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Lifestyle values, resilience, and nature-based tourism's contribution to conservation on Australia's Great Barrier Reef

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2012

D. BIGGS ,
N. C. BAN  and
C. M. HALL
D. BIGGS*
Affiliation:
Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia Scientific Services, South African National Parks, Private Bag X402, Skukuza 1350, South Africa Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia
N. C. BAN
Affiliation:
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia
C. M. HALL
Affiliation:
Department of Management, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies, Freiburg, Germany
*
*Correspondence: Dr D. Biggs e-mail: [email protected]
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Summary

Innovative partnerships for conservation are required to stem the tide of continued ecosystem degradation. Nature-based tourism is one such partnership. Yet the natural attractions that nature-based tourism depends on are under increasing anthropogenic threat. Because of their dependence on international visitors, nature-based tourism enterprises are under additional pressure from socioeconomic and political crises in a globalized world. Recent research shows that lifestyle values, the motives that entice owners and staff of tourism enterprises to live and work in a chosen natural attraction, strengthen the resilience of enterprises to crises. This paper empirically explores the relationship between the lifestyle values of nature-based tourism enterprises, their resilience, and their support of and contribution to conservation of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Semi-structured interviews with the owners and senior managers of 48 reef tourism enterprises showed that those that reported high lifestyle values had higher levels of conservation ethic and participated more extensively in conservation actions. The relationship between resilience and conservation ethic was not statistically significant. Bureaucratic, regulatory and cost constraints, and a lack of knowledge, limit enterprise participation in conservation. Conservation agencies can work to reduce some of these constraints to ensure that conservation benefits from nature-based tourism enterprises are maximized.

Keywords

coral reefscrisesecotourismGreat Barrier Reeflifestyle valuesmarine conservationnature-based tourismresilience
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 370 - 379
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2012

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