similarly, more crowds mean more pressure on local resources, increased pollution, and a higher chance of damaging the soil and plant quality through erosion. On the social side, these activities may displace Indigenous groups or local communities from their native lands, preventing them from benefiting from the economic opportunities of tourism.

Ecotourism Offers the Opportunity to Experience Nature

Renown conservationist Jane Goodall has a famous quote: “Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, shall all be saved.” It can be difficult to understand something that we haven’t seen with our own eyes, and ecotourism gives travelers the opportunity to gain new experiences in natural areas while learning about the issues they face.

Ecotourism also educates children about nature, potentially creating new generations of nature lovers that could someday become conservationists themselves. Even adult visitors may learn new ways to improve their ecological footprints .

EXAMPLES OF ECOTOURISM

The East African country has some competitive advantages over its neighbors thanks to its rich natural resources, paired with the fact that it has allocated over 25% of its total area to wildlife national parks and protected areas. Because of this, an estimated 90% of tourists visit to Tanzania seeking out ecotourism activities. Ecotourism, in turn, supports 400,000 jobs and accounts for 17.2% of the national GDP, earning about $1 billion each year as its leading economic sector.

Some of Tanzania’s biggest highlights include the Serengeti, Mount Kilimanjaro , and Zanzibar, though the country still often goes overlooked by American tourists. Visitors can take a walking safari tour in the famous Ngorongoro Conservation area, for example, with fees going to support the local Maasai community.

The country is also known for its chimpanzees , and there are several ecotourism opportunities in Gombe National Park that go directly towards protecting chimpanzee habitats.

Galapagos Islands

It comes as no surprise that the place first made famous by legendary naturalist Charles Darwin would go on to become one of the most sought-after ecotourism destinations on Earth, the Galapagos Islands .

The Directorate of the Galapagos National Park and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Tourism require tour providers to conserve water and energy, recycle waste, source locally produced goods, hire local employees with a fair wage, and offer employees additional training. A total of 97% of the land area on the Galapagos is part of the official national park, and all of its 330 islands have been divided into zones that are either completely free of human impact, protected restoration areas, or reduced impact zones adjacent to tourist-friendly areas.

Local authorities still have to be on their toes, however, since UNESCO lists increased tourism as one of the main threats facing the Galapagos today. The bulk of funding for the conservation and management of the archipelago comes from a combination of governmental institutions and entry fees paid by tourists.

Costa Rica is well-known throughout the world for its emphasis on nature-based tourism, from its numerous animal sanctuaries to its plethora of national parks and reserves. Programs like its “Ecological Blue Flag” program help inform tourists of beaches that have maintained a strict set of eco-friendly criteria.

The country’s forest cover went from 26% in 1983 to over 52% in 2021 thanks to the government’s decision to create more protected areas and promote ecotourism in the country . Now, over a quarter of its total land area is zoned as protected territory.

Costa Rica welcomes 1.7 million travelers per year, and most of them come to experience the country’s vibrant wildlife and diverse ecosystems. Its numerous biological reserves and protected parks hold some of the most extraordinary biodiversity on Earth, so the country takes special care to keep environmental conservation high on its list of priorities.

New Zealand

In 2019, tourism generated $16.2 billion, or 5.8% of the GDP, in New Zealand. That same year, 8.4% of its citizens were employed in the tourism industry, and tourists generated $3.8 billion in tax revenue.

The country offers a vast number of ecotourism experiences, from animal sanctuaries to natural wildlife on land, sea, and even natural caves. New Zealand’s South Pacific environment, full of sights like glaciers and volcanic landscapes, is actually quite fragile, so the government puts a lot of effort into keeping it safe.

Tongariro National Park, for example, is the oldest national park in the country, and has been named by UNESCO as one of only 28 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites. Its diverse volcanic landscapes and the cultural heritage of the indigenous Maori tribes within the create the perfect combination of community, education, and conservation.

How to Be a Responsible Ecotourist

Ensure that the organizations you hire provide financial contributions to benefit conservation and find out where your money is going.
Ask about specific steps the organization takes to protect the environment where they operate, such as recycling or promoting sustainable policies.
Find out if they include the local community in their activities, such as hiring local guides, giving back, or through initiatives to empower the community.
Make sure there are educational elements to the program. Does the organization take steps to respect the destination’s culture as well as its biodiversity?
See if your organization is connected to a non-profit or charity like the International Ecotourism Society .
Understand that wildlife interactions should be non-invasive and avoid negative impacts on the animals.

Ecotourism activities typically involve visiting and enjoying a natural place without disturbing the landscape or its inhabitants. This might involve going for a hike on a forest trail, mountain biking, surfing, bird watching, camping, or forest bathing .

Traveling in a way that minimizes carbon emissions, like taking a train or bike instead of flying, may also be part of an ecotourism trip. Because these modes of travel tend to be slower, they may be appreciated as enjoyable and relaxing ecotourism activities.

The Wolf Conservation Center ’s programing in New York State is an example of ecotourism. This non-profit organization is dedicated to the preservation of endangered wolf species. It hosts educational sessions that allow visitors to observe wolves from a safe distance. These programs help to fund the nonprofit organization’s conservation and wildlife rehabilitation efforts.

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Original research article, sustainability comes to life. nature-based adventure tourism in norway.

Department of Teacher Education and Outdoor Studies, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway

This paper investigates how tourists and guides perform sustainability during adventure tourism trips in natural environments. The paper draws on empirical data from an ethnographic study of five different multi-day trips in Norway, each of which used skiing, hiking, or biking as the mode of travel. In our analysis, we focus on how the different actors understood, operationalized and practiced elements of sustainability in their everyday lives while on the trips. The paper applies a micro-sociological perspective to the nature-based adventure tourism scene where the interplay between tourists, guides, adventure activities and nature is understood as multiple dialectic performances co-produced by the different actors. Goffman's dramaturgical metaphors, and concepts of frames, appearance, and manner saturate recent research on tourism and nature guiding. This paper builds on the “performance turn” as a theoretical point of departure for understanding sustainability in nature-based adventure tourism experiences. In participant observations and post-trip interviews with Norwegian and international tourists and their guides, we found that sustainability performances were not a major aspect of the trips. We did find some performances of mainly “light” sustainability and, among them, elements of ambivalence and ambiguity. Our data indicate that some guides tread a fine line between enhancing and deepening tourists' experiences of nature and sustainability or negatively impacting the perceived enjoyment imperative of the trip. International tourists expressed deeper sustainability overall. We reflect on the relative explanatory strengths of Goffman's “frames” and interaction order, and Persson's “framing,” for understanding the interplay between guide and tourist sustainability performances and conclude with pointers for teasing out the complexities we identify.

Introduction

Tourism is one of the world's fastest growing industries and in recent years. Norway has experienced a marked increase in domestic and international tourism ( Ministry of Trade, 2017 ). Norway's international reputation for being “sustainable” and environmentally conscious ( Ministry of Trade, 2017 ) arguably creates certain expectations of the country as a destination. This paper investigates how tourists and guides perform sustainability during adventure tourism trips in natural environments. This is not a study of sustainable tourism, but of sustainability as expressed – or not – in tourism experience.

Tourism research is often characterized as multi- and inter-disciplinary as well as a fragmented in its scope ( Benckendorff and Zehrer, 2013 ). In this paper, we draw from the literatures of nature-based tourism and adventure tourism. Nature-based tourism is often believed to “influence tourists' environmentally friendly attitudes, knowledge, and ultimately their behavior” ( Ardoin et al., 2015 , p. 838), however, in their review of the research, these authors found that “few studies have empirically documented these outcomes, and those that do are inconsistent in the variables measured and the time frame analyzed” (p. 838). Previous research on nature-based adventure tourism has typically surveyed guides, tourists, or both ( Pereira and Mykletun, 2012 ; Ardoin et al., 2015 ), but few have gone into the field looking for how concepts of sustainability can ‘come to life in various ways’ during a guided nature-based adventure tour.

Guides function as narrators, social organizers and instructors, and are central to transforming an ordinary tourist experience into an extraordinary or spectacular and unique experience ( Hansen and Mossberg, 2017 ). The extent to which, and ways in which, guides influence tourist understandings, knowledge, and behaviors of sustainability has been the focus of some international research ( Powell and Ham, 2008 ; Randall and Rollins, 2009 ; Weiler and Kim, 2011 ; Pereira and Mykletun, 2012 ), without conclusive results, and to date the Norwegian context has not been studied.

Some of the international research has paid attention to tour guides as potential agents of change (see Zillinger et al., 2012 ; Jonasson et al., 2013 ; Rokenes et al., 2015 ; Vold, 2015 ; Weiler and Black, 2015 ; Jonasson and Smith, 2017 ) and there is evidence of a growing research focus on “the relationship between face-to-face interpretation/tour guiding and sustainability” ( Weiler and Black, 2015 , p. 76), at least in wildlife tourism (see Zeppel and Muloin, 2008 ; Ballantyne et al., 2009 ).

Tourists' expectations about what they will experience on a tour arise partly from the information provided by tour companies ( Collado et al., 2009 ; Skinner and Theodossopoulos, 2011 ). If tourist expectations are not met, the companies risk reputational damage and subsequent financial impacts ( Collado et al., 2009 ), so it is in each company's interests to prescribe to at least some extent the activities of their guides. Tour guides, then, “may thus feel relatively powerless to make a difference in contributing to the sustainability of a particular activity, tour, business, community, industry or environment” ( Weiler and Black, 2015 p. 73–74). Our study includes a focus on guides' understandings of sustainability on tour and how those understandings impact their performances of sustainability.

The contemporary Norwegian context provides further impetus for this study. According to the most recent government white paper on tourism, nature is “still the most important reason the tourists choose Norway as a tourist destination” ( Ministry of Trade, 2017 , p. 31). Experience tourism is the fastest growing tourism sector ( Fredman and Haukeland, 2017 ; Ministry of Trade, 2017 ) and tourism businesses that are based on nature-, food- or culture experiences represent the core of the Norwegian tourism product ( Fredman and Tyrväinen, 2010 ; Ministry of Trade, 2017 ). From the government's perspective, it is “authentic” and “meaningful” experiences that should be the basis for tourism value creation, as it is in such experiences that travel motivation and willingness to pay lie. How sustainability can or should be operationalized while tourists are experiencing authenticity and meaningfulness in nature, however, is not discussed ( Ministry of Trade, 2017 ).

A relatively united Norwegian travel industry supported the principles of the white paper with a “roadmap” titled “Toward a sustainable tourism industry.” In it, ‘high yield – low impact” nature-based tourism takes center-stage ( NHO, 2017 , p. 5) with physically active nature and cultural experiences based on the Norwegian tradition of outdoor life (friluftsliv). Friluftsliv – translated as “free-air-life” – is a Scandinavian practice of spending time in nature. Norwegian friluftsliv, in particular, emphasizes traditional modes of travel such as cross-country ski touring, hiking and biking, and “low” technologies, such as camping or staying in simple cabins and cooking on open fires ( Odden, 2008 ). Friluftsliv is considered to be an important part of the (imagined) Norwegian national identity ( Witoszek, 1998 ; Pedersen Gurholt, 2008 ; Gurholt, 2014 ).

The road map stresses that with a stronger global focus on intact nature, climate change and environmental quality, an increasing number of tourists seek destinations offering cleanliness, healthiness, and effective protection of culture and nature. By 2050, when eight out of 10 people worldwide will live in cities, an increasing number of tourists will avoid destinations characterized by hustle and bustle, noise and litter, and instead choose a journey that promotes the environment ( NHO, 2017 , p. 8).

Given the focus on sustainability, broadly interpreted, in both documents, we argue that it is relevant and timely to investigate what is going on in terms of sustainability at the micro-level of tourism experience in Norway. It could be argued that when guides choose to work in nature-based adventure tourism and when tourists choose to purchase a nature-based adventure tour, they are already performing sustainability, however that is not our focus in this paper. Our focus is entirely on what happens once the tour begins through to when it ends. We investigate the experiences of guides and tourists of an industry-leading Norwegian tour-operator for the purpose of discovering how they understand, operationalize and practice elements of sustainability in their everyday lives while on nature-based tours in Norway.

Sustainability

Much of the literature on nature-based adventure tourism, nature-based tourism and ecotourism refers to sustainability without providing an operational definition of it. We consider that contemporary conceptions of sustainability will enhance the reliability of our study and so we adopt Force et al. (2018) distinction between sustainable tourism and tourism sustainability. According to these authors, the former concerns the socioeconomics of tourism, especially at the local level. This is the main focus of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals for sustainable tourism. Member nations are expected to foster tourism in ways that create jobs, support local culture and new product development as well as in ways that protect environment values such as biodiversity, ecosystem health and more (United Nations (n.d.)). Tourism sustainability, in contrast, concerns “the design of tourism activities in ways that contribute to sustainability transitions globally” (p. 431). Our focus is on tourism sustainability. Sustainability transitions are “personal change[s] in tourists' identities” that lead to such things as active “commitment to environmental and cultural protection … nature-relatedness … [and tourists'] awareness of their relationship to the global collective” (p. 433). Our understanding of the term sustainability is also informed by Salas-Zapata and Ortiz-Muñoz' (2019) clarification of its use by researchers. We adopt the meaning “[s]ustainability as a set of guiding criteria for human action” rather than “sustainability as a goal of humankind” (p. 155), “sustainability as an object,” or “[s]ustainability as an approach of study” (p. 157). Criteria for guiding human action include, but are not limited to, such things as utilizing renewable resources, enhancing human well-being, avoiding ecosystem degradation, and generating social and cultural benefits. In this article, then, sustainability means a set of guiding criteria for personal change in tourists and guides toward deeper nature-relatedness, more active environmental and cultural protection, and stronger positive relationships to the global collective.

Nature-relatedness is defined as a degree of “connectedness to the natural world” and “comprises the cognitive, affective, and physical connection we have with nature” ( Nisbet, 2021 ). Nisbet et al's (2009) nature-relatedness scale considers deep nature-relatedness to be expressed as a lot of time spent in natural spaces, preference for isolation in wilderness, self-identification as part of nature, awareness of environmental issues, and lifestyle changes in response to knowledge of, or feelings toward, nature. A light nature-relatedness is the opposite of these factors. Thus, sustainability might be expressed by nature-based adventure tour guides and tourists in one or more of the ways described on a continuum.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines environmental protection in terms of maintaining or restoring the quality of an environment ( OECD, 2003 ). Environmental protection actions could include cleaning plastic pollution from rivers and lakes, protecting populations of threatened species, or donating money to environmental causes, among many other things. Cultural protection refers to protecting the material resources of cultural groups ( Durie, 2008 ) such as artifacts, structures, monuments, language, intellectual knowledge and “places associated with historical events, beliefs, and traditions” ( Cultural Heritage Act, 1978 , § 2). Deep sustainability performances during nature-based adventure tourism trips might include much active interest in, or active participation in, these types of environmental and cultural protection. Light sustainability might include a few, or incidental, expressions of interest in these things.

Finally, a positive relationship to the global collective refers to attitudes of support for worldwide action on shared international problems such as climate change, large-scale pollution, disease, international aid, terrorism, and biodiversity loss ( Sandler, 2010 ). Guides and tourists on nature-based adventure tourism trips might express strong positive relationships as part of their performances of sustainability. Others might express weak positive, or even negative, relationships as part of their light sustainability performances.

We used the concepts of nature-relatedness, action toward environmental and cultural protection, and positive relationships toward the global collective as guides for understanding the types of sustainability found in our data. In the Methods section, we describe how being “guided” by the concepts differs from being “driven” by them. Next, we define our study in relation to the existing literature on sustainability in nature-based tourism.

