Values for an Undergraduate Ecotourism Management Curriculum in South Africa: A Mixed-methods Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Ecotourism is one of the fastest growing tourism niches in South Africa. Higher education institutions offering undergraduate ecotourism management programmes are tasked with producing graduates that can promote the sustainability of the sector and should therefore direct their efforts to the fostering of appropriate behaviours; values are the underlying determinants of behaviour. Employing an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, the purpose of the study was to develop a framework for a values-based undergraduate ecotourism management curriculum. Thematic analysis of the empirical materials elicited from semi-structured interviews with 12 ecotourism managers resulted in the identification of 51 values. The values were subsequently rated by managers from the wider ecotourism industry through the administration of an e-survey (n = 101). A principal components exploratory factor analysis further reduced the values into four factors – “self”, “outward”, “reciprocation” and “betterment”. This informed the framework which ultimately serves as a reference point for educational practitioners.