Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British
Geographers)
Manchester, 26–28 August 2009
First call for papers
Examining the inter-connections between geography, knowledge and society
through nature-based visitor interpretation
Sponsored by the Geography of Leisure and Tourism Research Group (GLTRG),
the Higher Education Research Group (HERG) and the Biogeography Research
Group (BRG)
Tourist use of the natural environment continues to increase rapidly and much
of this growth has occurred within fragile and protected environments
(Buckley 2000, Mason 2005, Marion and Reed 2007, Weaver and Lawton
2007). For this reason, concern about the environmental impacts of nature–
based tourism has risen (Wearing and Neil 1999, Tubb 2003, Kruger 2005) and
it has been suggested that its negative impacts can be reduced by the
provision of environmental information for tourists (Kimmel 1999). In theory,
interpretation acts not only to increase visitor enjoyment and knowledge, but
also to encourage attitudinal and behavioural shifts in visitors (Tilden 1977,
Moscardo 1999, 2003). In reality, however, the argument that interpretation
may be an effective mechanism for managing nature-based tourism is
ambitious. If environmental interpretation programmes prove unable to
change/manage behaviour, they are of questionable benefit in managing
tourist–nature interactions via ‘soft’ strategies (Marion and Reed 2007).
As a consequence, this session seeks papers that might:
- examine theoretical approaches to developing (more) effective nature-based
visitor interpretation
- examine processes of nature-based visitor andragogy, attitude development,
motivation and intention to act
- interrogate the potential for nature-based tourism with or without
interpretation to create admissible knowledge and extend spaces of learning
- interrogate the affective and cognitive domains of visitors to nature-based
tourist attractions and assess the extent of visitor mindfulness
- test empirically the effectiveness of interpretation strategies in educating
nature-based visitors and changing their behaviour
Research in such areas might provide a stronger case for the support of
environmental education within its traditional realm of public sector resource
management agencies and also for its extension to private sector tourist
operations.
Proposed papers, in the form of an abstract (max. 250 words), should be
submitted to the session convenor by 6 February 2009.
For more details, and to submit an abstract, please contact:
Dr Jenny Hill
Department of Geography and Environmental Management
UWE, Bristol
[log in to unmask]
|