Nature-Based Adventure Tourism

Nature-based tourism, as a socio-cultural phenomenon ( Sandell, 2003 ), has been defined in many, sometimes overlapping ways ( Fredman et al., 2009 , 2014 ; Fredman and Tyrväinen, 2010 ), such as adventure tourism, environmental tourism, ecotourism, and ecological tourism. At its most basic, nature-based tourism is related to places and objects that are not human-made, and visits and activities that occur beyond a person's familiar environments ( Fredman et al., 2009 ). Hence, we adopt the widely accepted Scandinavian definition of nature-based tourism: “human activities occurring when visiting in nature areas outside the person's ordinary neighborhood” ( Fredman et al., 2009 , p. 24–25).

Our focus is on nature-based adventure tourism ( Buckley, 2006 , 2010 ; Mihalic, 2006 ; Rokenes et al., 2015 ; Beams et al., 2019 ) to foreground the sustainability aspects of commercialized nature tourist experiences that “often involve[e] perceived risk or controlled danger associated with personal challenges” ( Mihalic, 2006 , p. 114). Adventure tourism and nature-based tourism are closely related with some overlap in practice. However, “whilst nature-based tourism products focus on seeing … adventure tourism products focus on doing” ( Buckley, 2010 , p. 4). Thus, nature-based adventure tourism can be considered tourism products in nature that focus on both seeing and doing. In the Norwegian context, adventure tourism experiences commonly center on hiking and biking journeys in nature, skiing through forest or mountain environments, sea-kayaking, and mountaineering. What counts as “perceived risk,” “controlled danger,” and “personal challenges” is highly individualistic, however, “[f]rom the perspective of the individual tourist, anything which they personally consider adventurous can be counted as adventure tourism” ( Buckley, 2010 , p. 7). For our purposes, we accept the types of physical activities mentioned above, when conducted in guided tours in natural environments, to constitute nature-based adventure tourism.

“What Are We Doing”

Experiences of sustainability in tourism are, arguably, important for several reasons of which the most pertinent to this study is that tourism experiences can have educational effects which can contribute to wider public understandings and motivations toward sustainability ( Ballantyne et al., 2010 ; Force et al., 2018 ; Winter et al., 2020 ). Understanding “what is it that's going on” ( Goffman, 1974 , p. 8) regarding sustainability in nature-based adventure tourism allows researchers, policymakers, tourism operators, guides and tourists to respond in ways that further their respective ambitions of sustainability at national, industry, professional, and personal levels, respectively. We take a Goffmanian approach to investigating if and how different actors – the tourists and the guides – understand, operationalize, practice and embody nature-relatedness, active environmentally friendly behavior, and positive relationships to the global collective. As we next explain, taking an ethnographic approach allowed us to focus directly on “performances” of sustainability, a novel approach to the topic in nature-based adventure tourism.

Theoretical Framework

The “performance turn” ( Edensor, 1998 , 2000 , 2001 ; Haldrup and Larsen, 2010 ; Larsen, 2010 ; Urry and Larsen, 2011 ; Larsen and Meged, 2013 ) in tourism research, however, and despite some criticism ( Saldaña, 2006 ), has re-imagined the guided tour as “created by a relational praxis that builds on and involves bodily and verbal negotiations, fluid power relations and interactions between tourists and guides and between tourists” ( Larsen and Meged, 2013 , p. 100). It can be traced back to new ways of investigating, analyzing and understanding tourism, starting in the late 1990s ( Edensor, 1998 , 2001 ; Larsen, 2010 ; Urry and Larsen, 2011 ; Cohen and Cohen, 2012 ; Jonasson and Scherle, 2012 ; Larsen and Meged, 2013 ). Although performances can be considered to be, in part, pre formed, they are not absolutely fixed. The performance turn emphasizes “creativity, detours and productive practices” ( Larsen and Meged, 2013 , p. 89), and “relates to the theatrical perspective and invokes enactment by performers or actors of a role or scripts, as well as display for an audience. Performances involve pretense” ( Harwood and El-Manstrly, 2012 , p. 15, bold in original). More recent research on guided tours has shown how tourists contribute to the co-creation of guided tours both alongside the guide, as well as in opposing and contradictory ways. Larsen (2010) and Urry and Larsen (2011) claim that the performance turn has “challenged representational and textual readings of tourism … by making “ethnographies” of what humans and institutions do – enact and stage – in order to make tourism and performances happen” ( Larsen, 2010 , p. 323). Consequently, the performance turn represents a move to ethnographic research in tourism. The aim of ethnographic approaches is to “go beyond the abstract models and frameworks of attitude-behavior connection …[and] to explore in greater detail how practices are performed and negotiated in situ ” ( Hargreaves, 2016 , p. 57).

According to Vold (2015) , nature guides choose which aspects of nature to focus on and by doing so they greatly influence how tourists understand and experience nature and tourism. However, nature-based tourism guides might also be constrained in their choices of focus because they are employed by tour companies that have certain obligations to their clientele ( Prakash et al., 2011 ).

In this paper, we investigate tourists' and guides' understandings and experiences of sustainability in nature-based adventure tourism through their performances. This work contributes to a new perspective to understanding sustainability in tourism, and especially in face-to-face relations in “real (tourism) life.” Recent tourism research has drawn on Goffmanian concepts ( Edensor, 1998 , 2000 , 2001 ; Larsen, 2010 ; Urry and Larsen, 2011 ; Jonasson and Scherle, 2012 ; Larsen and Meged, 2013 ; Williams, 2013 ) to understand the face-to-face interactions between tourists and between tourists and guides. The idea that tourists and guides manage the impressions they make on others in social situations emanates from Goffman's (1959) theory of social interaction, in particular the ideas of “frontstage” and “backstage” performances, frames, lines, face, and the interaction order. In all social situations, Goffman (1959) argues, people want to present themselves so that the “audience” perceives them to be as they wish to be perceived. Performances are designed to make a particular impression on the other people present through “patterns of verbal and non-verbal acts” that Goffman (1967 , p. 5) called “lines.” The “frontstage” concerns how people present themselves within the immediate social surroundings and how they are perceived by others in the same immediate environment.

Self-presentation, or “face” may be defined as “the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact” ( Goffman, 1967 , p. 5). The “face” adopted by any one person depends on who the “audience” is and what the situational norms are ( Goffman, 1959 ; Jacobsen and Kristiansen, 2015 ). In the “backstage,” people relax and take off their “face-masks” of social performance ( Goffman, 1959 ; Jacobsen and Kristiansen, 2015 ). From this perspective, guided tours can be viewed as dialectical, as shaped by the interplay of performances by the guides and the guided ( Urry and Larsen, 2011 ).

The interplay of “lines” and performances operates through individual “frames” ( Goffman, 1974 ). Frames are operable within social situations, or “social frameworks” in Goffman's (1974) typology. As Persson (2019 , p. 49) explains, Goffman saw social life as social situations shared by individuals, none of whom have “fully reliable knowledge” about one another and so each individual must interact with others at the same time as seeking information about how best to interact. Individuals therefore need to quickly define the situation they are in and this definition is what Goffman called a “frame.” A frame is an “organization of experience” ( Goffman, 1974 , p. 11) and “a different scheme of interpretation for the meaning of an act” ( Goffman, 1974 , p. 231). This concept of frames “emphasized its simultaneously cognitive, social interactive, and situational aspects” ( Persson, 2019 , p. 49). By asking Goffman's question – “what is it that's going on here?” – it becomes apparent that the answer needs to be “seen in the light of its context” ( Persson, 2019 , p. 49) and so also asks the question of “what [social rule or norm] applies here?” Persson (2019 , p. 65).

Goffman's (1959 , 1967 , 1974 , 1983) research centers on what he termed the “interaction order” and the “expressive order” both of which are essential for understanding social interaction. Our collective understanding of these terms is that they are closely related but distinguished by scale. At a larger scale of social interaction, the interaction order aligns roughly with social norms but with a focus on interpersonal interaction rather than social structures or power. It is the shared understandings individuals have of acceptable behavior in particular settings, allowing them to respond to the questions “what is it OK to do here?” and “what possibilities for behavior does this setting open for me?.” Examples of behaviors in the interaction order include maintaining culturally appropriate personal space, keeping right (or left) on footpaths, sitting and quietly watching a movie in a movie theater, dancing and singing aloud in the arena of a rock concert. In these examples, individuals are in face-to-face contact but not necessarily directly interacting with one another. Our collective understanding of the expressive order, on the other hand, aligns more with manners, or the smaller scale, more detailed level of social interactions. These include the shared understandings of acceptable verbal and non-verbal communication between persons in direct face-to-face situations. The “expressive order” is “an order that regulates the flow of events, large or small, so that anything that appears to be expressed by [a person] will be consistent with his face (sic)” ( Goffman, 1967 , p. 9). As we understand it, the expressive order allows individuals to respond to the questions “how is it OK to respond to the other person/s here?” and “what possibilities for response are open to me here?.” An example of the expressive order related to our research topic would be tourists paying attention when guide is explaining the how to prepare for the day ahead (e.g., by facing the guide, making eye contact if culturally appropriate, acknowledging them by uttering “mm” or nodding one's head).

Finally, and importantly, Goffman theorized that if someone challenges or breaches the interaction order or the expressive order, intentionally or not, a corrective process begins to either re-establish the original order or negotiate a new order from the “cognitive presuppositions” shared with the others in the setting ( Goffman, 1983 , p. 5). The corrective will be one or more “face-saving” practices ( Goffman, 1967 ).

In this paper, we interpret nature-based adventure tourism as a social framework within which guides and tourists understand and respond to the interaction order and the expressive order during their encounters with one another. We approached the empirical study from a theoretical viewpoint that an individual's “cognitive presuppositions” shape their “frame” and inform their performances of sustainability while on nature-based adventure tourism trips. We continue by describing our applied methodology and our research and analytical methods, before reporting our findings.

Methodology

For this study an ethnographic approach was deemed appropriate because it “allows one to gain information on tourist action and the embodied, tacit dimensions of nature-based tourism” ( Rantala, 2011 , p. 151) and “simultaneously allow[s] the observation of social and situated practices and participation in them” ( Rantala, 2011 , p. 153). An ethnographic approach is appropriate when the aim is to capture the micro-sociology, the information “given” and “given off” ( Goffman, 1959 ; Rantala, 2011 ; Persson, 2019 ), the embodied as well as tacit practices, and the multitude of different performances that are enacted in and through social situations in nature-based adventure tourism. Our ethnographic fieldwork paid attention to how people talked, words and phrases they used, how they interacted with each other and with the environments they traveled through, where they gazed, how they embodied the landscape, what the guides emphasized or not. Rather than look for specific pre-determined verbal or non-verbal expressions, our aim was to remain open to whatever practices occurred in the field and then consider them in light of the concepts of sustainability discussed above and in the light of the national and industry sustainability focus.

In order to find out “what is it that's going on here,” we focused on tourist participants, tour guides, and the interactions between them. To do this we drew data from multiple, diverse trips offered by a nation-wide, industry-leading tourism operator. In the absence of an agreed definition of what constitutes “industry leading,” we selected one of the oldest nature-based adventure tour operators in Norway that has one of the most extensive tour catalogs. The selected operator offers trips throughout and beyond Norway and has been involved in sustainability discussions at a national level and in sustainability projects internationally. However, their website and brochures (checked during research design phase fall 2017 and immediately pre-fieldwork summer 2018) show that they do not actively market their trips as having a sustainable focus or credentials. Further, this operator could provide the best opportunities for participant observation, including as an apprentice-guide-researcher.

In this embedded single-case design ( Yin, 2014 , p. 50), guides and tourists make up the different embedded units of analysis and “the circumstances and conditions of an everyday situation” (p. 52) are those that occur on the guided nature-based adventure tours. Our decision to select a single tour company was informed by Flyvbjerg's (2001 , p. 77) conception of “critical cases” for enhancing validity. Critical cases are those that are “either “most likely” or “least likely” … to confirm or irrefutably to falsify propositions and hypotheses” ( Flyvbjerg, 2001 , p. 78). An “extreme” critical case, such as the industry-leading tour operator in this study, enabled us to “achieve the greatest possible amount of information” ( Flyvbjerg, 2001 , p. 77) on our topic, which a representative case or random selection cannot do with as much certainty.

Five different tours make up the ethnographic material. All the tours took place in Norway between summer of 2017 and spring of 2018, and in different geographical locations: one in a mountainous part of central Norway (A); one along the coast of northern Norway (B); and three in the arctic high-mountain plateau of the northernmost part of Norway (C–E). Tour A took place late summer with only international tourists. Tour B took place early autumn, also with international tourists. Tours C, D, and E took place in the winter months with mainly Norwegian and some other Scandinavian tourists (from Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland). The tours varied in duration. Tour A, C, D, and E were 4 days each, while tour B spanned 8 days. In total 24 days were spent in the field. A total of 62 tourists and six guides were part of the study.

The study was approved by and conducted according to, the ethical guidelines of the Norwegian Center for Research Data (NSD) and The National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (NESH). All participation in the study was voluntary, on the basis of anonymity, with the option of withdrawing at any time up to acceptance for publication. Participants were informed prior to, and written consent to observe all aspects of the trips, including social chats, and for post-trip interviews was obtained on the 1st day of each trip. Data was gathered through participant observation and interviews, as detailed below.

A general rule of participatory observation is that the researcher participates in the social interactions of the research context while at the same time striving not to influence those interactions significantly ( Fangen, 2010 , p. 80; Zahle, 2012 , p. 54). However, participant observers cannot totally decide their field roles in advance. Roles and the degree of participation are usually in continuous (re)negotiation throughout the fieldwork ( Spradley, 1980 ; Fangen, 2010 ; Wadel, 2014 ). Importantly, Wadel (2014) points out that roles open and close for different possibilities and associated data, and thus recommends that participant observers take on different roles so that they can study the field from a variety of perspectives.

Throughout the five tours in this study, the first author utilized various degrees of participation, involvement and observation to gather data, primarily participant observer and partially participant observer ( Bryman, 2016 , pp. 433–436; see also Spradley, 1980 ; Fangen, 2010 ; Wadel, 2014 ). In addition, on trips C and D, he was an apprentice-guide. This role gave him affordable access to the trip and the benefit of closeness to the guides' perspectives. It also provided “backstage” access to tourists' “backstage” spaces that would have been inappropriate otherwise. One of the guides' responsibilities on these trips was to check on each participant each evening to find out how well they were coping with the physical and other demands of the trip. Often, guides would be invited in to the tourists' accommodation (or invite themselves) and engage in social chat or be questioned about aspects of the trips. In this way, the field researcher gained additional access to tourists' “frames.” While working as an apprentice-guide, the first author aligned his professional frame with the lead-guide's apparent frame and reflected on this alignment in the reflective journal. The first author's opportunity to take on this dual role as both apprentice-guide and researcher gave him valuable first-hand experiences and helped deepen his understanding of the field.

The first author can be considered an insider in the field of nature-based adventure tourism through both his educational and work background. To obtain and maintain analytical distance ( Spradley, 1980 ; Fangen, 2010 ) in the various roles adopted in the field, the researcher kept a reflective journal ( Spradley, 1980 ; Saldaña, 2016 ) and used a field diary and voice recorder for field observations. He wrote the reflective journal throughout the fieldwork phase in order to become aware of any preconceptions and to increase introspectiveness ( Spradley, 1980 ). Detailed observations were recorded throughout each day and were assisted by pre-prepared descriptive questions, such as “how do tourists talk about themselves, nature, and their experiences?” “what do the guides focus on/give emphasis?,” “how do tourists behave while on tour?,” “how do guides behave while on tour?.” These questions were also condensed into laminated, pocket-sized field cards that helped the researcher stay on-task throughout the fieldwork.

