Sustainable Approaches Of Wildlife Tourism In Australia: Challenges, Opportunities And Management

Sustainability of Australian Wildlife Tourism

Discuss about the Sustainable Approaches of Wildlife Tourism.

A literature review is defined as the piece of work that includes information regarding the current topic and knowledge of the research topic. Usually a literature review contains methodological and theoretical contributions related to the particular topic. The topic selected for this study is “Investigating the Challenges, Opportunities and Sustainability of Wildlife Tourism in Australia”. The literature review is based on the secondary sources. The data will be collected from the credible articles and scholarly journals from different authors. In a dissertation, literature review of the topic is compulsory; otherwise, the process of data analysis will be incomplete. The topic related to wildlife includes many scopes of wildlife such as challenges, opportunities and sustainability of the wildlife of Australia. Wildlife of Australia is considered as the significant factor while determining the decision-making factors of the government related to the international visitors. Apart from that, Wildlife of Australia has a significant impact on the economy of the country in the field of international tourism. The literature review will describe the research findings of different authors regarding the main areas of wildlife in Australia such as economic values, interaction experience, host communities and impacts and management of wildlife.

As per Ham and Weiler (2012) sustainable wildlife tourism is important to the country as it shapes the quality and nature of the experiences of the tourist. It is responsible for building a potential influence in the actions and beliefs towards the wildlife of Australia. However, it can be said that the tourists are interested in interacting with the wildlife in a different ways such as free-roaming and in a captive way. It can be physical touching or can be petting zoo in the field of long distance observation (Chusakul et al. 2016). However, the authority records each of the experience in order to formulate sustainable strategies for the development of the experience of the tourists in the tourism. The international visitors of the country felt an emotional and intellectual connection with the wildlife tourism.

Ballantyne et al. (2013) illustrates that experiences of wildlife tourism is responsible for creation of a positive impact on the awareness, actions and appreciation of the tourists in relation to the particular wildlife the tourists are encountering while the environment is general. Authors have focused on the different attributes of tourists while maintaining the sustainability of the tourism aspects. The attributes are motivation and pre-visit environmental orientation. It leads to long term and short-term behavioural and environmental change outcomes.

Opportunities of Australian Wildlife Tourism

According to Ballantyne et al. (2014), there is a relation between wildlife tourism and securing habitat and the conservation of the wildlife. The authorities of preservation of wildlife sometimes put emphasis on the preservation of the wildlife instead of the interests of the tourists in those areas. The managers of those wildlife areas are responsible for conservation and protection of the animals and their habitats. The article focuses on the total number of inbound tourists as well as international tourists. They are much aware of the impact of the environment on the life of the animals and maintaining their habitat.

Allen et al. (2015) stated that the experiences of the tourists are important in order to determine the demand of the development of wildlife tourism in Australia. Apart from that, the government of the country finds immense opportunities in developing sustainability for the long-term aspect. The tourists in these destinations are very captive and are seeks to visit more places and attractions. There are many issues faced by the maintenance departments of Australian forest departments in order to maintain the sanctuaries in a proper manner (Ayalew 2016). The different experiences and responses of the visitors regarding the management of the sanctuaries are important in developing policies that attracts more tourists in Australia. It can be done by interacting with the international tourists regarding the expectations of them in Australian wildlife tourism.

From the above analysis, it has been found that it can be said that the behaviour of the environment and the tourists are important point of consideration in formulation of sustainable initiatives in the development of wildlife tourism. Apart from that, the experiences of the tourists are the main point of consideration to the authorities maintaining the different strategies of development of the wildlife habitats and areas of tourism.

It can also be said that the management practices to some extent put emphasis on the interests of the tourists. The wildlife tourism ventures of the country are responsible for development of the different tourist spots related to the wildlife areas.

Packer et al. (2014) have suggested that there are many opportunities in the development of Australian wildlife tourism when compared to tourism of other countries.  Wildlife tourism of Australia has become popular where tourists and tourists operators are busy in providing an opportunity with the close interaction of the customers with the wildlife. It can be said that these activities are responsible for creating a positive impact on the wildlife tourism of the country. It is seen that a long term and deliberate provision of food to the wildlife are proven to change the behavioural patterns of the wildlife and the population. It is the strong point of the article. The weakness of the article is that it only focuses on the feeding aspect prominently rather than other opportunities of supporting the tourism.

In this article Monz et al. (2013) stated that the Chinese wildlife tourism and Australian wildlife tourism have many similarities and differences. The attitudes of the tourists of both the countries are taken on order to develop strategies of the development of Australian wildlife tourism. It can be said that the Chinese wildlife tourism faces different aspects of environmental degradation (Tsegaw 2016). The attitudes and perceptions of the Chinese tourists towards the nature are influenced more by the cultural values, traditions, philosophical and religious beliefs.

According to Cong et al. (2014), recreation ecology has recent advancements in wildlife tourism that is responsible for creating a relationship between ecological impact and recreational use. The concept of recreation ecology is defined as the study that deals with the environmental consequences of different nature based tourism activities or any types of outdoor reaction with their effective management. It is an evolving field having global importance. The research has illustrated the fact that there is a relation between the ecological impacts and different recreational use (Wong 2015). It has many weaknesses, as the concept is not so popular in the real life world. As stated by Hegglin et al. (2015), inclusion of endangered species in the wildlife tourism of Australia is responsible for the improved satisfaction of the visitors from other countries. It is found that tourists both from domestic and international destinations are found to interact with the species present in the wildlife tourist destinations.

