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 Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 19:545–554, 2014
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1087-1209 print / 1533-158X online
DOI: 10.1080/10871209.2014.921957

Wildlife Tourism: Reconnecting People with Nature

SUSANNA CURTIN AND GITTE KRAGH

School of Tourism, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, UK
Downloaded by [Bournemouth University], [Susanna Curtin] at 08:06 19 November 2014

Wildlife tourism is an important platform to investigate the relationship between people

and nature. Given that wildlife destinations are likely to receive higher tourism demand
from new emerging economies, this article considers the wider emotional and psycho-
logical implications of wildlife watching. The growing significance of this tourist activity
is a potential reawakening of a deeper ecological sub-consciousness brought about by
a society that is disconnected from nature. Particular attention is given to the impor-
tance of experiencing nature first hand, the psychological benefits, and the emotional
responses that may engender a relationship of care. This is good for both the human
spirit and for nature conservation.

Keywords wildlife tourism, urbanization, psychological benefits, emotion

Introduction
Tourism is an expanding economic force increasing by an average of 3% per year.
International tourist arrivals reached a peak of 1,035 million in 2012 despite financial
downturns and occasional setbacks, and are forecast to rise to 1.8 billion by 2030 (United
Nations World Tourism Organisation, 2013). UNWTO data reveal almost uninterrupted
growth, new destinations and growing markets from the world’s emerging economies.
The literature portrays the tourist phenomenon as a purely Western ideology forged in
political economies rooted in post-colonialism (Burns & Bibbings, 2009). The landscape
of tourism, however, is shifting as the rising middle classes from China, India, South
America and Africa seek the freedom and consumption enjoyed by previous economies
and despite concerns regarding unsustainable growth and climate change, tourism is here
to stay.
Non consumptive wildlife tourism (i.e., viewing wildlife in its natural habitat) is a
significant part of this growing industry (Mintel, 2008; Tapper, 2006). Destinations and
tour operators exploit indigenous, iconic, and charismatic species in their marketing and
product development. For example, in India’s 10 most prominent tiger reserves, findings
suggest an average annual visitor growth rate of 15% between the years 2002 and 2008; a
demand mostly driven by domestic tourism and India’s increasing middle class (Karanth &
DeFries, 2011).
For the mass tourism market, there exists an array of inventive opportunities for tourists
to engage with free-ranging wildlife on a typical holiday itinerary. It is estimated that 25%

Address correspondence to Susanna Curtin, Bournemouth University, School of Tourism,

Dorset House, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK. E-mail: scurtin@
bournemouth.ac.uk
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.
tandfonline.com/uhdw.

