Carter A. Hunt

Can ecotourism deliver real economic, social, and environmental benefits? A study of the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

Doubt persists about ecotourisms ability to make tangible contributions to conservation and deliver benefits for host communities. This work in Costa Ricas Osa Peninsula tests the hypothesis that ecotourism in this region is more effective at improving well-being for local residents, at enhancing their access to key resources and information, and at supporting biodiversity conservation than other locally available economic sectors. Data from 128 semi-structured interviews with local workers, both in ecotourism and in other occupations, together with associated research, indicate that ecotourism offers the best currently available employment opportunities, double the earnings of other livelihoods, and other linked benefits. Locally, ecotourism is viewed as the activity contributing most to improvements in residents’ quality of life in the Osa Peninsula and to increased levels of financial and attitudinal support for parks and environmental conservation. Ecolodge ownership by local people is substantial, and many local ecotourism workers plan to launch their own businesses. The data offer a convincing rebuttal to arguments that ecotourism does little to address poverty or disparities in access to resources and equally rebuts claims that ecotourism is simply a part of the “neoliberal conservation toolkit” that cannot help but exacerbate the very inequalities it purports to address.

Nature-based tourism's impact on environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behavior: a review and analysis of the literature and potential future research

Although nature-based tourism is often promoted as benefiting local destinations through income generation, employment, and direct conservation support, it is also believed to influence tourists’ environmentally friendly attitudes, knowledge, and ultimately their behavior. Yet, few studies have empirically documented these outcomes, and those that do are inconsistent in the variables measured and the time frame analyzed. This paper examines the empirical research on nature-based tourisms ability to foster long-term stewardship behavior among travelers by conducting a systematic review of peer-reviewed tourism research published between 1995 and 2013. This search, focused on literature addressing changes in tourists’ environmentally related knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and actual behaviors, yielded just 30 empirical studies. Outcomes related to new environmental knowledge were commonly reported in these studies, but findings related to environmental attitudes and behaviors were inconsistent. Few studies measured environmental behavior directly, and fewer still include longitudinal assessments of persistent changes in attitudes or behaviors. We suggest potential future areas for research as well as programmatic strategies that may facilitate favorable outcomes from nature-based tourism, particularly those related to tourists’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Key areas include understanding visitors’ prior experiences and background, designing and delivering more effective interpretive messages, and using social media.

Stage-based tourism models and resident attitudes towards tourism in an emerging destination in the developing world

Many researchers have used stage-based and life cycle models to describe destination development and local residents’ changing reactions to tourism. Typically, they report that resident attitudes towards tourism, and its perceived outcomes for host populations, worsen with increasing experience and involvement in tourism. However, stage-based models traditionally focus on mature destinations in developed countries. In contrast, scholarship on ecotourism derives largely from developing countries and suggests that increased participation leads to more favourable outcomes and attitudes towards tourism. This paper breaks new ground by exploring attitudes to tourism in an emerging destination in a developing country and linking that exploration to a revised stage-based model. It uses ethnographic data to evaluate responses to recent tourism development in Nicaragua. While findings are complex and do not support a linear relationship between the level of experience in tourism and the attitudes of local residents, they do indicate a relationship between these two theoretical perspectives that can be used to inform one another. Notably, workers in tourism are more critical of the tourism industry than residents are. Important amendments to stage-based models are suggested that will assist tourism planners with the creation of more sustainable, community-centred development.

Passport to Development? Local Perceptions of the Outcomes of Post- Socialist Tourism Policy and Growth in Nicaragua

Enduring decades of dictatorship under the Somoza dynasty, several highly destructive natural disasters, a major “unnatural” disaster in the form of revolutionary conflict, and a subsequent civil war have all taken a serious toll on Nicaraguan society. Today overall poverty is second highest in the hemisphere, with 80% of the population surviving on less than US

A visual analysis of trends in the titles and keywords of top-ranked tourism journals

2 a day. Crippling debt contributes to a desperate need for foreign exchange, and with an attractive tax incentive package promoting external investment, the government is turning to tourism as its passport to development. After a virtual absence in the 1980s, tourism quickly skyrocketed to the top of Nicaraguas export list in less than a decade and has remained there since 2000. Yet after more than a decade of open-door policy to foreign investors, the wealth distribution remained the second most unequal on the planet. This paper briefly describes Nicaraguas history of dictators, disasters, and delayed development, and how this relates to the nature of tourism development taking place there. Through exhaustive review of development research, government agency documents, personal work experience as an assistant ecolodge administrator, and ethnographic research with rural residents involved in the tourism industry just north of the Costa Rican border, it is concluded that tourism is not delivering on the assumed promise of economic development. By placing well-heeled travelers in a carefully controlled idyllic setting where they are presented with bargain real estate speculation and investment opportunities along the countrys Pacific coast, tourism as it is currently developing in southwestern Nicaragua appears to be exacerbating inequalities by allowing greater accumulation of capital among both wealthy Nicaraguan elites and a growing number of foreign/ex-patriot investors, while furthering impoverishment of rural residents through increasing costs of living, land displacement, and legal marginalization.

