Current Issues in Tourism
Editor: C. Michael Hall (Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand) and Chris Cooper (Foundation Professor of Tourism, University of Queensland, Australia) Michael and Chris are joint editor of the book series Aspects of Tourism. Reviews Editor John Jenkins (University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia)
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Volume: 11 Number: 1 Page: 75–83
doi:10.2167/cit345.0
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Commentary
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Managing Wildlife-based Tourism: Edging Slowly Towards Sustainability?
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James E.S. Highama and Lars Bejderb
aDepartment of Tourism, School of Business, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand and bCentre for Fish and Fisheries Research, Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit, Murdoch University WA, Australia
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It is increasingly acknowledged that cetacean-based tourism may not be as low in impact as many hope or presume, and that any long term and systematic human interactions with populations of wild animals need to be rigorously monitored and carefully managed. This paper reviews a series of recent developments in the management of tourist interactions with dolphins at Shark Bay (Western Australia). We argue that collectively these developments represent a paradigmatic shift in the way commercial tourism encounters with dolphins are managed. If so, they represent an important and long overdue advance in the general direction of sustainable management. However, the paper also strikes a note of caution. Shark Bay, a well managed site of relatively low level commerical dolphin-watching activities, carries important insights and austere warnings for the many high-intensity/low visitor management dolphin-tourism sites around the world.
Keywords: wildlife tourism, cetaceans, cumulative impact, management, sustainability, Shark Bay
© 2008 J.E.S. Higham & L. Bejder
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