545
 546 S. Curtin and G. Kragh

of TUI Travel Plc’s (i.e., one of the world’s largest travel corporations) 1.2 million package
holiday excursions are wildlife related (D. Blastland, personal communication, March 18,
2010).
This expansion of the wildlife tourism industry is set against a depressing backdrop of
global concerns regarding an unpredictable changing climate, political tensions, unprece-
dented human population growth, receding wilderness and declining species. The literature
highlights the concerns and debates regarding the impacts of tourism on fragile environ-
ments (e.g., Gladstone, Curley, & Shokri, 2013; Gössling, 2002; Holden, 2008), and the
negative aspects of tourism on wildlife, communities, and habitats (e.g., Buckley, 2000;
Gladstone et al., 2013; Green & Higginbottom, 2001). Less, however, is made of the pos-
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itive benefits of wildlife tourism beyond the obvious commercial and economic spin-offs
that support communities and conservation, although research into some less tangible ben-
efits is gaining attention, such as the psychological benefits of engaging with wildlife
(Curtin, 2009, 2013) and the positive human behavioral changes induced by environ-
mental interpretation (Ballantyne, Packer, & Sutherland, 2011; Skibins, Powell, & Hallo,
2013).
The desire to travel is a fundamental aspect of human nature and tourism is often one
of the key indicators of economic growth and prosperity. Yet Franklin (2007) suggests that
tourism is often perceived as being detached from the social, cultural, and political milieu
that produces the desire to be a tourist in the first place. The binary viewpoints that depict
work and leisure, home and away, the extraordinary and the everyday are also unhelpful in
understanding tourism and sociology (Edensor, 2001; Picken, 2006; Urry, 1990). Regular
day trips, weekends away and trip planning support the spaces between main holidays,
and the very notion of spending time away from home is common discourse. Moreover,
favored activities and interests at home are often sought or replicated when away (i.e.,
walking, bird watching, sporting pursuits) (see Chang & Gibson, 2011; Curtin, 2010a).
Tourism in affluent societies is thus inextricably interlinked with everyday life. Franklin
(2007) suggests that tourism offers “a new platform from which to view the world”; tourist
experiences provide a set of repertoires which are “explicitly imported into the everyday”
(p. 135). Rather than being a marginal activity, tourism is a serious and enduring force in a
person’s life which reconfigures the way they live and what they desire.
A tourism experience is essentially the transformation of a once imagined state to an
actual, experienced, and embodied one. For a wildlife tourist to gaze on a lion in Africa
is to experience the anticipation of the search, but most of all it is to feel what it is to
be embodied in the same space as a lion; to share its world and to imagine its existence.
It follows that to understand the wonder of nature, one has to have direct experience of it
and to be inspired to “feel” the personal significance of that experience (Bulbeck, 2005;
Kals, Schumacher, & Montada, 1999; Milton, 2002).
Wildlife tourism like this, which occurs in natural, aesthetically pleasing environments,
has great potential to reawaken human connection with the natural world. While it is widely
acknowledged that wildlife tourism can have a negative impact on biodiversity (Croall,
1995; Green & Higginbottom, 2001; Holden, 2008), it is also able to contribute to a growing
awareness of the intrinsic value of nature and wildlife (Kals et al., 1999; Milton, 2002), and
inspire support for its protection and conservation; thus extending relations of care.
Given the importance of tourism experiences to the everyday consciousness of the
human spirit, this article proposes that non-consumptive wildlife tourism is a useful vehicle
for (a) re-engaging people with nature, (b) understanding why nature is so significant to
people, and (c) assessing how the creation of memorable wildlife experiences and envi-
ronmental interpretation can instill new ways of thinking about humankind and nature
 Wildlife Tourism 547

Experiencing first hand free-

Urbanization and the ranging wildlife engenders
conquest of nature feelings of connection and
extends relations of care

Nature’s cure: the Affective wildlife

psychological benefits
Disconnection and of experiencing
alienation from nature wildlife in its natural
setting
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tourism as a means to
encourage a more eco-
centric worldview

The search for meaning and a

Tourism in a natural
turn towards post-material
environment is a way to
values that emphasize the
replenish the human
aesthetic and moral appreciation
spirit and reconnect with
of nature
nature

Figure 1. Wildlife tourism as a way to reconnect people with nature.

(Ballantyne et al., 2011; Orams, 1995). Answers to these questions strengthen the argument
for conservation, informs construction of environmental policies, and proposes new insights
into the human dimensions of wildlife.
Figure 1 plots the linear supposition which outlines the direction of this article. It pro-
poses that urbanization, consumer culture and disconnection from nature eventually lead
to a quest for greater meaning. In affluent societies tourism provides a means to re-engage
with nature in order find reprieve from the strains and stresses of modern life. Through
tourism marketing, natural environments, wild-flowers, and wild animals “are presented to
us as products available for consumption” (Buckley, 2000, p. 31). Experiencing wildlife
first hand, if delivered appropriately by tour operators, can instill an emotional connection
to nature and greater environmental awareness. This is good for both the human spirit and
nature conservation.

Urbanization and Disconnection with Nature

The ideals of urbanization are based on progress rooted in the conquest of nature by cul-
ture; thus transforming “empty” land to produce improved land (Wolch, West, & Gaines,
1995). This was illustrated throughout European pioneering history when wild animals
were viewed as a threat to personal safety and an impediment to settlement (Nash, 1967).
According to Kellert, Black, Rush, and Bath (1996), “subjugation of wolves and wild places
merged as an expression of moral duty, reflecting the settlers’ will to dominate the land and
transform it” (p. 978). Development involves a progressive denaturalization of the environ-
ment, reflects utilitarian market values and human interests and eventually disconnects us
from nature.
This is detrimental to human mental health as well as the health of the planet (Lovelock
2006), which is not an entirely new perspective. During the Industrial Revolution environ-
mental and romantic movements grew as Western populations became alienated from rural
landscapes. These movements were grounded in the concern about the negative effects of
 548 S. Curtin and G. Kragh

