Abstract
Wildlife tourism (WT) is an important economic sector globally, which can sustain national and local economies. These activities have been reconceptualised as consumptive because of their impacts on the wildlife, and the problem of managing WT as a common-pool resource issue. We use an individual-based model to simulate the dynamics of a WT destination in different development phases. We then ask if any of the governance structures commonly proposed to solve common pool resource issues are appropriate to sustainably manage a WT destination during its development. The level of specialisation of tourists visiting a destination can influence both the exploitation of the wildlife and the socio-economic success of the industry, and no single governance structure leads to sustainability in every stage of a WT destination lifecycle. Given the dynamics of WT destinations, an adaptive governance framework is crucial to avoid wildlife depletion and economic failure of the industry.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 104160 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Tourism Management |
Volume | 81 |
Early online date | 26 May 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was funded by the University of Aberdeen, through MASTS (the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland), and Scottish Natural Heritage ( SNH ), through a Dominic Counsell studentship, and their support is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would also like to thank Alex Douglas for allowing us to run the simulations on the Catling computer cluster.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- Adaptive governance
- Common-pool resources
- Individual-based model
- Simulation
- Socioecological systems
- Sustainability
- Tourist specialisation
- Wildlife watching