Twenty-nine participants and five guides were interviewed by the field researcher between 3 and 12-months post-trip (mid 2018 to mid 2019), using a semi-structured interview guide. The average duration of interviews was 1 h and 15 min, and the interview questions began very broadly (e.g., “tell me about the trip”) and became more focused as the interview progressed. If the interviewees had not mentioned sustainability themselves, the topic was brought up by the interviewer late in the interview. Twelve of the post-trip interviews were done face-to-face, while the majority, for logistical reasons, were conducted by digital videoconference or phone. The limitations of physical distance to qualitative interviewing ( Bryman, 2016 ) were arguably offset by the fact that rapport had already been established between the interviewee and the interviewed, as they had spent many days living closely together while on tour.

Analytical Approach

Interviews were transcribed verbatim using the Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data-Analysis Software (CAQDAS) MAXQDA. We used AI-transcription software with manual checking to transcribe eight interviews. All fieldnotes were transcribed and imported to MAXQDA. MAXQDA was used to code interview transcripts and fieldnotes. The use of CAQDAS has been criticized by some for influencing and enforcing a specific method to the analytical process ( Kuckartz and Rädiker, 2019 ). However, we used CAQDAS as a “method-neutral toolbox” ( Kuckartz and Rädiker, 2019 , p. 9) that aided data organization for analysis ( Ribbs, 2014 ).

The first author performed all interviews, transcribed all interviews and fieldnotes, and coded the transcribed material. All interviews were conducted in English or Norwegian, as the interviewee preferred. All authors are fluent in English; the first and third author are native speakers of Norwegian and the second author has a working knowledge of the language. The first author coded the data in both Norwegian and English and manually translated the excerpts quoted in this paper. To avoid known pitfalls of solo-coding ( Saldaña, 2016 ; Braun and Clarke, 2019 ) and to strengthen coding validity, any coding uncertainties were discussed with the second and third author. The second and third author also read some of the interviews. The coding process started during the process of transcription with “preliminary jottings” ( Saldaña, 2016 , p. 21) and continued with an initially inductive, data driven, coding approach, through which themes were generated. Braun and Clarke (2019 , p. 592) define themes as “stories about particular patterns of shared meaning across the dataset” and “underpinned by a central organizing concept” (p. 589). For this study the “central organizing concept” was that of “sustainability performances.” Once themes were generated, the data corpus ( Braun and Clarke, 2006 ) was read iteratively with definitions of sustainability. In this way, Force et al. (2018) distinction between sustainable tourism and tourism sustainability, and Salas-Zapata and Ortiz-Muñoz (2019 ) clarification of sustainability as “a set of guiding criteria for human action” (p. 155) guided rather than drove the analysis, in that they became an analytical framework for organizing the different performances of sustainability identified in the data analysis. In this sense the analytical process could be considered that of a combination of “inductive” and “theoretical thematic analysis” ( Braun and Clarke, 2006 , p. 83–84).

Results – “What is it That's Going on Here?”

In our data, we identified 11 types of sustainability performances. These are: noticing nature, desiring isolation in nature, responding to global issues, reducing pollution, supporting others' sustainability performances, minimizing environmental degradation, reflection on human/nature, connecting with nature, modeling sustainability performance, choosing tour operator, and learning about nature and culture. We also found performances not related to sustainability. While at first these results seem clear cut, they point to ambivalence and ambiguity in guides' and tourists' performances of sustainability in nature-based adventure tourism. We identify as ambivalence the low level of deliberate focus on sustainability during the trips generally and apparent randomness with which it occurs when it does. The ambiguities are one challenge and one conflict. The challenge is between sustainability performance and enjoyment, and the conflict is between sustainability performance and logistics. These are all detailed below and subsequently discussed in relation to the claims and criticisms of performativity and frames (see also Table 1 ).

Table 1 . Sustainability themes/performances.

Noticing Nature

Throughout each trip the tourists noticed and regularly commented on the scenery, the wildlife, the vistas, the local culture, the “lack of other people,” the quietness, the fresh air, the experience of journeying through a landscape. Nature took center stage regardless of the travel mode in the different tours. Photography was another dimension of noticing nature. The tourists photographed the landscapes they traveled through, elements of those landscapes, and nature, and themselves or others in nature. Both international and Norwegian tourists stated in their interviews that the act of taking photos, and sometimes even thinking about taking photos, made them notice nature more.

Desiring Isolation in Nature

Many of the Norwegian participants enjoyed being given time and place to just be “alone” together outside, to think about everything and nothing, to listen to their own breathing, find their own rhythm, feel and listen to the wind. Our summary of the tourist's perspective is that they want to get what they paid for: the experiences (hard earned), vistas and the solitude in nature as promised by the images in the company's brochure. On field trip A, for example, as the group traveled from the high-mountain and down to the coast, they encountered more and more people along the way until they reached a small coastal town. For one of the participants this town “was overly crowded with tourists” which they later stated was quite a shock and a negative experience for them. One of the main reasons this international tourist had come to Norway and do this particular trip was because they expected few other people there and they were disappointed to have come from the solitude of the high mountains and suddenly find themselves in a crowded tourist trap.

Reducing Pollution

When guides addressed concepts of sustainability it was related to “leave no trace” ( https://lnt.org ). How this topic was addressed varied from guide to guide. Some gave an introductory talk the first day, emphasizing that if a person needed to use a toilet while out hiking, biking, or skiing, they should do so but dispose of the toilet paper in the doggy-bags made available by the guides. All but one of the guides highlighted the importance of not leaving any trash behind, using the doggy-bags for one's own garbage as well as that of others' found along the way. They talked about what would happen if the group did not do so, typically referring to how the landscape would turn into a garbage pile if everyone visiting left even only one or two things behind.

The observation of guides addressing concepts of sustainability mainly through their focus on “leave no trace” and “take only pictures, leave nothing but footprints” is corroborated by their reflections in the post-trip interviews. Although the degree to which they themselves claim to focus on leave no trace varies between the guides, it comes across as their main way of addressing concepts of sustainability in their guiding practices. For some of the guides, the first briefing is the only time that they mention “leave no trace” and they do not enforce it rigorously during the trip.

When tourists were asked if and how they felt that their guides highlighted concepts of sustainability or environmental issues, those who could be specific mentioned the way guides emphasized “leave no trace” throughout the trip, as well as the introduction and use of “doggie-bags.” For both international and Norwegian tourists, concepts of sustainability became a matter of “leave no trace,” an experience in nature that is run in a way so that future generations can have the same experience in the same environment, and recycling.

Modeling Sustainability Performance

Some of the guides emphasized that they deliberately try to “model environmental behaviour”; that is, during briefings they would stress the need to make sure not to leave any trash behind, but they would not mention the possibility of tourists picking up trash found along the way. Instead, they would do that themselves and through that, model a behavior that made picking up trash and cleaning up nature “second nature,” something one just did. A few of the tourists mentioned how they felt that the guides “modeled behavior” through staying on the path, not littering, and picking up other people's litter along the path.

All of the guides believed they could, to some extent, influence tourists' environmental attitudes and behaviors. They acknowledged that their influence might not be lasting nor necessarily very profound, but nevertheless positive. Four of the guides believed their influence stems from modeling behavior and also from “modelling appreciation” for nature, such as by enthusiastically emphasizing the beauty of the surroundings, the taste of blueberries picked, the smell of the mountain moss. One guide, however, believed that taking part in nature-based adventure tourism trips itself is sufficient for strengthening tourists' sustainability and environmentally-friendly behaviors and attitudes. This guide favored “seeing and being” in nature as the primary influence, not what guides do or don't do. In this guide's view, “seeing and being” gives tourists a deeper appreciation of the natural world which, in turn, could lead them practice sustainability more in their everyday lives.

Thinking About Sustainability

When asked whether they felt sustainability and related themes were topics for discussion during the trip, most of the tourists gave ambiguous responses. While most did not discuss sustainability, many of them (particularly internationals) felt that sustainability was omnipresent on the trip, mainly in the form of “leave no trace.” At the same time, most of the tourists claimed to be environmentally conscious and that issues related to sustainability and environmental topics both concerned and, in many cases, affected them in their daily life. When asked to exemplify, most of them mentioned a general concern about issues such as over-use of landscape and that they “do their part – I/we recycle.”

The international tourists were more specific about how their understanding of sustainability influenced their everyday life (e.g., they engaged in the public discourse on sustainability in their local communities) and how it influenced them as tourists (e.g., by paying a carbon tax for air travel).

Supporting Others' Sustainability Performances

Not leaving any trash behind had some consequences for the guides. More than once on the skiing trips one or more of the tourists lost paper-wrappings in the wind. Each time, someone in the group would yell and make everyone aware of what was happening, and a guide would sprint off to catch the trash. When successful they were greeted with applause and loud compliments by some tourists. Other tourists' gestures – shrugged shoulders and facial experiences – and muttering indicated that they thought those applauding was making a big deal out of something unimportant.

Minimizing Environmental Degradation

During late summer and fall hiking trips, the guides emphasized the need to stay ‘on-trail’. They explained that if everyone walked outside the path they would contribute to erosion and possibly to establishing new, unnecessary paths that contribute to environmental degradation.

Reflection on Human/Nature

At one point during a trip, while on a scenic saddle overlooking a large, deserted beach with cliff-faces towering several hundred metres into the air, one of the guides instructed the tourists to sit down in solitude and take in the vista, the landscape, the smells, and the sounds. He encouraged them to do so for ~5 min without engaging with the others. All of the tourists except one complied with guide's instructions; one person walked around taking photos instead. The guide later said that he believed facilitating “sit-downs” and solitude reflections potentially could enhance the nature-experience for the participants and that taking in the beauty of the scenery could have a positive impact in terms of valuing the preciousness of the landscape and consequently its need to be preserved. He linked this “sit-down” with a talk he had planned later that same day addressing the issue of plastic pollution in the ocean and in general. This was the only time during the five different fieldtrips that the field researcher observed any of the guides deliberately facilitating such activities. After the “sit-down,” the guide invited the tourists to find their own path down to the beach below and to meet up by the shore at a given time for lunch. This gave the tourists opportunities to connect with nature on their own terms.

Choosing Tour Operator

Most of the tourists acknowledged that sustainability is not of major importance when they choose a tour operator and destination. It was important for a few of the international tourists. For these people, sustainability was understood broadly, encompassing environmental, social and economic aspects.

Learning About Nature and Culture

Compared to the Norwegian tourists, the international tourists were keen to learn as much as they could about the country and landscape. These tourists depend on the guides' local knowledge in order to get the experience they expect. The guides notice this difference between types of tourists. One informant, an apprentice guide fresh from training, observed that most international tourists are about “seeing it,” while some are also into “being there” which he thought was a deeper and better way of experiencing a landscape or destination. By contrast, this guide felt that Norwegian tourists on the same trips are more about “being” on the trip, or in a Norwegian sensibility, “doing” friluftsliv: doing, seeing and experiencing things together with friends.

The more experienced guides echoed this view and added that as guides they have to deal with the two groups differently. Some of the guides were explicit that it was much “easier” to work with international tourists because they are generally more enthusiastic about the planned trip and related activities, including learning about new culture, nature, landscape, and traditions. The guides felt international tourists generally asked more questions. However, the guides offered relatively few opportunities for tourists to learn about the local environment and culture. There was occasional storytelling by the guides, but storying the landscape in terms of history, geography, geology, biology, or culture was not a central part of the guides performances. Rather, their focus was on gazing upon the landscape and traveling through it for enjoyment.

What became evident in interviews with the tourists was that their acceptance of the guides' focus varied greatly among them. Some would not mind more emphasis on history, culture and landscape and some were quite happy with the status quo. A third group wanted as little input from the guides as possible, because they preferred to see the landscape for themselves and experience the trip as described by the tour company.

Responding to Global Issues

As stated above, when sustainability was brought up in discussion, it was mostly by one or other of the international tourists. Often, it would be as a specific question of the guide or researcher, such as “how is Norway affected by climate change?,” or “do Norwegians think about their carbon-footprint?”

Global issues relating to climate change concerned several of the international tourists who acknowledged the dilemma of wanting to travel to pristine destinations while knowing that doing so would leave a significant carbon footprint. Some of these people stated that they had recently put planned travel on hold because they did not feel comfortable about the carbon-footprint required to get to the desired destination. In a similar way, some of the international tourists expressed concern about travel that they thought would contribute to (over)populating the chosen destinations; this concern had led, in a few cases, to decisions to drop their plans all together due to the number of other tourists expected to be at the same destination.

The Norwegian tourists, too, were conscious of the carbon-footprint of flying to destinations, but as a group they were less clear about how they understood sustainability and most of them acknowledged that it was not a major factor in their decisions and practices.

Not Sustainability

While we did find performances of sustainability in our data, sustainability was not a major focus for the tourists. What does appear to be in the foreground for both the international and the Norwegian tourists are the experiences they are taking part in at the moment, the experiences that are to come in the near future (later that day, or the next day), and how these experiences are felt. After a long day out hiking, biking or skiing, the tourists' focus was on re-living the day's experiences and sharing feelings and thoughts about them. In these discussions, only sometimes initiated and led by the guides, the vantagepoint of experience was “the self.”

We found the same low attention to sustainability among the guides. In the main, they do not emphasize it as a topic of interest or concern in their briefings, nor during the more leisurely talks and discussions with their tourists. Overall, the guides' main focus seemed to be on practical information regarding the immediate needs for the day's journey. In particular, when briefing and talking with international tourists, the guides focused on providing detailed information about technicalities of the forthcoming activities, such as the quality of the path (gravel, loose rock etc.), altitude gain/loss, distance to be covered, safety concerns and how to deal with them, expected pace, when and where to eat the bagged lunch, how to dress, what to have in the backpack in terms of spare clothing and other accessories, what they could expect to see during the day, and why this experience would be worthwhile. When engaging with Nordic tourists, the guides provided the same type of information but with less detail, as if they expected the Nordic tourists to be more familiar with the weather, equipment and environment.

Although the five different trips took place in different landscapes, at different times of the year, using different adventure activities, the way the tour days were organized was very similar. Each day began with a shared breakfast usually followed by a short and practically-oriented briefing about what was ahead, then some time to pack personal gear, and meet at a designated location at about 9 a.m. The activity of the day usually lasted around 8–10 hours and ended with supper at around 7 p.m. Each day's journey had a similar pattern: hiking, biking, or skiing for 50 minutes, usually in single file, before a 10-minutes break. This routine would continue throughout the day, until the group reached the planned destination, and it created a conflict for the guides. Addressing the group as a whole while hiking, biking, or skiing was a demanding and difficult exercise for the guides because they were left with 10 in every 50 minutes as their “window of operation.” In this time, they had to monitor the group and individual well-being, attend to issues such as broken equipment, adjusting backpacks or skis, taping up blisters, and make sure that they engaged in at least one conversation with each participant each day. Several of the guides emphasized in their interview that they were reluctant to overtly interrupt the breaks with information about landscape, culture, history, or sustainability, because they wanted to allow individual participants to make use of the break as each saw fit.

Further, the guides felt challenged to tread a fine line between enhancing the tourist experience while at the same time not appearing to “have an agenda” or creating a “situation” that the tourists had not signed up and paid for. Many of the respondents also said that an outspoken sustainability and environmental focus from the guides could easily be interpreted as moralizing, which they were neither interested in nor positive toward. Several of the guides stated in various ways, both during the trip and in post-trip interviews, that their primary task was to make sure the tourists had a good time on their vacation. In fact, the guides stressed the view that the tourists were on vacation, implying that being on vacation imposed some guidelines in terms of a guide's behavior.