urbanization and industrialization on human well-being leading to a romantic nostalgia

for times when people lived much closer to Mother Nature (Taylor, 2010). Henry David
Thoreau (1817–1862), in the midst of the industrial revolution, believed that people were
desperate to escape the meaningless and trivial “prison” that characterizes most human civ-
ilization. So lost were they in the daily pursuit of material things, that they had forgotten
their need for nature’s cure (Thoreau, 2001).
Giddens (1991) maintains that urbanization causes a number of insecurities. People
experience high culture, freedom, liberation, and a perpetual state of change but also they
can experience confusion, loss of direction, unpredictability, loss of control, and anxiety
(Taylor, 2010). Consumer culture is an inherent part of urbanization and modern insecuri-
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ties which brings its own futility. Bauman (2001) questions consumerism arguing that it is
no longer self-limiting. In the beginning, products were largely consumed for the satisfac-
tion of immediate physical needs such as satiating hunger rather than the mere satisfaction
of fanciful desires. While such consumption allows liberation and choice for the affluent
on the one hand, its lack of limits, on the other, makes it bitter-sweet given the realisation
that the acquisition of goods does not bring prolonged happiness or fulfilment; indeed a
world of marketing instils a constant feeling of desire and want that can only temporarily
be fulfilled.
In response, Inglehart (1995), Garner (2000), and Manfredo, Teel, and Bright (2003)
propose that affluent societies eventually endorse post-material values which emphasize the
aesthetic and moral appreciation of nature. These values focus on a general interest in the
environment; bringing nature back in to people’s everyday worlds via active membership of
conservation organizations, wildlife gardening, feeding wild birds and animals, television
programs, radio, popular magazines and travel to natural environments.

Nature’s Cure
Eco psychologists such as Gottschalk (2001) trace a direct line between the health of the
natural world and the health of the mind, and claim that people can suffer from “nature-
deficit disorder,” which Louv (2011) describes as diminished use of the senses, attention
difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illness. The need for respite pro-
vides an explanation of why restorative natural environments are often sought in leisure and
tourism settings. Indeed people choose natural settings when asked to describe a “favorite
place” or a “place they would like to be” (Clayton & Myers, 2009, p. 17).
There is a whole body of literature that investigates the psychology of the human
need to commune with animals, plants, landscapes, and wilderness (Godbey, 2009; Wilson,
1993). The fields of eco-psychology, sociobiology, environmental psychology, and deep
ecology have revealed interesting findings regarding the relationship between human health
and the natural world; asserting that nature is an important component of human well-being.
There is particularly evidence to suggest the benefits of green environments. For example,
Bodin and Hartig (2003) found that joggers who exercise in natural settings with trees,
foliage and views of the landscape feel more restored, less anxious, angry or depressed
than those who exercised in urban gyms. In a nationwide survey in the Netherlands, people
who live within one to three kilometers of green space reported significantly better health
than those without such access after researchers controlled for other age and socioeconomic
factors (Maas, Verheij, Groenewegen, de Vries, & Spreeuwenberg, 2006).
In the past 20 years, researchers have increasingly shown that exposure to animals
and nature decreases negative states and behaviors such as aggression, anxiety, depression,
and illness while increasing positive ones such as affect, health, and cognitive capacity
 Wildlife Tourism 549

(Frumkin, 2001; Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989; Louv, 2005; van den Berg, 2005). So much so
that there is a new paradigm in public health policy that links the conservation of nature and
public access to nature and wildlife to preserving a nation’s health (Frumkin & Louv, 2007):
in the words of Kaplan (1983), “nature matters to people. Big trees, small trees, glistening
water, chirping birds, budding bushes, colorful flowers—these are important ingredients in
a good life” (p. 155).