Social Capital in Development: Bonds, Bridges, and Links in Osa and Golfito, Costa Rica

We generated a visual trend analysis of the titles and keywords of highly ranked tourism journals in the years 1982, 1992, 2002, and 2012 by using word clouds. This approach provides a fascinating snapshot into shifts in the priorities of tourism researchers over the last four decades, thus tracing the history of theoretical development in the field of tourism. Comparisons were made between (1) the titles of articles in all journals in different years; (2) titles in each journal in a recent year; and (3) titles and keywords of articles in the same journal in the same years. Not only do themes and concepts visibly shift in prominence over time and between journals, but also variance between keywords and titles of articles in the same journal for a particular year is observable. The practical applications for article titling, placement, and keyword designation are discussed.

Bringing ecotourism into focus: applying a hierarchical perspective to ecotourism research

Limited social capital poses a critical bottleneck for sustainable rural development. Despite vast investment, development interventions focused on preserving the biodiversity of the Osa and Golfito region of Costa Rica have done little to address poverty or improve the well-being of local residents. The authors of the current study draw upon field research and data gathered from semi-structured interviews with 310 community leaders and rural residents to investigate the bottlenecks to development and how they are related to forms of social capital in the Osa and Golfito cantons in Costa Rica. Specifically, we draw upon the distinction of bonding, bridging, and linking forms of social capital to characterize the nature of benefits from collective action in communities in Osa and Golfito. The data suggest that the lack of bridging and linking forms of social capital may explain the regions persistent development challenges and may thus indicate where development-related investments are most likely to bear...

Shrouded in a fetishistic mist: commoditisation of sustainability in tourism.

Ecotourism is a complex phenomenon that has grown rapidly in the last three decades. The emerging field of inquiry based on this phenomenon has followed a similar trajectory of growth. Understanding the dimensions of its impacts can pose great challenges to researchers. As a result, ecotourism literature is characterised by continued debates of definitions, bias towards small-scale, one-shot case studies, and overall lack of coherence, and a dearth of explanatory theory. We discuss how hierarchy theory may be used to address these issues. Hierarchy theory has been applied in other disciplines to organise research inquiries, characterise the conclusions drawn from them, and reconcile competing definitions and theories. We explain how key concepts from hierarchy theory are of relevance to levels of analyses of ecotourism whether conducted on individual people or destinations or on the global phenomenon as a whole.

Post-trip philanthropic intentions of nature-based tourists in Galapagos

In this paper we first provide a theoretical argument of commodity fetishism of sustainability in tourism, with a focus on the emergence of certification for sustainability as a means of elucidating the means of production of tourism in destinations and distinguishing responsible forms of tourism from more exploitive counterparts. We then look specifically at Costa Rica and its widely-respected Certificate for Sustainable Tourism Programme (CST) for empirical evidence which speaks to the effectiveness of certification to demystify the production of sustainable tourism. Although limited, our data indicate a disconnect between tourists, who have a strong interest in travelling responsibly, and the programme’s capacity to affect their consumption patterns. We conclude that certification programmes are yet to attain their objectives of directing tourist-consumers’ attention to the on-the-ground social and environmental inputs and impacts of the tourism experience they enjoy.

Missing the Forest for the Trees?: Incongruous Local Perspectives on Ecotourism in Nicaragua Converge on Ethical Issues

Researchers and practitioners often highlight the potential for nature-based tourism and environmental conservation to function symbiotically, with favourable outcomes for visitors and the environment alike. This paper draws on data from two sets of passengers on weeklong cruises in the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador to explore philanthropic intentions resulting from such nature-based tourism experiences. Our findings suggest that the Galapagos experience fosters enjoyment of the environment, new knowledge about that environment, an affective connection with the environment and the local wildlife, and an interest in sharing those connections with others – trip characteristics that are related with intentions to philanthropically support environmental conservation in the Galapagos. Visitors in this study also exhibited values that related to the amounts they were willing to donate in support of a philanthropic fund for the islands’ conservation needs. This study contributes to the emerging scholarship on travel-related conservation behaviour and travel philanthropy.