We set out to investigate if and how tourists and guides understand, operationalize, practice, and embody deeper nature-relatedness, active environmental and cultural protection, and relationship to the global collective. We found that performances of sustainability are not a major component of guides' and tourists' performances while on tour. Of the sustainability performances that we did find, the guides and tourists practiced and embodied nature-relatedness at both shallow (everyone noticing nature) and deeper (some tourists seeking isolation and reflecting on human/nature) levels. They expressed a limited range of environmental protection actions (reducing pollution by picking up garbage, minimizing environmental degradation by staying on tracks) and international tourists expressed interest in local culture which is one aspect of motivation for cultural protection ( Calver and Page, 2013 ; Richards, 2018 ). Further, we found that international tourists and, to a lesser extent Norwegian tourist, expressed interest in global issues (mainly carbon footprint), which is arguably a signal of positive relationship to the global collective. In addition to these types of sustainability, a few tourists chose the tour operator with sustainability in mind, however our data does not indicate which aspects of sustainability informed those choices. Finally, tourists and guides expressed an over-arching thoughtfulness on sustainability: they all thought about it, some guides modeled it, and tourists supported the guides' modeling. However, these mainly cognitive actions did not apparently lead to additional expressions of sustainability by the tourists.

We understand the variability in expressions of sustainability through a Goffmanian lens of four distinct clusters of frames: one cluster is made up from the Norwegian tourists; another from the international tourists; a third from most of the guides; and the fourth from one particular guide. Goffman's ideas of “going about” normal life and “being alert” to threats and changes are useful for describing these frames. In the Norwegian tourist frame, going about nature-based adventure tourism means performing friluftsliv while being guided, connecting with nature individually, and not being disturbed (threatened) by issues beyond the immediate enjoyment of activity and environment. By contrast, the international tourist frame seeks out the challenge of difference (e.g., curiosity about Norwegian culture and history) and environmental threat (e.g., climate change) while also enjoying the immediate activity and environment. Most of the guides shared a frame that fits/matches that of the Norwegian tourists: a “normal” guide allows tourists to go about their tourism without being alarmed by the intrusion of overt sustainability performances by the guides. The fourth evident frame was that of a single guide who considered nature-based adventure tourism to normally involve challenging tourists' perceptions of sustainability. Clearly, these four frames are not all, always, compatible, which suggests that the guides and tourists reached a common expressive order for the trips. This consensus revolved around enjoyment, as we now discuss.

Sustainability Performances vs. Enjoyment

Through both interviews and comments made during the different tours, it is evident that a primary aspect of the guides' frame is prioritizing tourist enjoyment within the scope of the planned trip. Enjoyment is central to the interaction order of these situations. The guides express a high degree of awareness of the fact that the tourists have paid to get a certain product. The product is defined in terms of sites to see, places to visit, adventure activities to do, and more generally when, what and how the different aspects of the trip are supposed to take place. These details are stated in the written “contract” - detailed information about the content of the given tour - on the tour operator's website that tourists access before the trip. This “contract,” then, is the tour company's frame for the particular trip: it provides the “social information” ( Goffman, 1967 ) that helps tourists and guides to understand “what sort of situation [this is]” and, consequently, what sort of performances are expected of them. The “contract” tells tourists what they can expect to happen and to experience. It tells guides what they have to deliver. Through both interviews and field conversations it is clear that the guides see their work as contractual and that they feel obliged to deliver a “product” as close to the “contract” as possible. In Goffman's (1959) terms, they conform to the “interaction order” and in doing so they prioritize enjoyment over sustainability. Their emphasis is on facilitating a relaxed, friendly and positive social atmosphere within the group and making sure that the tourists have a good time and enjoy themselves. It is only if and when tourists express enjoyment of deeper sustainability that the guides respond. Thus, it is the tourists who must first challenge the interaction order; the guides follow tourists in opening up for deeper sustainability. Larsen and Meged (2013 , p. 101) argue that it is tourist's “participatory and attentive tactics” that turn guided tours into co-created performances. Larsen and Meged (2013 , p. 101) also found that “guides rely on the energy from interactions and participants which is why the guiding is equally affected when the tourists log off.” A possible explanation to why the “interaction order” seems to stay fairly fixed on enjoyment in the tours we observed, could be that the guides are sensitive to tourist “logging off” if addressing or emphasizing deeper sustainability performances when not initiated by the tourists themselves.

As noted in the results, we did identify one performance by one guide that might have challenged the tourist's perceptions of sustainability and thus also the “interaction order.” This was the invitation to sit and reflect, then to find one's own way to the beach and take some time there. As this episode took place on a trip with international tourists, it is pertinent to ask whether guides use different frames depending on what type of tourist groups they guide, whether international tourists tend to challenge the interaction order more, and if so, how these challenges are resolved. These questions will be the focus of a future article.

A primary focus on enjoyment, however, does not preclude other foci, less central to the frame. For some guides, a focus on sustainability was possible as long as it didn't interfere with enjoyment. In the next section we discuss susceptibilities that produce potential for more, or deeper, sustainability.

Susceptibility to Sustainability

Some of the guides expressed that their understanding (or frame) of the trip and, therefore, their potential scope of action, differed based on the type and length of the trip they were guiding. One guide mentioned that trips longer than 2 weeks provided more opportunities to address a broader range of topics because there is more time to interact with individual tourists. While no such trips were the subject of this study, the guide's comments throw light on a way that guides can manage social interaction for particular effects. This guide explained that:

“. in the end you deliver a product that someone has paid for. so you need to know your group … Some are very susceptible for discussions and new ways of thinking, others find it annoying … So I don't push [sustainability issues/practices] so much, but do more sort of systematic brainwashing [laughs out loud]. because you spend quite a lot of time with the tourists, and then you can lead them, in the direction that you would like to see them end up … And that is not something you do the first day. It takes time.”

Following Goffman (1974) , one explanation for this guide's comments is that guides can have multiple backstage topics that they intend to emphasize throughout the trip and which, through planned performances, can gradually become front-staged, possibly without the tourists noticing the shift. In other words, sustainability could be an aspect of the guide's frame for the trip from the outset, but he or she keeps it “backstage” ( Goffman, 1959 ) until they feel that the tourists are ready (“susceptible”) for it. By back-staging sustainability, this guide managed the impression of himself so that his “front-stage” ( Goffman, 1959 ) performance matched his perception of tourist interest in sustainability, and this saved the tourists' “face” rather than creating an uncomfortable or embarrassing situation. However, this explanation fails to address how tourists become more interested in the guide's prepared topics. If this static view of frames is adopted, the question of how tourist frames can be made more susceptible to sustainability remains open. It also calls into question how the guides ascertain tourist susceptibility.

Taking into consideration the guides' educational backgrounds, it could be that this guide did actually have a deliberate educational program in mind in his “backstaging-to-frontstaging” of sustainability. In fact, five out of the six guides in this study have attended nature guide-related educational programs at university level in Norway. Andersen and Rolland (2018) argue that nature guides educated in friluftsliv (as is the norm in nature-based higher education courses in Norway) can “add value by enhancing participant's experiences and adding more learning to the experience. The learning relates to skills and techniques … and connecting the participants more closely with nature” (p. 1). However, Weiler and Kim (2011) argue that because tour guides, in general, have limited exposure to or experience with “theory, tools, and techniques for optimizing the visitor experience and visitor-environment interaction within a sustainability framework” they might not be “fully realizing their potential to communicate and role-model sustainability in their tour content and practice” (p. 113). In our view, there is merit in asking if the guide education programs in Norway do provide the necessary “theory, tools, and techniques” required for framing sustainability in their professional roles.

Goffman (1967) highlights the importance of the communication process in “the nature of the ritual order” (p. 42). It is the communication process that takes place between the guides and the tourists that is important for explaining “what it is that's going on” and according to Goffman this is largely due to feelings. Feelings are “vulnerable not to facts and things but to communications” and “[c]ommunications … can be by-passed, withdrawn from, disbelieved, conveniently misunderstood, and tactfully conveyed” ( Goffman, 1967 , p. 43). The trust that the guides build through their individual way of communicating with the tourists creates the potential scope for action to discuss sustainability. If the communication between the parties involved is not open and trusting, the possibility of maintaining an expressive order is made more difficult. The longer a trip lasts, the better everyone gets to know each other, which then gives room to expand the repertoire of what it is acceptable to talk about.

In our study, most tourists framed the trips in non-sustainability ways, as did most guides. However, occasionally guides were prompted by tourists to focus on a deeper sustainability at least with regard to learning about environment and culture, or when they received positive feedback from the tourists such as when they were applauded for retrieving trash. At those times, the guides at least attempted to respond in a deeper sustainability way themselves. Conversely, when the tourists were invited to deepen their relationship with nature by taking a “sit-down and reflect,” their framing of the trip might have shifted or widened to encompass a (slightly) deeper focus on sustainability. None of them reported that it did, however. One possible reason could be that, as all the tourists on this particular trip were non-Nordic and well-experienced in nature-based adventure tourism, they might have already reached a deep-enough level of sustainability practice that such reflection is normal and not note-worthy. If so, this particular trip could be considered similar to many eco-tourism trips which have been challenged for “preaching to the converted” rather than increasing the public's exposure to deeper sustainability experiences ( Beaumont, 1991 ).

Several of the guides found Norwegian tourists in Norway to be less interested in learning from the tour and more critical toward the guide. This difference apparently has an effect on both how the guides perform their guiding, and the guides scope of action. With Norwegian tourists, the guides often felt the need to prove their competence while at the same time sensing that many of the Norwegian tourists felt they did not actually need a guide. Also, working with the less enthusiastic (Norwegian) tourists affected how the guides behaved and their guiding style. It seems that working with a group with the same cultural background poses some challenges for the guides in terms of what to focus on in their guiding practice. This possibility is worth further investigation for its impact on the sustainability potential of domestic nature-based adventure tourism.

The Complication of Tour-Logistics

We turn now to consider guides' framing and its relationship to the tour company. Weiler and Black's (2015) observation that tour companies can leave guides little power to perform sustainability on any given tour is pertinent to this discussion. In our study, the way the tours were organized left little time for performing sustainability that was not already framed by company.

The tour logistics emphasized: (1) the adventure activity itself (hiking, biking, skiing), (2) gazing ( Urry, 1990 ) upon the landscape, and (3) journeying through the landscape. The tour logistics, in our interpretation, are framed as getting the tourists from point A to point B. Performing nature-based adventure tourism seems to mean giving the tourists what they had paid for. The different sustainability performances we did observe mostly took place during the adventure activities, not as planned nor pre formed performances linked to the company's programme, but rather as spontaneous performances that took place in situ . Only on a few occasions did we observe the guides choosing to facilitate sustainability. In our study, then, sustainability was inspired mainly by the responses of tourists and guides to their immediate experiences of the adventure activities, within particular settings. Sustainability actions and practices were not emphasized strongly in the orchestration of tour logistics.

The tour company involved in this study did not “frame” sustainability as part of the experience of the trips. That we found sustainability performances in our data suggests that tourists are “ready” for “light” sustainability at least. Arguably, this company and others would not damage their reputations by promoting the level of sustainability that tourists will happily accept. By framing sustainability into the experiences, tour companies would also be opening up possibilities for guides to frame their work for deeper sustainability.

Conclusions

This study has shown that sustainability, as we understand it, did occur at the micro-level of the nature-based adventure tourism experiences we studied in Norway, albeit as a minor theme in guides' and tourists' framing of trips. The sustainability performances we found mainly sprang from spontaneous responses by tourists and guides to experiences of adventure activities in particular natural settings. We have shown that sustainability performances can be ambiguous, complex and contingent upon the interplay of guides' and tourists' frames.

Nature-based adventure tourism companies appear to be key agents in the framing of trips by both guides and tourists. There appears to be potential for deeper sustainability to be expressed on guided trips if companies allow it. The implications for promotional messaging and expectation-setting through pre-trip interactions with tourists are worthy of further investigation. Similarly, there are implications for guide training and for the knowledge and skills demanded by nature-based adventure tourism companies of their guides.

Deeper sustainability might be found more readily in situations of “foreignness” or difference, such as among international tourists. This possibility needs further exploration. If susceptibility to sustainability is greater in “foreign” contexts, how can the tourism industry respond? This question seems especially pertinent in the current relatively closed global context and in the prospect of international travel in the foreseeable future being limited by cost and pandemic controls.

While not generalizable to other settings, our findings demonstrate that sustainability in tourism can be empirically studied by taking a performative ethnographic approach in field work. Further studies in a wider variety of settings, and especially longer trips, could potentially tease out some of the ambiguities and complexities we have noted. Study designs that access tour operators', guides' and tourists' perceptions of one another's frames would shed additional light on the ways in which these actors influence one another's sustainability understandings and actions. Finally, studies that access guides' and tourists' longer-term reflections on trips might also bring to light important aspects of trip dynamics on sustainability in their everyday lives.

This paper presents a study of how sustainability is operationalized in a nature-based adventure tourism setting. The study is novel in its method, empirical data, and Norwegian setting. The results are relevant to the national as well as the international tourism industry.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Author Contributions

ARo, PL, and ARa contributed to the research idea and design of the study. ARo conducted the fieldwork and data analysis under supervision of the other authors. ARo wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to manuscript revision and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords: sustainability, adventure tourism, nature, environment, ethnography, dramaturgy, performance

Citation: Rosenberg A, Lynch PM and Radmann A (2021) Sustainability Comes to Life. Nature-Based Adventure Tourism in Norway. Front. Sports Act. Living 3:686459. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2021.686459

Received: 26 March 2021; Accepted: 07 May 2021; Published: 11 June 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Rosenberg, Lynch and Radmann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Axel Rosenberg, axelr@nih.no

This article is part of the Research Topic

Environmental Sustainability in Sports, Physical Activity and Education, and Outdoor Life

Sustainable Tourism Development Essay

This essay shows that there are initiatives which aim at promoting sustainability in tourism destinations. However, these initiatives do not work due to the diverse nature of the tourism industry. The essay demonstrates this through various approaches to tourism sustainability and methods that stakeholders have applied in their attempts to enhance sustainability of tourism destinations.

We can define sustainability as a growth that does not experience any threats from feedback. Here, feedback refers to social unrest, pollution, or depletion of resources. We can relate this to the development of tourism destination. In tourism, sustainability would be “that level of development which does not exceed the carrying capacity of the destination and thus cause serious or irreversible changes to the destination” (Tribe, 2005). This is what we call a growth that can sustain itself over time.

It is hard for a nation or a sector to use effective plans for sustainable tourism development with clear agenda. The UNWTO provides policy guidelines for such purposes. The UNWTO refers sustainable tourism with regard to sustainability assumption as “the environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions its long-term sustainability” (UNWTO, 1995).

Sustainability in tourism destination must ensure optimal use of resources that are sources of tourism development, their maintenance, and conservation of biodiversity and natural heritage (Liu, 2003). The project must also “adhere to socio-cultural existences of host communities, conserve their cultural heritage and enhance cultural understanding and tolerance” (Swarbrooke, 1999).

Sustainable tourism project must also provide socio-economic benefits, long-term economic availability, stable employment, poverty reduction, social services, and generation of income to the host community and all stakeholders.

First, regulations are forms of ensuring sustainability of tourism destinations. Stakeholders can introduce permissions and permits as forms of preventative control. Permits and permissions aim at preventing damages by requiring stakeholders to get permissions so as to engage in possible harmful activities. For instance, we can have planning permits to stop developments that do not meet planning guidelines and larger environmental matters and effects.

Second, regulation also involves environmental impact assessment. Some projects which may have severe impacts on the environment; thus the authorities must review an environmental consequences of such projects. It may use a cost-benefit approach that covers the all costs and advantages to stakeholders. For a development to be socially acceptable, its benefits to society must exceed its cost to society.

Third, controls and laws are also effective means of providing and controlling environmental pollutant targets. Occasionally, policymakers may introduce these laws and controls after an event that cause harm to the environment has started. Such laws may cover restrictions to aircraft and other forms of pollution and the quality standards of water for consumption. Litter laws and their subsequent fines are also part of this regulation.

