{"title":"The potential for expansion of whale shark (Rhincodon typus) tourism in St. Helena: stakeholder engagement and willingness to pay","authors":"J. Drew, Kenickie Andrews, Ness Smith","doi":"10.1080/14724049.2021.1971684","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\n Whale shark (Rhincodon typus) tourism is increasingly popular wherever the species occur, including a fledgling industry on the South Atlantic island of St. Helena. We interviewed 154 people to elicit the social and economic value of whale shark tourism on the island. Additionally, 77 survey participants were queried about their willingness to pay, 32% of those responding indicated that they would be willing to pay at least £10 more, a 20% increase from existing charges. Tourists also supported the concept that the local population should pay less for whale shark snorkel tours. Perceptions among visitors and locals were that the marine environment was well managed on St. Helena and that protecting it was important. Results from this study could help inform St. Helena Government policy and support MWT operators on the island to further develop a sustainable and equitable whale shark tourism industry.","PeriodicalId":39714,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ecotourism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Ecotourism","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14724049.2021.1971684","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"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
Whale shark (Rhincodon typus) tourism is increasingly popular wherever the species occur, including a fledgling industry on the South Atlantic island of St. Helena. We interviewed 154 people to elicit the social and economic value of whale shark tourism on the island. Additionally, 77 survey participants were queried about their willingness to pay, 32% of those responding indicated that they would be willing to pay at least £10 more, a 20% increase from existing charges. Tourists also supported the concept that the local population should pay less for whale shark snorkel tours. Perceptions among visitors and locals were that the marine environment was well managed on St. Helena and that protecting it was important. Results from this study could help inform St. Helena Government policy and support MWT operators on the island to further develop a sustainable and equitable whale shark tourism industry.
期刊介绍：
The Journal of Ecotourism seeks to advance the field by examining the social, economic, and ecological aspects of ecotourism at a number of scales, and including regions from around the world. Journal of Ecotourism welcomes conceptual, theoretical, and empirical research, particularly where it contributes to the dissemination of new ideas and models of ecotourism planning, development, management, and good practice. While the focus of the journal rests on a type of tourism based principally on natural history - along with other associated features of the man-land nexus - it will consider papers which investigate ecotourism as part of a broader nature based tourism, as well as those works which compare or contrast ecotourism/ists with other forms of tourism/ists.
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