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Abstract |
The soft or mass ecotourism sub-field makes up a large percentage of the ecotourism sector in many regions worldwide. This sub sector is generally characterized by larger group size, lower environmental commitment, and higher levels of service standards when compared to traditional “hard” ecotourists (Weaver, 2001).It has been argued that this popularity is driven in large part by representations of nature in popular media such as documentaries and magazines (Lemelin, 2006). Generally, any form of media may play a salient role in tourism contexts, i.e. raising expectations toward destinations, trips or tourism experiences, which may not be met in reality (Michalkó et al., 2015). Thus, while media has the potential to positively impact peoples expectations, perspectives and attitudes it also implies the danger of overpromising. Individuals with unrealistic expectations are hence more likely to experience some form of disappointment (Bramwell, 1998).These general notions can be expected to be specifically relevant in nature-based settings, in that tourists expectations may be highly influenced by curated representations of nature and wildlife. In turn, expectations are generally assumed to impact satisfaction which is a main driver for positive behavioral outcomes such as intention to re-visit and positive word-of-mouth (Faerber et al., 2021). When applied to wildlife tourism experiences we assume that the more the held image (shaped by media consumption) differs from objective reality, the greater will be both the tourists expectation and his/her disappointment.The present study examines the relationship between visitors pre-trip expectations and post-trip satisfaction of a mass ecotourism nature experience as a function of previous involvement in nature activities and organizations, and consumption of wildlife and nature-based media. |
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