Fourth, there are also special designation areas. Most countries have sites that have special status as a way of promoting conservation and controlling development. These designations have varying degrees of statutory backing. For example, the UK has designated Sites of Special Scientific Interests (SSSIs) and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauties (AONBs). The UK considers SSSIs sites as “areas of special interest because of flora, fauna, geological or physiographical features” (National Park Service, 1990).

The Countryside Commission designates AONBs areas for the purpose protecting places with natural beauty. The IUCN (the World Conservation Union) has also classified protected places, with an idea of enhancing international conservation efforts and providing the benchmark for protection. Special designation areas may include nature reserve, national parks, natural monuments, and protected landscape or seascape among others.

Fifth, most countries now have laws to ensure that large organisations devote sections of their resources to corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR now extends to include the environment apart from other issues of organisations. Private organisations are focusing on the environment by creating their environmental management teams, creating environmental guidelines and carrying out environmental evaluations and required actions for purposes of conserving the environment.

The WTTC and WTO are responsible for the provision of leadership and guidelines in environmental conservation. Most guidelines in this area focus on noise, emissions, waste, congestion, tourism and conservation (Deloitte and Oxford Economics, 2010).

Some forms of these regulations are difficult to implement. Still, the industry may find them difficult to follow. There are cases where private developers and environmental authorities engage in lawsuits. Such issues hinder regulations as attempts to enhance sustainability in tourism destinations.

Market methods highlight “manipulation of prices as a method of achieving environmental goals through adjustment of market prices in an attempt to reflect the environmental costs, and benefits of activities” (Tribe, 2005). The sole purpose is for the manufactures and their customers change their behaviours with regard to new prices. This ensures that individuals’ efforts in environmental conservation are worthwhile (Middleton and Hawkins, 1998).

The first concept is ownership. People tend to overuse free resources and areas of free access. Thus, policymakers advocate privatisation of such natural resources. For instance, ownership of a lake is an incentive to enforce property rights. Thus, people may pay for the use of resources such as lakes and oceans as dumping sinks.

Firms will strive to maximise their gains and satisfy their shareholders expectations. Thus, policymakers advocate for public ownership to enhance environmental management. In principle, a public organisation has an “incentive to consider social costs and benefits to the country” (Cohen, 2002).

Policymakers can use taxes and increasing prices to reduce the use of products with negative environmental consequences, and subsidies that can reduce prices and promote the use of products that have positive effects on the environmental. Taxation has worked since it adoption by OECD in 1972 as a way of passing the cost to polluters (OECD, 2001).

On carbon dioxide emissions, Curtis argues that we can make moderate emissions reductions by “way of increased energy efficiency but that excess emissions by luxury hotels and resorts need further action” (Curtis, 2002).

Transport has been a main source of concern in this area. National Parks authorities of the UK have emphasised necessities of transport systems to countryside tourism and recreation. They note that about 90 percent of visitors used cars to parks. Consequently, most environmentalists have called for raised taxations on car and air travels so as to reflect their environmental costs (National Park Service, 1990).

Finland has taxes on none-returnable beverage containers to promote the consumption of returnable parks in attempts to eliminate the level of such parks left as litters. Landfill taxes apply charges on waste management firms that utilise landfill areas for burying solid waste.

Some governments may give grants for people who wish to buy electric cars to reduce carbon pollution. There are projects underway to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. These include the planned “planting of forests to capture carbon naturally as well as the artificial capture of carbon and its storage in underground reservoirs” (Mules, 2001).

Deposit-refund schemes work by encouraging consumers to return containers from the vendors or dispose them in a manner favourable to the environment. Customers who return their containers get their deposits. This scheme is effective in the local outlets and can work well on a national scale if well implemented (Gee, 1997).

In order to reduce pollution, some countries have introduced charges on products and services they offer the public. These include car parking charges to encourage usage of “public vehicles, road pricing for motorway usages in some EU countries such as France and Spain” (Priestley, Edwards and Coccossis, 1996).

Market approaches to sustainability in developing tourism destinations have been effective in EU zones. Still, the idea to provide subsidies for environmental friendly products such as vehicles is gaining recognition among tourism stakeholders. However, most consumers do not favour the idea of price increases.

Tribe notes that soft tools are “voluntary by nature and attempt to change behaviours sometimes through improved information, advice, persuasion and sometimes by forming specific networks” (Tribe, 2005).

Tourism eco-labelling approach to sustainability focuses on tourists. Leisure and tourism consumers themselves have the ability to transform the consequences of products they consume on the environmental and switch to products with minimal environmental effects. This approach aims at giving the users the “additional environmental information to enable them make informed decisions in their buying patterns” (Cater and Lowman, 1994).

There are also certification and award schemes to enhance sustainability in tourism destination. They authenticate and provide endorsement to environmental attributions made by firms and offer marks such as the Blue Flag that a consumer can recognise (Becken and Hay, 2007).

The Blue Flag goes to beaches that have acquired recognisable levels for water quality and facilities, safety, environmental education and management. This is also an environmental marketing device for tourists who are environmental conscious. The scheme attempts to offer opportunities for beach local stakeholders to increase their environmental concerns (Coccossis and Nijkamp, 1995).

Many organisations such as the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Federation of Nature and National Parks of Europe (FNNPE) have produced guidelines and treaties for environmental management and sustainability (FNNPE, 1993).

Citizenship, education and advertising can also enhance sustainability when individuals act in the role of consumers or workers or opinion makers (Cooper, Fletcher, Gilbert and Wanhill, 2008). Consumers need information to enable them purchase green products and contribute towards environmental sustainability.

Thus, the focus should be on an environmental education as a way of creating awareness among consumers and encourage others to adopt favourable products in environmental conservation and sustainability (Gratton and Kokolakakis, 2003).

Tribe notes “voluntary schemes exist to allow consumers mitigate the impacts of any environmental damages they may cause” (Tribe, 2005). The most common is carbon offset schemes in airline to passengers (McNeill, 1997).

Ecotourism as a form of tourism stresses the sound ecological principles (UNEPTIE, 2007). Thus, ecotourism attempts to minimise negative impacts on the environment, create environmental and cultural awareness, offer financial services to empower host communities, and raise sensitive issues of concern to host communities (Saarinen, 2006). Therefore, promoting ecotourism is a form of minimising negative external impacts of tourism and maximising the positive external impacts of tourism. However, industry observers note “ecotourism will always remain a minor form of tourism” (Mowforth and Munt, 2009). Consequently, it is not the main approach for achieving sustainable tourism.

Soft tools rarely achieve their desired effects as such approaches depend on the willingness of participants for effectiveness. However, soft tools are the best approaches for enhancing sustainability of tourism destinations.

Getz, Crouch, and Ritchie share the idea that tourism planners have recognised the need for creating common goals in tourism planning (Getz, 1995; Crouch and Ritchie, 1999). However, the problem is that there are no empirical studies to support common goals, or what factors are essential in creating shared goals in developing sustainable tourism destinations to cater for various needs of stakeholders.

To this end, most tourism organisations have no concrete industry standards as these depend on a given country’s tourism policies. Thus, creating common goals for sustainability in the tourism sector will remain a challenge.

Therefore, organisations should strive to create a solid tourism industry shared goals common among all stakeholders (Burns and Holden, 1995). These goals must come from common publications, stakeholders’ opinions, and academic journals among others. We have to recognise that the industry can create sustainable tourism destinations based on competitive interests and shared resources affected by same factors (Butler, 2006). This will ensure that stakeholders have motivation to achieve a common and collective goal.

However, these shared goals cannot remain constant as the industry experiences growth (Hall and Lew, 1998). Thus, continuous research, studies and development are necessary to reflect the changing trends in the industry such environmental concerns, infrastructures, and marketing principles.

This approach will ensure that the industry has a sense of direction supported by strategies and practical and achievable goals. Medeiros and Bramwell noted that countries such as Brazil have attempted to implement shared vision but with minimal outcomes due to uncertainty in the industry (Medeiros and Bramwell, 2002).

The challenge has been to get information where stakeholders need it for developing sustainable tourism policies. Thus, the industry must enhance information flow among its small stakeholders. This must also apply to feedback. However, generating useful information for the industry means continuous learning due to the dynamic nature of tourism. Application of information systems can assist in reflecting, evaluating, delivering, processing, and improving information flow in the tourism industry for sustainability destinations.

Most stakeholders blame poor research cultures in the tourism industry as a basis for lack of sustainability in developing tourism destinations. This is responsible for the rift in utilisation of the available research findings. De Lacy and Boyd note that there are considerable efforts in Australia to reduce such barriers through “the use of the Australian Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) model for cross-sectoral research collaboration to enhance the sustainability of tourism” (De Lacy and Boyd, 2000).

The approach aims at highlighting the importance of the industry collaboration to enhance the effectiveness and benefits of research findings through technology transfers, usages and commercialisation.

Organisations have relationships that exist among them. These can be in forms of partnerships, co-operation, co-ordination, and collaboration. Researchers have concentrated on these areas so as to eliminate problems that have affected tourism development for decades.

Jamal and Getz concur that enhancing the industry identity and common goals can enhance co-operation among the main players as these stakeholders recognise the need to work as a team (Jamal and Getz, 1995). However, the challenge is that no major studies exist to prove the importance of co-operation to tourism destination development. Still, a closer look at the relationship that exists in the industry reveals that real sustainability in the tourism industry can only become reality if there is co-operation.

Occasionally, some problems result due to lack of information. Therefore, co-operation will minimise incidences of miscommunication and difficulties due to lack of collaboration among the industry stakeholders (Inskeep, 1997). This approach to sustainability is not effective due to challenges related to accessing information in a timely fashion.

One of the aims of ecotourism is the need for cultural exchange among the stakeholders. There is a need for mutual acceptance and accommodation of different cultural belief, and world views to enhance development of sustainability in tourism destinations (Davidson and Maitland, 1997). It is necessary that stakeholders of diverse views and beliefs promote dialogue and exchanges in tourism destinations, acceptance of the locals, conservation of the cultural diversity, and eradicate negative impacts of tourism.

We can use Senge’s system thinking to promote a common language that helps stakeholders who have differences in belief systems (Senge, 1990). The industry covers almost all cultures of the global. Thus, cultural exchange has limitations in relations to accommodation, acceptance, diversity, and eradication of negative stereotypes.

Sustainability of tourism destinations needs consultative approach on decision-making processes. The processes must involve all stakeholders including host communities. Sharman noted some issues that influenced participation of stakeholders in planning as poor representation, low participation and poor outcomes of the process among the participants (Sharman, 1999).

Power issues influenced the outcomes of all consultative processes. The industry can develop models which aim at creating power balance for accommodation of different point of views (Douglas and Butler, 2001). This approach helps in facilitating understanding, strategic planning and increasing stakeholders’ participation.

The uncertainty surrounding the future of tourism industry impacts decision-making process. Stakeholders are not willing to engage in long-term decisions without knowing their consequences. Participants should base their decisions on sound policies and welcome open discussions so that they can identity issues of common concerns and provide alternatives or solutions (Jamieson, 2001).

It is difficult for the tourism industry to have a single body to coordinate all decision-making processes that fit all the tourism destinations of the world. Tourism decisions depend on national policies regulating the industry.

The concept of adaptive management can help in improving sustainability of tourism destinations. Adaptive approaches can help the industry tackle emerging challenges that hamper growth (Knowles and Egan, 2000). Adaptive management enables the industry reacts to changes in a timely fashion.

The idea of adaptive management finds support in studies and ideas of Reeds (Reed, 2000). Adaptive management requires continuous studies, testing and developing adaptive models (Eaton, 1996). Adaptive management has been effective in enhance management of the tourism industry.

Given the reviewed literature, this research supports the view that despite the existence of many initiatives, sustainable tourism practices have not spread across the industry because the stakeholders of tourism are still divided on how to improve the sustainability of tourist destinations . These initiatives exist, but tourism has diverse components that vary from country to country. Thus, putting these together to enhance sustainability of the environment has remained a challenge across the industry.

Approaches to tourism destination sustainability such as regulations, market approaches, and soft tools may not work in every tourism situation. Still, attempts at developing sustainability of tourism destinations may not achieve the desired outcome due to minimal participation in processes such as sharing information, goals, co-operation and co-ordination, cultural exchanges, consultative decision-making and planning, and adaptive management.

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New UN Tourism Report Focuses on Integration of Biodiversity in National Tourism Policies

All Regions
22 May 2024

While 95% of national tourism policies acknowledge nature as a primary asset for tourism, actual detailed plans for sustainable management practices are often lacking, a new report from UN Tourism reveals.

Published on International Day of Biodiversity, the report "The Integration of Biodiversity in National Tourism Policies", explores the intricate relationship between the tourism sector and biodiversity, which encompasses the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. It assesses how 80 national tourism policies incorporate biodiversity values and aims to deepen the understanding of the references to biodiversity within these policies.

The report comprises four detailed subsections that examine the integration of biodiversity within policy narratives, policy statements, strategic programs, and commitments to monitoring. By providing insights into the breadth and depth of current integration efforts, it serves as a valuable resource for policymakers, stakeholders, and the global community, urging further action towards a sustainable future.

As custodians of the Earth's natural resources, it is crucial that we foster a harmonious relationship between tourism and the environment

UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili says: "As custodians of the Earth's natural resources, it is crucial that we foster a harmonious relationship between tourism and the environment. This publication not only highlights the interdependence of biodiversity and tourism but also underscores the essential role of well-integrated policies play in ensuring a sustainable future for everyone."

Tourism answering nature's call to action

"Be part of the Plan" is the theme of International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) 2024, serving as a call to action for all stakeholders to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity. This involves supporting the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, also known as the Biodiversity Plan.

This new report comes as a part of the commitments set out at the UN Biodiversity Conference COP-15, held in Montreal in December 2022, where the historic Biodiversity Plan was adopted Furthermore, the report complements the recently launched publication "Nature Positive Travel & Tourism in Action" amplifying the momentum towards environmentally responsible practices within the tourism sector.

Eco-tourism, climate change, and environmental policies: empirical evidence from developing economies

Yunfeng Shang 1 ,
Chunyu Bi 2 ,
Xinyu Wei 2 ,
Dayang Jiang 2 ,
Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5446-7093 3 , 4 &
Ehsan Rasoulinezhad ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7726-1757 5

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 10 , Article number: 275 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Environmental studies

Developing ecotourism services is a suitable solution to help developing countries improve the status of sustainable development indicators and protect their environment. The primary purpose of this paper is to find out the effects of green governance variables and carbon dioxide emissions on ecotourism for 40 developing economies from 2010 to 2021. The results confirmed a uni-directional causal relationship between the green governance indicator and the inflation rate of the ecotourism indicator. In addition, with a 1% improvement in the green governance index of developing countries, the ecotourism of these countries will increase by 0.43%. In comparison, with a 1% increase in the globalization index of these countries, ecotourism will increase by 0.32%. Moreover, ecotourism in developing countries is more sensitive to macroeconomic variables changes than in developed economies. Geopolitical risk is an influential factor in the developing process of ecotourism. The practical policies recommended by this research are developing the green financing market, establishing virtual tourism, granting green loans to small and medium enterprises, and government incentives to motivate active businesses.

Comprehensive green growth indicators across countries and territories

Role of foreign direct Investment and political openness in boosting the eco-tourism sector for achieving sustainability

Ways to bring private investment to the tourism industry for green growth

Introduction.

The challenge of climate change has become a primary threat to living on the Earth in the last centuries (Rasoulinzhad and Taghizadeh-Hesary, 2022 ). Many meetings of the countries at the regional and international level are held on the topics of environment and climate change. Regardless of environmental issues, population growth, and the lack of control of greenhouse gas emissions, industrialization has been the most crucial cause of the climate change crisis. Chao and Feng ( 2018 ) address human activity as the leading cause of climate change and express that this challenge is a potential threat to living on Earth. Woodward ( 2019 ) argued that climate change threats include the rise in global temperature, the melting of polar ice caps, and unprecedented disease outbreaks. Therefore, urgent policies and solutions are essential to control and lower the risk of global change. One of the signs of climate change is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s surface. Figure 1 shows the temperature data from 1910 to 2021 for the four continents of Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America.

