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Sustainable safari practices: Proximity to wildlife, educational intervention, and the quality of experience

2019; Elsevier BV; Volume: 25; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jort.2019.01.001

2213-0799

Ryan Tarver, Kenneth S. Cohen, Dominic Klyve, Steven D. Liseki,

Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

This research examines the perceived quality of experience for safari tourists within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in relation to wildlife viewing proximities and the potential of an educational intervention as a management strategy to mitigate adverse impacts of safari participant crowding. Crowding originates from the safari tourists' preference to obtain close proximity to large mammals, in this case, lions. Recognizing these preferences and the associated impacts to animal behavior defined in the previous research, we developed and delivered a survey instrument designed to measure the perceived quality of experience of the safari tourist while controlling for the viewing proximity variable. The survey instrument involves participants responding to stock photos selected to represent the safari-tour experience, using a Likert type rating scale. Using a 'pre-treatment' and 'post treatment' protocol, we measure an educational management intervention that correlates the impact of intervention on safari participants' perceptions of the quality of safari experience based on proximity to animals. Our findings revealed a statistically significant relationship between an educational intervention conveying the adverse impacts of crowding on lion behavior and safari tourists' perception of a quality experience in relation of proximity to lions. To support the findings of Ngrongoro Conservation Area Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). To inform the wildlife viewing policies and practices To establish the validity of an education intervention. To mediate visitor perceptions. To ameliorate concerns related to tensions between revenue generation and conservation practices. To model an environmental education intervention. To generate a platform for understanding visitor preferences for safari guides. To demonstrate the efficacy of precise environmental information on tourists understanding of complex environmental systems. To inform management policies with respect to vehicular congestion as a variable of environmental concern.