Stephen M. Holland

Fishing Trip Satisfaction: A Typology of Anglers

Abstract Fishing trip satisfaction was defined as the fulfillment of various expected psychological outcomes. A policy-capturing technique was used to determine how anglers rated various dimensions of fishing satisfaction identified in previous studies and whether subgroups focused on certain trip dimensions. Dimensions studied were a sense of freedom, excitement, catching a fish, relaxation, enjoying the natural setting, and thinking about past fishing experiences. Scenarios that represented various combinations ofthese dimensions were completed by a sample of 166 members ofa sportfishing association in Texas. Enjoying a quality environment and feeling a sense of freedom were the two most important dimensions of satisfaction for most respondents. There was no dominant policy that most people followed. Cluster analysis revealed seven groups of anglers with different policies of fishing trip evaluation. Group sizes ranged from 4 to 21% of the sample. For some clusters, fishing satisfaction had more to do w...

Recreational Fishing as Tourism

Abstract In addition to being an outdoor recreation activity for residents in each state, fishing can also be considered a form of tourism when anglers cross state lines to go fishing. Efforts are underway in each state to promote tourism, including recreational fishing, in the name of economic development. These efforts are usually independent from fishery management. Data from the “1996 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation” were analyzed to indicate the extent that various states attract anglers to their states as well as supply anglers to others. The top five destination states in terms of days of fishing by nonresidents were Minnesota, Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and New York. The top five states in numbers of resident fishing days exported to other states were Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, California, and Virginia. A stakeholder perspective including managers and resident anglers is presented to illustrate the diversity of thought on the fishing as tourism ...

Place attachment as a mediator of the relationship between nature-based recreation benefits and future visit intentions

This study examined the theoretical relationships between consumers’ perceived benefits, place attachment and future visit intentions (FVI) at nature-based recreation and tourism areas, utilizing importance and performance concepts. The desired benefits and perceived attained benefits of consumers were treated as an antecedent to place attachment and FVI in structural models. Results of two separate structural models tests using responses from 934 visitors at the Ocala National Forest in Florida, USA, confirmed that place attachment fully mediates the relationship between benefits desired and FVI, while place attachment partially mediates the relationship between benefits attained and FVI. The former verifies the significant role of place attachment, and the latter validates the importance of place attachment as well as recreation benefit attainment in predicting visitors’ FVI. These findings suggest that both benefits desired and benefits attained are important predictors of place attachment and behavioral intentions. Accordingly, tourism and recreation planners and managers need to provide visitors with recreation opportunities, which maximize visitors’ ability to attain recreation benefits, such as nature exploration, physical fitness and escape. These managerial initiatives would result in increasing visitors’ emotional attachments and intentions to revisit.

Structural relationships among involvement, destination brand equity, satisfaction and destination visit intentions: The case of Japanese outbound travelers

The concept of involvement and destination brand equity and its relationship to satisfaction, intention to revisit, and willingness to spend money was explored in a sample of 369 international tourists. Applying structural equation modeling, this study focused on the effects that destination brand equity had as a potentially significant mediating variable in the involvement → destination brand equity → satisfaction → intention to revisit and willingness to spend money relationships. Findings indicate managers should understand destination brand equity as an essential antecedent of satisfaction and they need to manage the factors associated with destination brand equity. Of the factors contributing to destination brand equity, destination managers should maximize their promotional mix to improve their target groups’ preferences, value, popularity and price premiums identified as the more important factors.

An ecotourism perspective on billfish fisheries.

Tourism is a major source of earnings, supplemental to and possibly replacing those of agriculture and extractive industries in many regions of the world. Fish stocks and the recreational fishing opportunities they afford are one of many natural resource based attractions that lure tourists to various destinations. Billfish species (blue marlin, black marlin, white marlin, striped marlin and sailfish) are a major tourism attraction worldwide for recreational fishing enthusiasts. Increasingly, billfish anglers are attempting to act responsibly toward billfish resources. Many have practised catch and release philosophy and conservation techniques for some time. Many billfish anglers contribute money and time to fisheries conservation organisations and efforts. Can fishing be considered as a form of ecotourism? This paper reviews definitions of ecotourism to distil six criteria: natural resource based, specific clientele, evidence of responsibility toward the resource, economic support for resource conservat...

Achieving bat conservation through tourism.

