Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The desire to experience solitude, one of the classic principles of wilderness recreation
(see above), represents the eleventh variable listed in Table 7.7. This variable receives a
mean score of 3.0. The last seven listed variables returned mean scores that described a
negative rather than positive disposition. The last two relate to the physical and mental
challenges that classic wilderness recreation offers, yet these receive distinctly low levels
of endorsement by tourists. Such a situation therefore raises fundamental questions about
the benefits which people are seeking when they visit wilderness areas and the extent to
which agencies should seek to supply such benefits.
Another major issue in terms of tourism and recreation in national parks and
wilderness areas is the extent to which tourism economically benefits such peripheral
areas. Researchers disagree on the economic impact of nature tourists on local
communities (Crabtree et al. 1994; Hull 1998; Weaver 1998; Walpole and Goodwin
2000; Hall and Boyd 2005). On the one hand, there is the argument that since these
visitors spend most of their time out on the land or in the wilderness their economic
impacts on local communities are minimal (e.g. Rudkin and Hall 1996). On the other,
environmentalists have promoted tourism as a non-consumptive use of nature and a win-
win development strategy for underdeveloped rural areas. As an influential World
Wildlife Fund publication on ecotourism states:
One alternative proposed as a means to link economic incentives with
natural resources preservation is the promotion of nature tourism. With
increased tourism to parks and reserves, which are often located in rural
areas, the populations surrounding the protected areas can find
employment through small-scale tourism enterprises. Greater levels of
nature tourism can also have a substantial economic multiplier effect for
the rest of the country. Therefore, tourism to protected areas demonstrates
the value of natural resources to tourists, rural populations, park
managers, government officials and tour operators.
(Boo 1990:3)
Indeed, Boo (1990) found that nature-oriented tourists had higher daily expenditures than
those tourists who were not nature oriented. Grekin and Milne (1996) also argued that
ecotourism is an industry where the physical isolation of a destination may work to its
economic advantage by providing a taste of the unknown and the untouched. Similarly,
Stoffle et al. (1979) in a study on indigenous tourism in the south-western United States
also found that tourists who felt positive about residents at a particular destination were
likely to purchase items to remember their experience. Hull (1998), in examining the
average daily expenditure patterns of ecotourists on the North Shore of Quebec, found
that package ecotourists had a substantially higher average daily expenditure than did
independent tourists. Accommodation was the area of largest expenditure with package
tourists spending on average Can.$42.04 and independent tourists spending Can.$l 1.76.
For package tourists, accommodation costs represented 59.6 per cent of their average
daily expenditure while for independent tourists accommodation costs represent only
23.8 per cent. Package tourists' second largest expenditure category was transportation at
22.2 per cent while for independent tourists meals were the second largest category at
approximately 17.8 per cent (Hull 1998). Expenditure patterns show that over 75 per cent
