Waters, Yolanda L., Losciale, Riccardo, Wilson, Kerrie A., and Dean, Angela J. (2024) Opportunities for meaningful climate change engagement in vulnerable nature settings. People and Nature, 6 (5). pp. 2126-2143.

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Abstract

Nature-based tourism has a unique opportunity, and arguably responsibility, to promote widespread action on climate change. However, research suggests an aversion to providing information that might appear divisive or ‘ruin’ peoples day, particularly in places that are vulnerable to degradation.

We explore how exposure to climate change information in vulnerable nature settings influences indicators of (i) the visitor experience and (ii) climate change engagement. Using a quasi-experimental approach, we provided climate information on tourist boats operating on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia and compared visitor experiences with a control condition where climate information was not provided. Visitor surveys (n = 656) assessed perceptions and experiences.

Overall, visitors on trips where climate information was provided were more likely to report that the reef experience exceeded their expectations and did not report any reduction in subjective trip satisfaction.

However, we detected minimal effects of climate information on indicators of climate engagement (threat awareness, action awareness, or information seeking), suggesting room for improvement in interpretation approach and design. Indeed, visitors reported high levels of acceptability for incorporating more information about climate change, particularly about actions.

Synthesis and applications: These results suggest that providing climate information does not undermine visitor experiences and while further research is required to determine the most effective approach for influencing climate change engagement, an appetite for more information exists. It is possible that what tourism operators are fearful of, may be an opportunity to improve outcomes aligned with both industry and environmental objectives.

Item ID:	85469
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2575-8314
Copyright Information:	This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2024 The Author(s). People and Nature published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.
Date Deposited:	13 May 2025 23:36
FoR Codes:	35 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 3508 Tourism > 350899 Tourism not elsewhere classified @ 50% 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4101 Climate change impacts and adaptation > 410199 Climate change impacts and adaptation not elsewhere classified @ 50%
SEO Codes:	19 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL HAZARDS > 1999 Other environmental policy, climate change and natural hazards > 199999 Other environmental policy, climate change and natural hazards not elsewhere classified @ 50% 11 COMMERCIAL SERVICES AND TOURISM > 1104 Tourism services > 110499 Tourism services not elsewhere classified @ 50%
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