Elizabeth A. Halpenny

Communicating the World Heritage brand: visitor awareness of UNESCO's World Heritage symbol and the implications for sites, stakeholders and sustainable management

The World Heritage (WH) brand signals property so irreplaceable that its values must be sustained intact in perpetuity. A primary function of the WH symbol, one element of the WH brand, is to prompt positive visitor emotions and behaviors favored by management agencies. This paper investigates if the symbol communicates any message to viewers. To determine visitor recognition and recall of the WH symbol tested against a variety of variables, 1827 visitors to five WH sites in Queensland, Australia and 712 visitors to the WH part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, USA were surveyed. Sixty percent of visitors to the Queensland sites and 19% of visitors to the Hawaii site were aware of the sites WH status; 96% of Queensland site visitors, and 99% of Hawaii site visitors could not recall what the WH symbol represented. Park agencies appear to take a laissez-faire attitude to branding, have little interest or capacity to brand properly or have strategically restricted usage of the WH brand to de-clutter their brand landscape. This limits opportunities to transmit to visitors and communities why WH properties should be valued and sustained, with significant implications for the long-term sustainability of WH sites.

Homestays as an alternative tourism product for sustainable community development: a case study of women-managed tourism product in rural Nepal.

Homestay tourism is popular in many destinations; it adds authentic sociocultural richness to the tourists experience. For a nation that cannot make extensive infrastructural investment a priority but which possesses an abundance of tourism richness in remote communities, homestays are an attractive alternative tourism product. This paper discusses a case study of Barpak, located in the Gorkha District of Western Nepal. The study suggests homestays are congruent with Nepals destination image. The essence of Nepalese tourism lies in naturally beautiful rural hills and mountains and its indigenous communities with their mystical lifestyle and culture. These natural and cultural attributes can be showcased best through homestays. This paper proposes homestays as a pro-women tourism opportunity that promotes sustainable community development by fostering gender equality. Female ownership of homestay businesses secures womens avenues for income generation and involves them in mainstream development. The studys indicators of development are based on the well-being achieved by the Barpaki community, with a focus on three essential aspects of sustainable development, namely economic, environmental and social. The authors (BPA) own experience of collaboration, on behalf of the nations tourism authority the Nepal Tourism Board, with the community of Barpak in setting-up the homestay management, was a primary source of information for this case along with related literature reviews. The data was derived through community-based action research and evaluation methodologies. Information was based on first-hand experiences generated through ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews.

Engaging with nature to promote health: bridging research silos to examine the evidence

While there is considerable research on environmental contamination and degradation, there is equally credible evidence on the healthful qualities of the environment. Being in and caring for nature can be health promoting for individuals, families, communities, ecosystems and the planet. In this paper, we use a conceptual model for nature-based health promotion and a socio-ecological model of health promotion to guide the scope, organization and critique of relevant literature on nature-based health promotion in several fields and generate recommendations for practice, policy and research. We conclude that participatory community-based research is needed to build local knowledge and create systemic change in practice and policy to support healthy living for people and the planet.

A Prospective Panel Study of Chinese-Canadian Immigrants’ Leisure Participation and Leisure Satisfaction

This longitudinal study examined Chinese immigrants’ leisure participation and satisfaction. A model where participation predicted satisfaction indicated that: satisfaction at Time 1 affected satisfaction at Time 2, and satisfaction at Times 1 and 2 affected satisfaction at Time 3, while participation at Time 1 directly affected satisfaction at Time 2 and indirectly at Time 3. A model where satisfaction predicted participation indicated that: participation at Time 1 affected participation at Time 2, and participation at Times 1 and 2 influenced participation at Time 3, while satisfaction at Time 1 did not affect participation at either Times 2 or 3.

Leisure Statisfaction and Acculturative Stress: The Case of Chinese-Canadian Immigrants

Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the causal relationship between leisure satisfaction and acculturative stress. Chinese immigrants to Canada were surveyed six months apart. Four kinds of acculturative stress (all at Time 2) were each hierarchically regressed on: age and gender, years in Canada, the corresponding stressor, and six types of leisure satisfaction (all at Time 1). Results indicated that: (a) social leisure satisfaction lessened loss/nostalgia-based stress; and (b) social, psychological, and aesthetic leisure satisfaction mitigated, while physiological leisure satisfaction exacerbated, perceived discrimination-based stress. These results suggest that, while facilitating certain types of leisure satisfaction (e.g., social) may be beneficial, fostering others (e.g., physiological) could have undesirable consequences.

