{"title":"Guiding in a nature destination","authors":"Anna Vilborg Einarsdóttir, G. Helgadottir","doi":"10.1080/15022250.2022.2029761","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT As nature attracts most travellers to Iceland, nature conservation is central in sustainable tourism development in the destination. A competent guide can turn a tour into an enjoyable, engaging and educational nature experience, whereas a less competent guide may simply execute the logistics of taking tourists from one point of interest to another. This is a mixed-method study where data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and desk research. Our findings were that nature conservation was not a theme the guiding, informing and managing of tour groups observed. Nature conservation was not a topic present in the information tour companies supply the guides with, and it was not a prominent theme in the curricula of guide education. Guiding on nature phenomena consisted mainly of information about geology and geoformations. Guiding was mostly verbal, without much attention to experience design. Our conclusions are that more emphasis should be placed on facilitating experience and that an important opportunity for promoting tourism sustainability is missed as nature conservation is neglected. The implication is that these topics should be emphasized more in professional guide education, in the professional community of guides and by tour operators.","PeriodicalId":47630,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism","volume":"22 1","pages":"111 - 127"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15022250.2022.2029761","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT As nature attracts most travellers to Iceland, nature conservation is central in sustainable tourism development in the destination. A competent guide can turn a tour into an enjoyable, engaging and educational nature experience, whereas a less competent guide may simply execute the logistics of taking tourists from one point of interest to another. This is a mixed-method study where data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and desk research. Our findings were that nature conservation was not a theme the guiding, informing and managing of tour groups observed. Nature conservation was not a topic present in the information tour companies supply the guides with, and it was not a prominent theme in the curricula of guide education. Guiding on nature phenomena consisted mainly of information about geology and geoformations. Guiding was mostly verbal, without much attention to experience design. Our conclusions are that more emphasis should be placed on facilitating experience and that an important opportunity for promoting tourism sustainability is missed as nature conservation is neglected. The implication is that these topics should be emphasized more in professional guide education, in the professional community of guides and by tour operators.
期刊介绍:
Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism is the leading Nordic journal for hospitality and tourism research. SJHT aims at initiating and stimulating high-impact and innovative research relevant for academics and practitioners within the hospitality and tourism industries. The journal takes an interdisciplinary approach including, but not limited to geography, psychology, sociology, history, anthropology, and economics. SJHT encourages research based on a variety of methods, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The journal covers all types of articles relevant to the Nordic region, as well as the North Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic regions. We also welcome reviews and conceptual articles with a broader geographical scope that clearly enhance the theoretical development of the hospitality and tourism field. In addition to research articles, we welcome research notes and book reviews. Published articles are the result of anonymous reviews by at least two referees chosen by the editors for their specialist knowledge.