Therefore, it can be said that the tourism of the country is found to be growing its demands in terms of interaction with the endangered species. The strengths of the article is that the author focuses on utilising the opportunity of developing Australian wildlife tourism. Weaknesses of the concept are that it has not mentioned the ways of taking feedback from the visitors of the place.

It has also been observed that Chinese tourists in Australia are fond of visiting natural landscapes. Government should develop the areas based on the preferences of the visitors. The weakness of the article lies in the fact that it only focuses on the Chinese tourists not on the other categories of tourists.

As per the McAlpine et al. (2015), the conservation of the wildlife is considered as challenging task for the authorities of the country. It is seen that the public attention goes to the areas where the maintenance is not up to the mark. It is responsible for creating a negative impact on the minds of the visitors of the Australian wildlife areas. Apart from that, the species present in those areas also finds many challenges for their survival. They are also threatened, as many of the species are not from the Australian origin. Strengths and weaknesses are related to the extinction of the flora and fauna as well as the endangered species.

Techera and Klein (2013) stated that since from the last decades it is seen that the wildlife tourism of Australia has witnessed many challenges in the biological conservation of the areas along with the different types of species present in it. Development is seen in the different aspects of marine tourism. It includes shark eco tourism. In some areas, it can be said that the weakness of the article lies in the regulatory frameworks of the government of Australia.

According to Muter et al. (2013), government of Australia is facing challenges in the protection and conservation of the species as well as the flora and fauna. The article illustrates that the marine species are in the verge of extinction. Research has portrayed that there is abundance in the decline of the marine species that are not only destroying the aspects of wildlife tourism but also it destroys the ecosystem. However, these issues have created an impact on the Australian government while passing many regulatory frameworks. For instance, sharks are the species that are facing many vulnerable threats from different types of activities done by humans as well as the global warming impact (Eshetu 2014). The strengths lies in finding ways while mitigating the identified challenges in the wildlife areas. As stated by Pearce and Moscard (2015), social representation of the species present in the areas of wildlife tourism are responsible for creating new forms of challenges in the perspective of sustainable tourism. Many incidents are published in the media that tourists are taking selfies with the different types of species of the marine creatures. These activities of the tourists are violating the norms of the tourist spots.

It can be easily concluded that Geographical variations are responsible for the extinction of the different types of endangered species. Australian tourism has many legal frameworks that are also creating many obstacles in formulating strategies related to the biological conservation of the different wildlife sanctuaries.

Again, it has to be mentioned that Regulations are framed in order to protect the spot from the harmful activities of the visitors. It is the duty of the authorities of the department of the tourism to conserve the flora and fauna along with other species who are responsible for the tourism of the country.

Bentz et al. (2016) has illustrated that the satisfaction of the customers is the main aspect related to the sustainable management of the Australian wildlife tourism. Satisfied visitors will help in bringing more visitors to the tourist spots. It will help in word of mouth promotion of the tourist place. In this article, author has pointed out that if marine wildlife tourist destinations keep whales, then more tourists will gather in the place. According to Cowling et al. (2014), different types of tourists are attracted to the wildlife tourists.

As per the Dimmock and Musa (2015), scuba diving activity in the system of tourism is considered as the appropriate framework for the sustainability efforts and different management activities. This type of tourism system is known as (SDTS) scuba diving tourism system. There are different types of activities that are related to these types of tourism such as marine environment, scuba drivers, scuba diving tourism and host community. There is a need of adaptive management in these tourism activities (Ramukumba et al. 2012). Strengths of the article are implementation of new methods and approaches of attracting more tourists to it. Weakness of the article is that it only focuses on a single aspect i.e. scuba diving in developing strategies of tourist attraction.

As stated by Fletcher et al. (2016) indigenous attractions, tourism products, and activities are responsible for offering a cutting edge difference in the tourist destinations of Australia. Sustainable approaches are proven to increase the experience of the visitors in the wildlife tourism of Australia.

It can be concluded that among the all marketing activities adopted by the department of tourism in Australia, word of mouth promotion is the most effective one that are responsible for attracting more customers to the place. Wildlife areas of Australia are the opportunities that are responsible for improving the economic condition of the country. Continuous efforts of government in terms of implementing different types of events in the areas of interest help in increasing rush of the tourists.

From the other articles, it has been observed that the cultural aesthetics is a vital aspect that is responsible for building strategies of sustainable development. It is seen that a considerable attention is attracted by the indigenous cultures in the field of tourism in the recent years. Both the international tourists and domestic tourists are positively impacted by the element of indigenousness in the process of sustainability.

Conclusion

The study contains the literature review of the sustainability, opportunity and challenges of the wildlife tourism of Australia. The tourism of Australia is responsible for creating an impact on the economy of the country. The wildlife tourism consists of marine tourism that is also responsible for attracting many international and domestic tourists to the places. Different authors have different views related to the aspect of development of policies and strategies in the sustainable development of tourism. Apart from that, the aspect of conservation is important in order to save the fauna, flora and the natural habitat of the animals that are existing in the forests of Australia. It has also created a positive impact on the development of initiatives that are related to the development of ecosystem in the earth.

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