Bats are beneficial to ecosystems around the world, and are often keystone species. However, bat populations are declining worldwide and conservation efforts are needed to conserve bat species throughout the world. Worldwide, superstitions and fear of bats prevail and prolong negative attitudes and human hostility toward most bat species. In the case of other species (e.g. wolves and alligators), tourism efforts have led to improving attitudes and species viability. These examples suggest that bat tourism has a potential to conserve bat populations while providing social and economic benefits to local people in host communities. This article adopts an existing definition of non-consumptive wildlife-oriented recreation to frame the issues, summarises the ecological importance of bat species, provides an overview of the existing bat–human relationship, and adopts guidance from existing wildlife tourism initiatives. Information based on studies of wildlife tourists seeking other species is presented, as are examples of bat conservation initiatives based on tourism to change attitudes toward bats while stressing awareness of both potential negative impacts on bat species and economic benefits for local communities. Several existing examples of destinations which are attracting tourists to view bats, are discussed.

Information-Processing Strategies A Focus on Pictorial Information Roles

In this study, information-processing strategies that travelers use in information judgment and decision making were investigated. The study results indicate that individuals use certain information attributes (i.e., text argument quality, picture attractiveness) in different involvement situations. Low-involved individuals under a strong argument condition focused on picture attractiveness to quickly assess positive or negative values. High-involved individuals focused on both text argument quality and picture attractiveness for comprehensive evaluation. Three rules were revealed for high-involved individuals’ interactive processing because of offsetting, redundancy, and negative-valence effects. Theoretical implications are discussed and marketing implications are suggested based on these findings.

Florida Residents' Constraints to Parks and Public Lands Visitation: An Assessment of the Validity of an Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Structural Model

Abstract The purpose of this study was to empirically test Crawford, Jackson and Godbeys (1991) constraints model (intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural) for construct validity within the context of visiting parks and public lands among the residents of Florida, U.S. Respondents were asked to respond (major reason, minor reason, not a reason, and not sure) to 17 perceived constraint statements that represented the three theoretical constraint constructs. A statewide survey (n=3610) that employed random digit dialing of households was conducted. Descriptive statistics identified the constraints that had the most influence: lack of time, too busy with other activities, lack of information, and preference to do other forms of recreation. Conversely, the constraints that had the least influence were lack of transportation, skills, and the dislike of participating in the outdoors. Data were analyzed employing the structural equations modeling package (EQS). Besides few differences between the hypothesized model and the actual model, overall, the results provided empirical support for the validity of the theoretical constraint model. Future efforts should introduce and test additional indicators of interpersonal, intrapersonal and structural constraints. Also future research needs to address and establish the validity of the hierarchical characteristics and the processes of constraint negotiation.

Incentive travel: Recreation as a motivational medium

Abstract This paper presents an overview of the incentive travel industry with a focus on how it is related to recreation and motivation. Incentive travel uses unique fantasy travel and recreation experiences as rewards for employees who excel in productivity and sales. Incentive travel planners are involved in the complete process of employee motivation, advertising the incentive opportunity, planning and managing the trip. The rapid rate of growth of the industry, definitions, characteristics and examples of incentive travel trips are discussed, primarily from a North American perspective. Potential problems with using recreation and travel as a reward are reviewed. How travel and recreation experiences are used to motivate employees and the benefits to companies and agencies are summarized.

A Response to 'Ecotourism on Trial: The Case of Billfish Angling as Ecotourism'

We are pleased that our paper An Ecotourism Perspective on Billfish Fisheries has generated a debate on the boundaries of ecotourism. One intention in writing the paper was to explore the possibilities and justifications of a specific type of fishing qualifying as ecotourism, and in doing this, to test the limits of the term. It appears that for some readers, we have exceeded the limits, but, as we will attempt to show in our reply to David Fennell’s Ecotourism on Trial response, we think not. David Fennell’s commentary on our paper addresses some issues which we discussed in the paper and raises a few new ones. Two key points should be reiterated: the fishing activity we focus on is limited to ‘catch-and-release’ fishing, with ethical treatment of the fish as a fundamental point; secondly, as in many ecological situations, the focus should be on the population as a whole rather than on individual fish. Many of Fennell’s reservations seem to center on the implication that the label ‘fishing’ always refers to product-centred consumption (i.e. killing) of fish. Although he acknowledges our catch and release stipulation in several places, there is a tendency in his essay to subtly drift back to the assertion that all fishing is consumption. We specified in our paper, however, that we only allege a possible ecotourism label if the fish are carefully handled and released alive back to their habitat. A number of other issues require clarification. First, nowhere have we made the assertion that angling or even angling for billfish always qualifies as ecotourism. This would be a gross over-generalisation from our paper. There are many forms of recreational fishing and they are performed in various jurisdictions and locations. We argued that a case could be made for billfish angling being considered as ecotourism under particular circumstances. Specifically, we argued that a good case could be made for billfish angling off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. We are not prepared to make this case yet in other locales where we have conducted studies nor are we prepared to make a case for recreational fishing overall. And we are not prepared to make it for hunting under any