Source: Authors from NOAA ( https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/global/time-series ).

The data in Fig. 1 shows that the air temperature has increased significantly over the past century, which has been more prominent in Asia and Europe. In 2021, we saw a decrease in temperature changes due to the spread of the Corona disease and a decrease in the rate of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the role of the Asian continent in increasing the global temperature has been more than other continents due to its large population and excessive consumption of fossil fuels.

During the past decades, the world’s countries have tried to formulate and implement various environmental policies collectively in the form of agreements or separately to fight environmental threats. Regarding international agreements, such things as the Paris Agreement of 2015, the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, the Montreal Protocol of 1987, and the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer in 1985 can be addressed whose primary purpose is to integrate the goals and motivation of the international community to the world’s environmental threats. However, a group of earlier studies, such as Zheng et al. ( 2017 ), Takashima ( 2018 ), and Roelfsema et al. ( 2022 ), emphasized the inefficiency of these global agreements, especially after the left the USA from the Paris Agreement on 1 June 2017. The most important cause of this inefficiency has been the need for more motivation of countries to fulfill their international obligations towards environmental issues. However, many governments consider the threat of climate change only within their geographical boundaries and have tried to formulate and implement green policies to advance their environmental protection goals. These policies include green financial policies (green taxes, green subsidies), monetary policies (such as green loans and green financing), and cultural and social policies in line with sustainable development. The ultimate goal of these green policies is a green economy, an environmentally friendly economy, a zero carbon economy, or a sustainable economy. Lee et al. ( 2022 ) define the green economy as a broad concept comprising green industry, agriculture, and services. Centobelli et al. ( 2022 ) express that environmental sustainability should be more attention in the service sector owing to its penetration into social life and interactions.

Tourism and travel-related services are among countries’ main parts of the service sector. By creating the flow of tourists, tourism services can lead to capital transfer, job creation, cultural exchange (globalization), and increasing welfare in the country hosting the tours. According to the Yearbook of Tourism Statistics published by the World Tourism Organization, international tourism has increased from 522.2 billion US dollars in 1995 to nearly 1.86 trillion US dollars in 2019. This increase shows the importance of tourism services in generating income for countries, especially in the era of Corona and post-corona. Casado-Aranda et al. ( 2021 ) express that tourism services can be a central driver of economic growth recovery in post COVID era. Jeyacheya and Hampton ( 2022 ) argue that tourism can make high incomes for host countries leading to job creation and economic flourishing in destination cities for tourists.

An important issue mentioned in the corona era and relies on the post-corona era is the revitalizing of green economic growth. An important issue mentioned in the corona era and relying on the post-corona era is the revitalizing green economic growth (Bai et al., 2022 ; Werikhe, 2022 ), an opportunity that countries should pay more attention to in order to rebuild their economic activities. In other words, countries should plan their return to economic prosperity with environmental issues in mind. To this end, the issue of tourism finds a branch called Ecotourism or sustainable tourism which has environmental concerns and tries to help countries to improve environmental protection policies. Ecotourism is an approach based on environmental criteria, which is opposed to over-tourism (a type of tourism that disrupts the protection of the environment and destroys natural resources). The International Ecotourism Society defines Ecotourism as an efficient way to conserve the environment and improve local people’s well-being. It can be said that Ecotourism, along with various economic advantages (income generation, job creation, globalization, poverty alleviation), will bring environmental protection to the world’s countries, achieving the goals of green economic growth recovery and sustainable development. Xu et al. ( 2022 ) consider Ecotourism as one of the essential components of achieving sustainable development in the post-corona era.

Ecotourism in developing countries has more priorities compared to developed economies. Firstly, developing countries are often countries with financial problems of the government, and the governments in these countries need more capital to advance sustainable development goals. Therefore, developing ecotourism services can be a suitable solution to help these countries improve the status of sustainable development indicators and protect their environment. Second, due to the spread of the Corona disease, developing countries have experienced numerous bankruptcy in the tourism services sector. Therefore, promoting ecotourism in these countries is of great importance in the post-corona era. Third, developing countries have a high share in the emission of greenhouse gases in the world due to their high dependence on fossil fuels and the lack of advanced green technologies. Fourth, due to bureaucratic processes, high cost, and lack of market transparency, greenwashing may happen in developing economies’ ecotourism industry, meaning that a company serving ecotourism services makes its activities seem more sustainable and ethical than they are. The term “greenwashing” can harshly impact the future development path of the ecotourism industry in developing economies. According to the reasons mentioned above, developing ecotourism in developing countries can be an essential factor in controlling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in these countries.

This paper tries to contribute to the existing literature from the following aspects:

Calculating the ecotourism index for selected countries based on the criteria for measuring sustainable tourism stated by the World Tourism Organization in the United Nations. Considering that there is no specific index for ecotourism, the calculation of ecotourism in this article will be innovative.

Measuring the green governance index as a proxy for environmental policies for selected countries based on the Environment Social and Governance (ESG) data.

Selecting a sample of 40 developing countries from different geographical regions to calculate the interconnections between ecotourism, green governance, and climate change

Making a further discussion to address the role of uncertainty and the developing level of countries in the relationship between ecotourism and explanatory variables.

The main results confirm the existence of a uni-directional causal relationship running from the green governance indicator and inflation rate to the ecotourism indicator. In addition, with a 1% improvement in the green governance index of developing countries, the ecotourism of these countries will increase by 0.43%. A 1% increase in the globalization index of these countries accelerates ecotourism by 0.32%.

Moreover, ecotourism in developing countries is more sensitive to macroeconomic variables changes than in developed economies. Geopolitical risk is an influential factor in the developing process of ecotourism. The practical policies recommended by this research are developing the green financing market, establishing virtual tourism, granting green loans to small and medium enterprises, and government incentives to motivate active businesses.

The paper in continue is organized as follows: section “Literature review” provides a short literature review to determine the gaps this research seeks to fill. Section “Data and model specification” argues data and model specification. The following section represents empirical results. Section “Discussion” expresses discussion, whereas the last section provides conclusions, policy implications, research limitations, and recommendations to research further.

Literature review

This part of the article analyzes and classifies the previous literature on ecotourism and sustainable development in a rational and structured way. The importance of tourism in economic growth and development has been discussed in previous studies. However, the study of the effect of tourism on climate change has received little attention. Especially the relationship between sustainable tourism, climate change, and environmental policies is a problem that has yet to receive the attention of academic experts.

A group of previous studies has focused on the place of tourism in economic development and growth. Holzner ( 2011 ) focused on the consequences of tourism development on the economic performance of 134 countries from 1970 to 2007. They found out that excessive dependence on tourism income leads to Dutch disease in the economy, and other economic sectors need to develop to the extent of the tourism sector. In another study, Sokhanvar et al. ( 2018 ) investigated the causal link between tourism and economic growth in emerging economies from 1995 to 2014. The main results confirmed that the linkage is country-dependent. Brida et al. ( 2020 ) studied 80 economies from 1995 to 2016 to determine how tourism and economic development are related. The paper’s conclusions highlighted tourism’s-positive role in economic activities.

Another group of previous studies has linked tourism to sustainability targets. Sorensen and Grindsted ( 2021 ) expressed that nature tourism development has a positive and direct impact on achieving sustainable development goals of countries. In a new study, Li et al. ( 2022 ) studied the impacts of tourism development on life quality (as one of the sustainable development goals defined by the UN in 2015) in the case of Japan. They found that tourism development positively impacts the quality of life of age groups in the country. Ahmad et al. ( 2022 ) explored the role of tourism in the sustainability of G7 economies from 2000–2019. The primary findings revealed the positive impact of tourism arrivals on sustainable economic development. Zekan et al. ( 2022 ) investigated the impact of tourism on regional sustainability in Europe. They concluded that tourism development increases transport, leading to increased carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, tourism development causes environmental pollution.

Tourism that can pay attention to environmental issues is called “ecotourism.” Many new studies have studied different dimensions of ecotourism. Lu et al. ( 2021 ) expanded the concept of the ecotourism industry. The significant results expressed that smart tourist cities are essential for efficient ecotourism in countries. Thompson ( 2022 ) expressed the characteristics of ecotourism development through survey methodology. The results confirmed the importance of transparent regulations, government support, and social intention to promote ecotourism. In another study, Heshmati et al. ( 2022 ) employed the SWOT analysis method to explore the critical success factors of ecotourism development in Iran. They found that legal documentation and private participation are major influential factors in promoting ecotourism in Iran. In line with the previous research, Hosseini et al. ( 2021 ) tried to explore the influential factors in promoting ecotourism in Iran by employing a SWOT analysis. They depicted that attracting investors is essential to enhance ecotourism projects in Iran. Hasana et al. ( 2022 ) reviewed research to analyze the earlier studies about ecotourism. The conclusions expressed that ecotourism is necessary for environmental protection. However, it is a challenging plan for the government, and they should carry out various policies toward ecotourism development. Kunjuraman et al. ( 2022 ) studied the role of ecotourism on rural community development in Malaysia. The significant results confirmed that ecotourism could transfer-positive impacts.

Several earlier studies have concentrated on the characteristics of ecotourism in different developed and developing economies. For example, Ruhanen ( 2019 ) investigated the ecotourism status in Australia. The paper concluded that the country could potentially make a larger share of ecotourism to the entire local tourism industry. Jin et al. ( 2022 ) studied the role of local community power on green tourism in Japan. They concluded that the concept of agricultural village activity and regional support positively influences the development of green tourism in Japan as a developed economy. Choi et al. ( 2022 ) sought to find aspects of ecotourism development in South Korea. The preliminary results confirmed the importance of green governance and efficient regulation to promote a sustainable tourism industry. Baloch et al. ( 2022 ) explored the ecotourism specifications in the developing economy of Pakistan. They found that Pakistan’s ecotourism needs government support and the social well-being of the visited cities. Sun et al. ( 2022 ) studied ecotourism in China. They concluded that there is imbalanced development of ecotourism among Chinese provinces due to the need for more capital to invest in all ecotourism projects throughout the Chinese cities. Tajer and Demir ( 2022 ) analyzed the ecotourism strategy in Iran. They concluded that despite various potentials in the country, insufficient capital, lack of social awareness, and political tension are the major obstacles to promoting a sustainable tourism industry in Iran.

Another group of earlier studies has drawn attention to promoting eco-tourism in the post COVID era. They believe that the corona disease has created an excellent opportunity to pay more attention to environmental issues and that countries should move towards sustainable development concepts such as sustainable (eco) tourism in the post-corona era. Soliku et al. ( 2021 ) studied eco-tourism in Ghana during the pandemic. The findings depicted the vague impacts of a pandemic on eco-tourism. Despite the short-term negative consequence of the pandemic on eco-tourism, it provides various opportunities for developing this sector in Ghana. Hosseini et al. ( 2021 ) employed the Fuzzy Dematel technique to find solutions for promoting eco-tourism during COVID-19. They found out that planning to increase the capacity of eco-tourism and incentive policies by governments can help promote the eco-tourism aspect under the pandemic’s consequences. Abedin et al. ( 2022 ) studied the consequence of COVID-19 on coastal eco-tourism development. The primary findings confirmed the negative impacts of a pandemic on the development of eco-tourism.

A review of previous studies shows that tourism can positively impact green growth and sustainable development. Sustainable tourism can be used as a policy to deal with the threat of climate change. This issue needs more attention in the corona and post-corona eras. Because in the post-corona era, many countries have sought to revive green economic growth, and ecotourism can be one of the tools to achieve it. As observed, a detailed study of the relationship between climate change, ecotourism, and environmental policies has yet to be done. Therefore, this research will address and fill this literature gap.

Data and model specification

Data description.

The paper seeks to find the relationship between climate change, ecotourism, and environmental policy for the panel of 40 developing economies from different regions from 2010 to 2021 (480 observations). The sample size could have been more extensive due to the lack of information on some variables. However, there are 480 observations in the data analysis of the data panel; therefore, the number of samples selected is acceptable.

To determine the proxies for main variables, CO2 emissions per capita are selected as the proxy for climate change. Many earlier studies (e.g., Espoir et al., 2022 ) have employed this variable as an appropriate variable representing the status of climate change. Regarding ecotourism, the World Tourism Organization proposed some measurements of sustainable tourism, and also following Yusef et al. ( 2014 ), the entropy weight method is employed to calculate a multi-dimensional ecotourism indicator comprising per capita green park area (square meters), gross domestic tourism revenue (US dollars), the ratio of good air quality (%), green transport, renewable water resources (km3) and deforestation rate (%). It is a novel ecotourism indicator that can show the ecotourism status in countries.

In addition, the green governance index is calculated as a proxy for environmental policy. Principally, the Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) data from World Bank are gathered to calculate this variable. With the improvement of the Green Governance Index, the quality of environmental policies will also increase, and vice versa. With the adverseness of the Green Governance Index, the efficiency of environmental policies will decrease.

Regarding control variables, the inflation rate as an influential factor in tourism flows is selected. The importance of this variable to promoting/declining tourism flows has been drawn to attention by some earlier studies, such as Liu et al. ( 2022 ). The inflation rate can raise the total cost of travel, causing a reduction in tourism flows, while any reduction in the inflation rate can increase the intention of tourists to travel. In addition, the KOF globalization index provided by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute is another control variable. A country with a higher degree of globalization means more readiness to accept tourists from countries with different cultures and religions.

Model specification

According to the variables mentioned above, 40 examined developing countries from 2010 to 2021, the panel co-integration model can be written as Eq. 1 :

ETOR indicates the ecotourism index, while CO2, GGI, INF, and GLOB denote Carbon dioxide emissions per capita, green governance index, inflation rate, and globalization index, respectively. i is 1,2,…,40 and shows examined developing economies, while t is time and contains 2010, 2011,..,2021.

Prior to the estimation of coefficients of Eq. 1 , the panel unit root tests are employed to find out whether the series is stationary. To this end, three tests of LLC (Levin et al., 2002 ), Breitung’s test ( 2000 ), and the PP-Fisher test (Philips and Perron, 1988 ). If all the variables are stationary at the first level of difference (I(1)), a panel co-integration test can be conducted to explore whether the model is spurious. To this end, Kao’s co-integration test ( 1999 ) and Pedroni’s residual co-integration test ( 2004 ) are conducted. If the co-integration relationship exists among variables, the panel causality test can be run to determine the causal linkages among variables. In this paper, the two steps of Engle and Granger (1987)‘s test, which is based on the error correction model (ECM) is used as Eqs. 2 – 6 :

In the above Equations, Δ is the first differences of variables, while θ and ECT represent the fixed country effect and error correction term.

The next step is the long-run panel co-integration estimations. To this end, Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) and Dynamic OLS (DOLS) as robustness checks are conducted, which are two famous panel co-integration estimators (Rasoulinezhad, 2018 ). The FMOLS estimator has various advantages. It allows serial correlation, endogeneity, and cross-sectional heterogeneity (Erdal and Erdal, 2020 ).

Empirical results

In this section, we will implement the experimental research model. The purpose of implementing an econometric model based on panel data is to find the effects of green governance variables and carbon dioxide emissions on ecotourism. As the first step, the panel unit root tests are conducted. The results are reported in Table 1 as follows:

According to Table 1 , all three-panel unit root tests depict that all series are non-stationary at the level and become stationary after a first difference. Next, the panel co-integration tests are conducted, and their results are represented in Tables 2 and 3 :

The two-panel co-integration tests’ findings confirm the presence of co-integration linkages among variables.