‘I might know when I'm an adult’: making sense of children's relationships with nature

This paper reports subjective experiences in nature of 5 children aged 6–10 years collected during a 5-day camp in a botanical garden. Creative expressive visual methods and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Inductive analysis produced the follow themes: children being positioned to take care of nature and to be taken care of by nature, as well as nature needing protection from children and children needing protection from nature. The roles of gatekeepers in mediating attraction to and repulsion from nature were also highlighted. We examine these in the context of socio-cultural constraints and invitations that children experience in developing these relationships. These themes are discussed using a theoretical framework that blends Vygotskys socio-cultural development theory with Gibsons theory of affordances. Findings contribute to a more integrated understanding of how ecological psychology and social psychology can inform our understanding of childrens relationships with nature; in particular, how childrens experiences with nature are mediated by socio-cultural factors. By adding to our understanding of how children develop relationships with nature, practitioners can more effectively facilitate experiences that encourage pro-environmental and stewardship attitudes and behaviors as well as result in positive health and development outcomes for children. This paper contributes to the childrens geographies literature by strengthening the theoretical foundation from which geographers approach child–nature relationships.

Sport cycling tourists’ setting preferences, appraisals and attachments

Landscapes and settings are important travel motivators, especially for sport tourism events. Understanding perceptions of sportscapes and travel motivations are essential for sport event organizers and destination managers’ to create sustainable and successful sport tourism events and destinations. This paper reports findings from a survey of active sport tourists’ engaged in Bike Fest, a small-scale competitive cycling tourism event held in Banff National Park, Canada during the shoulder tourism season. Enjoyment of Banffs destination attributes (mountains, nature) ranked second to engagement in competition and physical activity, followed by experiencing excitement and stimulation as reasons for visiting. Views on the destinations appropriateness as a site for racing and leisure travel, attachment to the destination, satisfaction with the destination and race venue, and racers’ preferences of other types of race settings were additional variables documented in this study. This paper expands our understanding of the role destination attributes play in active sport tourists’ travel decisions, and inform efforts to establish a sustainable sport tourism event. It examines event participants’ perspectives on the repurposing of a national park as a race event venue and recommends additional study of the intersection of course attributes, place appeal and attachment, competition, and performance as a valuable research direction which will support event and destination development, and visitor experience enhancement.

Strengthening access to restorative places: findings from a participatory study on engaging with nature in the promotion of health.

In this paper, we examine selected research findings from a community-based study on engaging with nature to promote health. Combining participatory photographic research methods with an iterative process of dialectical analysis, we explored nature-based health promotion with community citizens, practitioners, and decision-makers from various sectors to examine the complexities of connecting with natural outdoor places in local contexts. Participants identified an array of barriers to and opportunities for everyday access to restorative outdoor places. The findings suggest that inter-sectoral governance with active citizen engagement in research, decision-making, and action may be essential to develop the ecological citizenship and communal norms and strategies that promote the health of people and their shared restorative places.

A Multidimensional Investigation into Children’s Optimal Experiences with Nature

Abstract This article combines a review of literature with observations from an empirical study that examined how five children aged 6 to 10 years experienced nature in a botanical garden setting with a focus on the behavioural, sensory, affective and cognitive dimensions of these experiences. Visually expressive methods (sculptures, drawings, photography and sand tray pictures) enabled children to highlight aspects of their experiences in nature that were memorable and important. The theory of optimal arousal and the circumplex model of affect frame the results. Experiences of nature, as communicated by the children in this study, emphasised the sensory and affective dimensions of experience. Findings also demonstrate that these children sought out optimally arousing experiences that were influenced by challenge and novelty. The circumplex model of emotion and theory of optimal arousal have not been extensively applied to the study of children’s experience. The concept of interest is also explored in relation to research findings. They, in combination with a committed attention to all four dimensions of experience are important conceptual tools in understanding children’s interaction with nature. This article also outlines how these findings contribute to practitioners’ efforts to connect and re-connect children with nature.

“It was Fun”: An Evaluation of Sand Tray Pictures, an Innovative Visually Expressive Method for Researching Children's Experiences with Nature:

In order to study childrens subjective experiences, researchers need to employ methods that are interesting and engaging but at the same time can produce data that answers research questions. This article critically reflects on the use of an innovative visually expressive method, sand tray pictures, which allows children to communicate their multi-dimensional subjective experiences with nature. In this study, sand tray pictures were compared with photographs taken and pictures drawn by the children as approaches for understanding childrens experiences in a public botanic garden during a five-day summer camp. Sand trays were identified as a highly effective tool in eliciting insights about childrens subjective and socio-cultural experiences in nature.