Ecotourists as activists : The conceptualisation of ecotourist’s practices and the role of communication
Abstract: As concern regarding the environmental impact of the regular tourism industry grows, tourists are increasingly seen carrying out activism actions and rallying others to create changes in the industry. A segment of the tourism industry that meets the demand is ecotourism, a more sustainable form of travelling that is seen as environmentalism in and of itself. Despite growing demand and communication efforts, ecotourism bookings remain low. Activism from ecotourists should be able to turn this around, but very little research has been done on this. Interviews show that ecotourists see ecotourism as activism, perform activism actions, but have difficulty with self-identifying as activists. The reasons for this are a negative connotation with activism or an unachievable high set bar. Despite self-identifying as an ecotourist, ecotourists’ ecotourism knowledge is low. According to them, communication regarding ecotourism is too limited and not disseminated sufficiently enough. This makes it difficult for ecotourists to be informed about ecotourism while other topics such as sustainability and activism do not even require an active attitude to be informed. Ecotourists get their information on sustainability, ecotourism and environmentalism mainly from online, news and audio-visual sources.
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