The panel causality test studies the short-term and long-term causal relationship among variables. Table 4 reports the results of the panel causality check as follows:

According to Table 4 , there is a uni-directional causal relationship between the green governance indicator and the inflation rate of the ecotourism indicator. At the same time, there is a bi-directional causal relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and ecotourism indicators, confirming the existence of the feedback effect. In addition, there is only short-term causality from the green governance indicator to carbon dioxide emissions. In contrast, ecotourism and the globalization index have a uni-directional causal linkage. In the short term, improving ecotourism can cause globalization and reduce carbon emissions in developing economies. Regarding the long-term causality, it can be concluded that the ECT of ecotourism, green governance index, and globalization index are statistically significant. These three variables are major adjustment variables when the system departs from equilibrium.

In the last stage, the long-run estimations are done through FMOLS and DOLS estimators. Table 5 lists the results of the estimations by these two-panel co-integration estimators:

Based on FMOLS estimation, it can be concluded that the Green Governance index has a positive and significant coefficient in such a way that with a 1% improvement in the green governance index of developing countries, the ecotourism of these countries will increase by 0.43%. By improving the state of green governance, the quality of formulated and implemented green policies in these countries will increase, improving the conditions of ecotourism development. This finding aligns with Agrawal et al. ( 2022 ) and Debbarma and Choi ( 2022 ), who believe that green governance is essential to sustainable development. In the case of carbon dioxide emissions, the coefficient of this variable is not statistically significant. In other words, the variable of carbon dioxide emissions per capita has no significant effect on ecotourism in developing countries. The inflation rate has a significant negative effect on ecotourism. With a 1% increase in the general prices of goods and services in developing countries, ecotourism will decrease by 0.34%. This finding aligns with Rahman ( 2022 ), who showed a negative relationship between inflation and sustainable development in their research. An increase in inflation means an increase in the total cost of a tourist’s trip to the destination country, inhibiting the growth of tourist services.

Regarding the globalization variable, this variable has a significant positive effect on the ecotourism of developing countries. With a 1% increase in the globalization index of these countries, ecotourism will increase by 0.32%. Globalization means more interaction with the world’s countries, acceptance of different cultures and customs, more language learning in society, more acceptance of tourism, and development of tourist services in the country. This finding is consistent with the results of Akadiri et al. ( 2019 ), who confirmed that globalization is one of the crucial components in tourism development.

The DOLS estimator was also used to ensure the obtained findings’ validity. The results of this method are shown in Table 5 . The signs of the coefficients are consistent with the results obtained by the FMOLS method. Therefore, the validity and reliability of the obtained coefficients are confirmed.

In this section, we will briefly discuss the relationship between ecotourism and climate change and the environmental policy considering the uncertainty and the relationship between variables in developed and developing countries.

Consideration of uncertainty

Uncertainty as a primary reason for risk has become a research issue in recent decades. Uncertainty can make the future unpredictable and uncontrollable, affecting economic decision-making. Regarding tourism, the impacts of uncertainty have been drawn to attention by several earlier studies (e.g., Dutta et al., 2020 ; Das et al., 2020 ; and Balli et al., 2019 ; Balli et al., 2018 ). In general, uncertainty in the tourism industry reflects tourists’ concerns and consumption habits in the way that by increasing uncertainty, it is expected that tourists make sense of risks and postpone their tourism activities, and vice versa; in the sphere of certainties, the various risks are clear, and tourists can make rational decisions for their tourism plans and activities. In order to explore the impacts of uncertainties on eco-tourism of the examined developing economies, the geopolitical risk index (GPR) as a proxy for economic policy uncertainty index is gathered and added as a control variable to Eq. 1 . The estimations results by FMOLS are reported in Table 6 as follows.

According to Table 6 , the uncertainty (geopolitical risk) has a negative coefficient meaning that with a 1% increase in geopolitical risk, the eco-tourism industry in the examined developing countries decreases by approximately 0.69%. The signs of coefficients of other variables align with the earlier findings, represented in Table 5 . In addition, the magnitude of the impact of geopolitical risk is larger than the impacts of other variables highlighting the importance of lower geopolitical risk in these economies to reach sustainable tourism targets.

Difference in developed and developing economies

Considering the different structures and financial power of these two groups of countries, the relationship between the variables mentioned in these two groups is expected to be different. In the previous section, the results for the group of developing countries showed that the Green Governance index has a positive and significant coefficient. In the case of carbon dioxide emissions, the coefficient of this variable is not statistically significant. The inflation rate has a significant negative effect on ecotourism. Regarding the globalization variable, it can be mentioned that this variable has a significant positive effect on the ecotourism of developing countries. In order to analyze the relationship between variables in the developed countries, the top 10 countries with the highest HDI in 2021 are selected (Switzerland (0.962), Norway (0.961), Iceland (0.959), Hong Kong (0.952), Australia (0.951), Denmark (0.948), Sweden (0.947) and Ireland (0.945)). The selected variables, explained in section “Data and model specification”, are collected from 2010 to 2021. The panel unit root tests confirmed that all series are non-stationary at the level and become stationary after a first difference. In addition, the presence of co-integration linkages among variables is revealed by the panel co-integration test. The panel co-integration estimator of FMOLS is employed to study the long-term relationship among variables. The findings are reported in Table 7 as follows:

According to the estimated coefficients, the green governance indicator positively and statistically significantly impacts ecotourism in the examined developed economies. However, the magnitude of the impact of this variable is more considerable for developing countries because these countries have more imbalances in markets and regulations. Therefore, the presence of good green tourism can have a more positive effect on advancing the goal of ecotourism. Contrary to the findings of developing countries, carbon dioxide emission in developed countries has a negative and significant effect, meaning that with an increase of 1% in carbon dioxide in developed countries, the level of ecotourism becomes more unfavorable by 0.034%. Moreover, inflation and globalization variables have significant negative and positive coefficients, respectively. However, the magnitudes of these two variables’ coefficients are also higher in developing countries. Ecotourism in developing countries is more sensitive to changes in macroeconomic variables such as green governance, globalization, and inflation.

Another difference between eco-tourism in developed and developing economies may be interpreted through the term “greenwashing,” introduced by Westerveld in 1986 (Maichum et al., 2016 ). In developing countries, due to the economic structure, limited knowledge, bureaucratic process, lack of legal eco-certification, and imperfect competition, a company involved in the eco-tourism industry makes an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into accepting the company’s services are in line with environmental protection policies. Hence, green governance in developing countries should have another role in regulating the eco-tourism market to lower the threat of greenwashing in eco-tourism services.

Conclusions and policy recommendations

Concluding remarks.

The findings of econometric modeling revealed the relationship between environmental policies, climate change, and ecotourism. Based on the findings of the econometric model, the following conclusions can be presented:

A uni-directional causal relationship runs from the green governance indicator and inflation rate to the ecotourism indicator, which means that any changes in green governance and inflation rate cause changes in ecotourism, which is vital for developing economies where governance and inflation rate are two crucial issues.

There is a bi-directional causal relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and ecotourism indicators, confirming the existence of the feedback hypothesis, expressing that in developing economies, any policies related to ecotourism cause changes in CO2 emissions and vice versa.

There is only short-term causality from the green governance indicator to carbon dioxide emissions, whereas there is a uni-directional causal linkage from ecotourism to the globalization index. In other words, in the short term, improving ecotourism can cause globalization and reduce carbon emissions in developing economies.

By improving green governance in developing economies, the quality of formulated and implemented green policies in these countries will increase, improving the conditions of ecotourism development.

An increase in the inflation rate raises the total cost of a tourist’s trip to developing economies, inhibiting the growth of eco-tourist services.

Globalization means more interaction with the world’s countries, acceptance of different cultures and customs, more language learning in society, more acceptance of tourism, and development of tourist services in developing countries.

Policy implications

In order to achieve the promotion of ecotourism in developing countries, the implementation of integrated and effective strategic and practical policies is of great importance. According to the concluding remarks mentioned, practical policies are presented as follows for enhancing ecotourism in developed countries. The development of ecotourism requires the improvement of various infrastructures and mechanisms, which depends on the implementation of projects related to ecotourism in developing countries. Because most countries do not have enough financial power to invest in such projects, developing the green financing market can be one of the critical practical solutions. The green financing tool can increase the investment risk and return on investment in such projects, and as a result, the participation of the private sector in these projects will increase. With information and communication technology development, virtual tourism can solve many environmental issues related to human physical presence. Virtual tourism is one of the branches of tourism services that provide people with destinations, places of interest, and tourist attractions with full quality but in virtual form. Another practical policy is granting green loans to small and medium enterprises active in ecotourism. Despite the organizational agility, these companies do not have the significant financial power to develop different sectors of ecotourism; therefore, the cooperation of the banking industry of developing countries by providing green loans (with low-interest rates) can motivate small and medium-sized companies in the field of activities related to ecotourism. Government incentives to motivate businesses active in ecotourism and government deterrent policies (green tax) from businesses active in the field of tourism to lead them to increase the share of ecotourism in their activities can be a proper operational strategy. In developing countries, the role of government and green governance is vital in advancing the goals of ecotourism. By improving the level of its green governance, the government can create efficient policies, regulations, and social tools to create motivation and desire to accept ecotourism, an essential and undeniable issue in developing societies. Creating a guarantee fund for ecotourism companies in developing countries is another practical policy to support these companies financially. Guarantee funds can be established with the participation of the people of ecotourism destinations in order to strengthen the financial strength of ecotourism companies in these destinations.

Limitations and recommendations to further research

This research had a practical and innovative contribution to the literature on ecotourism in developing countries. The findings obtained from the econometric model analysis provided appropriate practical and strategic policies to the policymakers of countries interested in the development of ecotourism. However, access to data related to the ecotourism index and sustainable development of developing countries due to the lack of community in a specific database is considered one of the critical limitations of this research. This limitation caused many developing countries to be excluded from the research sample, which may have created a deviation in the research. Adding more countries to the test sample in future research is suggested to obtain complete and accurate results. Also, due to the outbreak of the Corona pandemic at the end of 2019 and the Russia-Ukraine war since the beginning of 2022, it is suggested that these two variables be included in the econometric model as an illusion in order to analyze their effects on the ecotourism of the countries of the world. Using other econometric methods, such as artificial neural networks, is suggested to model ecotourism in different countries. Complex modeling by taking into account trends and trends to predict the relationship between variables in the future will be an essential step in formulating effective programs in ecotourism.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Shang, Y., Bi, C., Wei, X. et al. Eco-tourism, climate change, and environmental policies: empirical evidence from developing economies. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 275 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01777-w

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Tourism Essay for Students and Children

500+ Words Essay on Tourism

Tourism Essay – Tourism is a major economic activity that has developed significantly over the years. It’s an activity that can be recognized in both developed and developing nations. In general terms, tourism is the movement of a person from one place to another to visit and mesmerize the beauty of that place or to have fun. Moreover, the concept of traveling is considered a luxury and only people with higher income can afford this luxury.

The Growth of Tourism

Earlier our ancestors used to travel by sea routes as it was a convenient and most affordable medium but it was time taking. Due to, technological advancement we can now easily travel to any place without wasting time we can travel thousands of miles within a few hours. Technological advancement has shrunk the earth into a global village. Besides, the modern modes are much safer than the modes that our predecessors used.

Effect of Tourism on a Country

For any country, tourism generates a lot of money especially a country like India. Due to the Taj Mahal (one of the seven wonders of the world) every year the government raise a huge sum of revenue. Also, because of tourism other industries also bloom. Such industries include transportation, wildlife, arts and entertainment, accommodation, etc.

Moreover, this ultimately leads to the creation of job and other opportunities in the area. But there are some drawbacks too which can affect the lifestyle and cultural value of the country.

Importance of Tourism

Traveling is a tiring and difficult thing and not everyone is able to travel. But at the same time, it’s a fun activity that takes your tiredness away. Travelling adds flavor to life as you travel to different places that have a different culture and lifestyle. Also, it’s an easy way to learn about the culture and tradition of a place. Besides, for many areas, tourism is their main source of income.

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India- A Tourist Attraction

The Taj Mahal is not the only destination in India that attract tourist. Likewise, there are hundreds of tourist destination that is spread over the Indian plateau. India has a large variety of Flora and Fauna. Besides, the equator divides the geographical land of India into almost two equal halves that make India a country where six seasons occurs.

Moreover, in almost every city of India, there is a historical monument made by the rulers in their time period.

Benefits of Tourism

Tourism not only benefits the government but also the people that live in the local area. It also creates a business as well as employment opportunities for the local people which ultimately help the government to earn income.

Benefits Due to Tourism

As we know that tourism contributes a lot to the revenue of the country. Also, the government uses this income for the growth and development of the country. Likewise, they construct dams, wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, Dharamshala and many more.

In conclusion, we can say that tourism is a very productive activity both for the tourist and the government. As they support each other simultaneously. Also, the government should consider improving the conditions of the country as more and more number of tourist visit their country.

Above all, tourism is one of the fastest-growing industry in the world that has changed the scenario of the world.

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UNE’s Susan McHugh publishes research essay on human-animal interactions

UNE’s Susan McHugh, Ph.D., professor of English with the School of Arts and Humanities , recently published an essay in Humanimalia , an interdisciplinary journal that explores and advances the scholarship on human-animal relations and promotes dialogue between the academic community and those working closely with animals in nonacademic fields.

McHugh’s essay, “Apace: Dogwalking, Kinaesthetic Empathy, and Posthuman Ethos in the Great North Woods,” seeks to inspire extensions of empathy toward the ineffable relations that structure nature-culture borderlands. According to McHugh, the essay “ponders an idiosyncratic collection of evidence of more-than-human comings and goings, witnessed on two feet, accompanied by four more, in the first two decades of the twenty-first century.”

McHugh achieves this by writing about close-range encounters with wildlife she experienced on her daily dog walks across the seasons. Her aim is to model the development of what she describes as a posthuman ethos through developing a storied appreciation for the elusive, unnamed intimacies of nonhuman neighborliness that include, but are not limited to, witnessing dying and death.

Also published in the current edition of Humanimalia is a review by Emelia Quinn, assistant professor of world literatures and environmental humanities at the University of Amsterdam, of McHugh’s latest book, “Animal Satire,” which McHugh wrote in collaboration with colleague Robert McKay.

At UNE, McHugh researches and teaches courses in writing, literary theory, animal studies, and plant studies. She has delivered keynote lectures and invited talks in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S. Her ongoing research focuses on the intersections of biological and cultural extinction.

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Electrostal History and Art Museum - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

As cicadas emerge, nature lovers travel thousands of miles to converge on Illinois

For tourists, illinois is the place to be for the historic cicada emergence. the 17-year cicadas will mainly cover the northern half of the state while the 13-year cicadas are centered mostly in the southern part, and the two are set to converge near springfield..

Close-up of a cicada on a tree trunk as the rest of its brood are blurred in the background.

This cicada is part of a large brood that emerged around a tree Wednesday in Western Springs.

Jim Vondruska/For The Sun-Times

When planning a girls’ trip to Chicago with her younger cousin, Kat McHenry planned what any Chicago tourist would: Comparing deep dish pizza at Pequod’s and Lou Malnati’s, exploring at the Field Museum and seeing the city’s sights.

But one item on their itinerary stood out. They got matching tattoos — of cicadas.

The emergence of periodical cicadas, which rise from underground every 17 years to sing, mate and die, was the main reason the Monterey, California, resident and her aspiring entomologist cousin came to the Windy City.

“What really drew me to the trip and brought me joy was getting to share it with her and ... inspire her to be a part of the sciences, to be interested in the subject and push her a little bit on her journey towards her schooling,” she said.

And they’re not the only ones. Other nature lovers are coming to Illinois from near and far to see the double brood emergence . The two breeding groups of cicadas that emerge every 13 and 17 years, respectively, will coincide for the first time since 1803, covering more than a dozen states.

