Visitors to protected areas in China

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Author(s)
Buckley, Ralf
Zhong, Linsheng
Ma, Xiangyuan
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2017
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Show full item recordAbstract
Conservation managers worldwide need social science information on visitors to protected areas, as well as natural science information on species and ecosystems. Visitor attitudes and behaviours differ considerably between countries and cultures, and these differences influence environmental impacts and management effectiveness. We present the first large-scale multi-site study of motivations, activities, satisfaction and intentions for Chinese visitors to highly biodiverse, heavily-visited Chinese protected areas. At national scale, Chinese cultural attitudes to nature, animal welfare, and threatened species differ substantially ...
View more >Conservation managers worldwide need social science information on visitors to protected areas, as well as natural science information on species and ecosystems. Visitor attitudes and behaviours differ considerably between countries and cultures, and these differences influence environmental impacts and management effectiveness. We present the first large-scale multi-site study of motivations, activities, satisfaction and intentions for Chinese visitors to highly biodiverse, heavily-visited Chinese protected areas. At national scale, Chinese cultural attitudes to nature, animal welfare, and threatened species differ substantially from those in Western nations. Our results indicate that these differences are less marked for park visitors than for the general public. The main goal of Chinese park visitors is unstressed appreciation of nature in unpolluted environments, and they also enjoy adventure and cultural experiences. Differences appear only at finer scale, such as wildlife interactions and birdwatching expectations. Since 15% of Chinese park visitors plan their next park visit internationally, these results are also relevant for conservation in all countries that receive Chinese tourists. We suggest that Chinese park visitors might be able to catalyse broader Chinese cultural change in attitudes towards use of threatened species.
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View more >Conservation managers worldwide need social science information on visitors to protected areas, as well as natural science information on species and ecosystems. Visitor attitudes and behaviours differ considerably between countries and cultures, and these differences influence environmental impacts and management effectiveness. We present the first large-scale multi-site study of motivations, activities, satisfaction and intentions for Chinese visitors to highly biodiverse, heavily-visited Chinese protected areas. At national scale, Chinese cultural attitudes to nature, animal welfare, and threatened species differ substantially from those in Western nations. Our results indicate that these differences are less marked for park visitors than for the general public. The main goal of Chinese park visitors is unstressed appreciation of nature in unpolluted environments, and they also enjoy adventure and cultural experiences. Differences appear only at finer scale, such as wildlife interactions and birdwatching expectations. Since 15% of Chinese park visitors plan their next park visit internationally, these results are also relevant for conservation in all countries that receive Chinese tourists. We suggest that Chinese park visitors might be able to catalyse broader Chinese cultural change in attitudes towards use of threatened species.
View less >
Journal Title
Biological Conservation
Volume
209
Copyright Statement
© 2017 Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.
Subject
Environmental sciences
Conservation and biodiversity
Biological sciences