Illinois is the place to be for the historic cicada emergence. The 17-year cicadas will mainly cover the northern half of the state while the 13-year cicadas are centered mostly in the southern part, and the two are set to converge near Springfield.

“Illinois is kind of the hotbed for [cicada tourism] right now because there are a few counties, more in central Illinois, that would [have] potential overlap areas where you would get both,” said Teri Guill of Carrolton, Texas, who is planning to visit Chicago next week with her 13-year-old niece.

Maxim André Goddard, center, plans to come to the Chicago area with his partner, Anna, and his daughter, Alexandria, to see the 17-year cicadas during their historic emergence.

Maxim André Goddard, center, plans to come to the Chicago area with his partner, Anna, and daughter, Alexandria, to see the 17-year cicadas during their historic emergence.

For Maxim André Goddard, the natural phenomenon was reason enough to make the trek from Montreal to Chicago with his partner and daughter. The family is planning to come to the area this weekend, hoping to spend time enjoying the city but also venturing out to see the cicadas.

“It’s something that you rarely get to see, so you should take the opportunity to go and see it,” he said.

Goddard, 47, entertained the thought of his 1-year-old daughter coming back to the area when she’s 18 to see the cicadas’ next emergence.

“That would be amazing, if she could be there again for that occurrence,” he said. “When she’s older ... that would just be phenomenal.”

Dave Odd, who leads Eat the Neighborhood foraging tours, said he led a foraging tour Sunday that wasn’t related to cicadas in Oak Park, but visitors from Japan joined the tour because they wanted to see the insects. However, the group found some cicadas, which Odd fried up for the tourists to try. In June, he’s hosting a cicada event at his Beaverville homestead.

Ellyn Fortino, a spokesperson for Morton Arboretum, said curious travelers from Seattle, Alberta, Montreal, Buffalo, N.Y., Washington state, Tennessee and other areas have either visited or called to say they’re coming to see cicadas.

Two of those visitors were McHenry and her 22-year-old cousin Maddy McKee, who rented a car to visit the arboretum in Lisle. The pair spotted a small group of cicadas in the grass and trees, picking them up and carrying them around. Wanting to see more, McHenry then posted on Facebook to ask fellow cicada lovers where to go. The Californians hit the cicada jackpot in Downers Grove at the suggestion of some Facebook users.

“That’s where we really started to see them en masse climbing up on the trees all over the place, flying around, making a lot of noise, which was what we expected to see for sure,” McHenry said.

McHenry, 34, has worked as a marine biologist and has traveled to experience natural phenomena firsthand. She went to Indianapolis last month to see the total solar eclipse. Seeing natural phenomena has always delighted her, she said, but this trip had extra meaning.

“My greatest joy was to be able to share [the experience] with my cousin,” McHenry said.

Guill, 41, is also looking to have a similar bonding moment with her niece. It’ll be Guill’s second cicada-centric trip this year, after seeing the 13-year cicadas recently in St. Louis. In 2021, she saw Brood X in Washington, D.C. But the self-described nature lover made those first two trips alone. For this one, she’ll be able to share the experience.

“In her young mind, some of the coolest things that she’s seen before have been watching an annual cicada molt on the side of the house and being able to watch the creatures that exist around her too,” Guill said of her niece.

The first order of business when they arrive is a visit to the Insect Asylum to check out the museum and pick up Cicada Parade-a statues to decorate themselves and decorate one to leave behind on display in the city.

Last time Matt Prusak saw the periodical cicadas, he was 10 years old and had just moved to Tinley Park. He and a friend who lived nearby found a white cicada that they buried in a tin can. He remembered the cicadas flying around, so he had missed the emerging stage.

“Cicadas are so friendly, I guess is the word, that made me get interested in them because they’re very happy to just climb on top of you,” he said. “So I remember that really good summer.”

Now 26 , Prusak found out about a cicada emergence tour in Skokie on Sunday afternoon, so he and his partner made the two-hour round trip from Schererville, Indiana, to Lorel Park. The couple and their fellow cicada watchers watched hundreds of cicadas emerge.

Prusak’s experience with cicadas as a kid helped foster a longtime love of the insect. Seeing them again brings that love full circle, he said.

“It was really a nice closure on growing up, is a way I’ve been thinking about it,” he said. “I saw the end of it before and then I have lived for 17 years and seen ... the other half of it. So it feels like I finished the story of how cicadas work.”

For Guill, the cicadas’ song is what inspires awe in her.

“When you hear the small, tiny little creature that makes such a noise, it can honestly sound kind of otherworldly when you’re in the midst of it. … It just makes this really kind of otherworldly and amazing chorus that you really only have a chance to experience in this very short time window when these broods emerge.”

The buzz on local cicada events

StarTribune

Minnesotans of all stripes are cashing in on anthony edwards' cheeky tourism slogan.

They were the three words heard 'round the Land of 10,000 Lakes. When Charles Barkley mused that it's been two decades since he last visited Minnesota during an after-game interview with Anthony Edwards, the 22-year-old shooting guard had three words for him .

"Bring ya ass," Edwards said.

That was Sunday. In the three days since, that three-word, two-syllable phrase has seemingly taken over. And the marketing department for every Minnesota institution and business has kicked it into overdrive in an attempt to ride Edwards' coattails. (Some of them too sheepish to spell out the full three-letter word at the end of the phrase.)

Here are some of the best:

The public entities and agencies

Gov. Tim Walz officially named May 22, 2024, "Wolves Back Day." Eagle-eyed observers noticed the official proclamation had a hidden message — the first letter of each sentence spells out Edwards' three-word quip . Three days earlier, Walz winked at a Wolves fan urging him to adopt it as the state's official travel slogan.

The Friends of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness took the opportunity to give away free stickers. The sign-up form also leads to a site where visitors can donate to the organization's conservation efforts.

The state tourism board and Meet Minneapolis gave a nod to the slogan in their own social posts.

And the Minnesota State Fair used the hype to promote its Kickoff to Summer event, which runs Thursday through Saturday.

St. Paul Public Schools went with something a bit more wholesome — a bunch of students used Wolves mania as an opportunity to promote literacy by pushing their favorite Naz "Reads."

The capitalists

Plenty of folks jumped at the opportunity to move some merchandise with the slogan. Here are a few of the most notable examples:

The public service award

Sheletta Brundidge is drop-dead hilarious on her worst day. But the local radio personality outdid herself Wednesday when she released a public service announcement, including a video, that walks us through the accurate pronunciation of the state's new travel slogan. Pro tip: Just think back to the last time you were tempted to say "yass queen."

The Wolves now take on the Dallas Mavericks for a best-of-seven series to determine the Western Conference championship. They'll play Games 1 and 2 at Target Center in Minneapolis before shifting to Texas for the next two games in the series.

Eder Campuzano is a general assignment reporter for the Star Tribune and lead writer of the Essential Minnesota newsletter.

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China Launches Military Drills Around Taiwan as ‘Punishment’

China said the sea and air drills were meant as a “stern warning” to its opponents after Taiwan’s new president asserted the island’s sovereignty in defiance of Beijing.

Current exercise areas

2022 exercise areas

China conducted a series of drills for four days after Nancy Pelosi visited the island.

By David Pierson and Amy Chang Chien

David Pierson reported from Hong Kong, and Amy Chang Chien from Taipei, Taiwan.

China launched two days of military drills surrounding Taiwan on Thursday in what it called a “strong punishment” to its opponents on the self-governing island, after Taiwan’s new president pledged to defend its sovereignty.

The drills were the first substantive response by China to the swearing-in of President Lai Ching-te , whom Beijing dislikes, in Taipei on Monday. Mr. Lai’s political party asserts Taiwan’s separate status from China, and in a high-profile inaugural speech , he vowed to keep Taiwan’s democracy safe from Chinese pressure.

China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, had mainly responded to Mr. Lai’s speech with sharply worded criticism. But it escalated its response Thursday by announcing that it was conducting sea and air exercises that would encircle Taiwan and draw close to the Taiwanese islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin in the Taiwan Strait.

From the start of the exercises until the afternoon, 15 Chinese navy vessels, 16 Chinese coast guard vessels and 42 Chinese military aircraft were detected around Taiwan’s main island and smaller outlying islands, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. Officials at a briefing in Taipei said that so far none of the Chinese aircraft and vessels had entered Taiwan’s territorial waters.

“We must express our condemnation for this behavior that damages regional peace and stability,” Sun Li-fang, a spokesman for the Taiwanese ministry, told the briefing.

The last time China held a major drill in multiple locations around Taiwan was in April 2023, after Kevin McCarthy , then the speaker of the House of Representatives, met with the president of Taiwan at the time, Tsai Ing-wen. Beijing opposes such exchanges with the island’s leaders.

A television on a wall in a restaurant shows a news broadcast about Taiwan. One person is seated at a small table, looking at a phone.

China conducted the largest of such exercises in recent years in August 2022 to protest the visit to Taiwan of Nancy Pelosi, who was the House speaker at that time. Those drills, which included the firing of Chinese missiles near and over Taiwan, covered six swaths of sea surrounding the island, three of which appeared to overlap with areas that Taiwan regards as its territorial waters. Those exercises lasted four days, and China conducted additional exercises for several days after.

Li Xi, a spokesman of the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, said the latest exercises served as “strong punishment” for “Taiwan independence forces,” according to Chinese state media, and “a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces,” a reference to the United States.

Even as Mr. Lai pledged to protect Taiwan in his speech, he had sought to strike a conciliatory note in other ways, signaling that he remained open to holding talks with Beijing — which China had frozen in 2016 — and to resuming cross-strait tourism.

But China took offense to Mr. Lai’s assertion that the sides were equal — he had said that they “are not subordinate to each other” — and his emphasis on Taiwan’s democratic identity and warnings against threats from China.

After the speech, Beijing accused Mr. Lai of promoting formal independence for Taiwan and said the new president was more dangerous than his predecessors. Wang Yi, China’s top foreign policy official, said this week: “The ugly acts of Lai Ching-te and others who betray the nation and their ancestors is disgraceful,” according to China’s Foreign Ministry. “All Taiwan independence separatists will be nailed to the pillar of shame in history.”

Taiwanese officials and military experts had been expecting China to make a show of military force after Mr. Lai’s inauguration. Ma Chen-kun, a professor at Taiwan’s National Defense University, said the People’s Liberation Army was likely to continue exerting its presence, including around the Kinmen and Matsu islands close to the Chinese mainland.

Beijing, said Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, “seems resolved to put pressure on Taiwan, regardless of what Lai said or didn’t say” in his speech.

The exercises could teach the People’s Liberation Army valuable lessons about how to impose a possible “quarantine” or blockade around Taiwan. Many experts believe that if the Chinese government tries to force Taiwan to accept unification, it may first try using a ring of military forces to severely restrict air and sea access to the island.

Chieh Chung, an adjunct assistant professor of strategic studies at Tamkang University in Taiwan, said that the scope and nature of the exercises China has announced indicated that the drill was “based on various stages of an invasion of Taiwan.” The exercise could be a way to assess including Taiwan’s outlying islands in any attempt at a blockade, he said. Unlike in the larger exercises China conducted in the last two years, this week’s might feature training to seize one of those islands, Mr. Chieh said.

The drills could also provide different branches of the People’s Liberation Army and the Chinese Coast Guard with an opportunity to coordinate their forces. The Coast Guard in Fujian, the coastal province facing Taiwan, announced that it would conduct a “comprehensive law enforcement exercise” around the islands of Wuqiu and Dongyin, Chinese state media said.

“The simultaneous conduct of the law enforcement activity with the P.L.A. military exercise further allows China to train its P.L.A. to engage in coordinated activities with its Coast Guard across a large area around Taiwan,” said Bonny Lin , a senior fellow for Asian security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“This could be invaluable experience for a range of operations against Taiwan,” added Ms. Lin, who is the lead author of a study to be published this month on how China could impose a maritime quarantine around Taiwan.

Mr. Lai visited a Taiwanese marine corps brigade near Taipei on Thursday. In his published remarks, he did not mention the Chinese exercises, but sounded a note of defiance.

“At this moment, the international community is paying a great deal of attention to democratic Taiwan,” Mr. Lai said, according to a statement issued by his office. “Faced with external challenges and threats, we will keep defending the values of freedom and democracy.”

Chris Buckley contributed reporting.

David Pierson covers Chinese foreign policy and China’s economic and cultural engagement with the world. He has been a journalist for more than two decades. More about David Pierson

Amy Chang Chien is a reporter and researcher for The Times in Taipei, covering Taiwan and China. More about Amy Chang Chien

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Cerys Matthews Q&A: “What’s bugging me? Superfluous adjectives”

The musician and broadcaster on Pippi Longstocking, the extraordinary life of Fridtjof Nansen and the poetry of Dylan Thomas.

By New Statesman

Cerys Matthews was born in 1969 in Cardiff. She is a songwriter, singer, author and broadcaster. She was a founding member of the Welsh band Catatonia and presents an award-winning show on BBC Radio 6 Music.

What’s your earliest memory?

Driving in Pembrokeshire singing a Welsh-language pig song as a massive sow jumped out of the trailer ahead of us and hobbled down the country lane, a farmer chasing it with a stick.

Who are your heroes?

When I was a child it was Pippi Longstocking: a strong, independent, messy and free-thinking child character in a book. As an adult it’s Mother Nature; I mean, the taste of unripened mango, a passion fruit flower, birds of paradise, moss close-up, or insects and how they work together. It’s so beautiful.

In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live?

I’d live in pre-Captain Cook French Polynesia, on Otaheite (Tahiti) – described by the sailors who came across the island in the 18th century as paradise on Earth. I’d go to dance and write songs, sit in the sun and eat tropical fruit.

What single thing would make your life better?

Proportional representation.

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Communications
Construction, Works, Engineering
Education, Curriculum and Teaching
Environment, Conservation and NRM
Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
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Sport and Recreation
Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
Wellbeing, Community / Social Services

What political figure do you look up to?

The Nobel Peace Prize winner Fridtjof Nansen, born in 1861, for his extraordinary intellect. He was a polymath across at least five disciplines, a neurologist, humanitarian, oceanographer, the inventor of the Nansen passport for refugees, fighter for Norwegian independence and the pioneer of neuron theory. He was also a trailblazing explorer – including cross-country skiing pioneer, ship-design maverick, polar-travel forerunner, and someone who respected, learned from and loved the Inuit people of Greenland. 

What TV show could you not live without? 

The Paris-based TV series Spiral . I loved that the characters were completely flawed, each being neither good nor bad.  

What book last changed your thinking?

Nansen by Roland Huntford. Also, Fatal Passage by Ken McGoogan, which is about John Rae, and  Everest: The First Ascent by Harriet Tuckey.

What would be your “Mastermind” specialist subject?

The poetry, drama and essays of Dylan Thomas. I’ve curated a new collection of his poems that includes his very early attempts at poetry and his very last. Some beauty in there for sure. 

What’s your theme tune?

“Hercules”by Aaron Neville, 1973 – written and produced by the late, great Allen Toussaint.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Tom Jones told me: “Don’t drink alcohol before a show.” I’ve followed it religiously. Thanks, Tom.

What’s currently bugging you?

Where to start? The rise of autocrats, lack of accountability (we witnessed Grenfell) and add cronyism too. On a much smaller scale: superfluous adjectives.

When were you happiest?

Reaching Kathmandu alive after escaping avalanches and storms in a helicopter at Gorakshep, Nepal.

In another life, what job might you have chosen?

A botanist specialising in the protection of biodiversity.

Are we all doomed?

Oh God. Put a record on. Let’s talk.

Cerys Matthews’ selection of Dylan Thomas poems, “Out of Chaos Comes Bliss: Essential Poems”, is published by Pushkin Press

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This article appears in the 22 May 2024 issue of the New Statesman, Spring Special 2024

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