The Psychological Benefits of Experiencing Wildlife in its Natural Setting

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Studies on wildlife tourism have shown how being situated in nature and immersed
in watching animal or bird behavior allows participants to experience a sense of flow
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1991), a peak experience (DeMares & Krycka, 1998), a loss of time
(Curtin, 2009), and a deep sense of wonderment and connection with the natural world
(Bulbeck, 2005).
Kaplan (1993) asserts that although snapshot experiences of beautiful landscapes can
temporarily lift one’s moods, extended dialogues with wildlife can restore people psycho-
logically and allow opportunities for inner contemplation and change. The deepest and
strongest attachments between people and natural occurrences give rise to “spiritual” expe-
riences in which people feel a sense of connection with a larger reality that helps give
meaning to their own lives (Schroeder, 1996).
Psychologists clearly emphasize that a connection to an object or subject is rooted
in emotional responses to it and that to have affection for something means that a person
has to have first-hand experience of it (Milton, 2002). It is poignant, therefore, how early
environmentalists began their philosophies following personal expedition and contact with
the natural world. Certainly for these contemporary writers, human wisdom, knowledge,
and health are derived from direct experience of nature.
John Muir (1838–1914), best known for his driving force behind the National Parks in
the United States, like Emerson (1836) and Thoreau, was a naturalist and a writer but most
of all, he was a tourist and an adventurer who urged his readers to go out and explore nature
for themselves. Indeed, studies suggest that our understanding of, and engagement with
nature, arise more strongly out of real-life experiences with actual animals than intellectual
engagement with ideas or films (Bulbeck, 2005). Bulbeck (2005) asserts that passion for
nature and wildlife comes from “physical contact with the wild world (the ‘concrete’ wild)
as opposed to merely knowledge of the ‘wild’ world (the ‘abstract’ wild)” (p. xxiii).
Such emotional connection with wildlife can derive from observation and contempla-
tion. By seeing animals in their natural environment we may see the theatre of our own lives
similarly displayed in theirs: (i.e., curiosity, playfulness, foraging for food, rearing young,
and belonging to social groups). As animals cannot reveal their thoughts to us, it is human
nature to impose our own anthropomorphic interpretations of their world.
Anthropomorphism receives much criticism from the scientific community (Karlsson,
2012). Yet it is impossible for the human mind to step away completely from personhood
as the “I” within us is situated in what it is to be human. Therefore everything is regarded in
terms of its relationship and similarities to us. We cannot know what it is to be a whale or a
lion; we can only imagine their experiences through empathy, emotions, and observations
of collective behaviors (Clayton & Myers, 2009). Exciting, memorable and meaningful
encounters with wild animals engender not only knowledge but also a sense of association
and affection, and it is through such emotions that reconnection with the natural world can
be resumed (Curtin, 2009). Anthropomorphism, then, is not necessarily a negative attribute
 550 S. Curtin and G. Kragh

as without this empathy for other living creatures there would be little interest or persuasion
to care about them (Clayton & Myers, 2009; Karlsson, 2012).

Affective Wildlife Tourism

Wildlife tourism, particularly when conducted in small groups with a wildlife guide, can
be instrumental in reawakening our connection and love of nature. A unique combination
of interpretation and embodied tourist experiences can elicit feelings of wonderment, awe,
and engagement; thereby facilitating lasting sensory impressions, emotional affinities, new
environmental awareness and interests, and treasured memories; all of which potentially
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frame further wildlife experiences at home and away (Curtin, 2009, 2010b; Hughes, Packer,
& Ballantyne, 2011). The work on wildlife tourism interpretation (e.g., Ballantyne et al.,
2011) is of critical importance in determining such a platform for human engagement in
nature. In their investigation of wildlife tourist memories they uncovered the importance
of the essential ingredients of a wildlife experience such as the multisensory facets of the
setting, the landscape, sound, touch, and “smell-scapes” that made the experience more
memorable. They concluded:

The combination of emotional affinity with a reflective, cognitive response

appears to have the most powerful impact on visitors, leading to a concern and
respect not only for the specific individuals encountered in the wildlife tourism
experience, but the species as a whole. In this way, the wildlife experience
made environmental issues more personal and relevant to them. (Ballantyne
et al., 2011, p. 774)

Some wildlife tourism experiences, however, cannot facilitate such affinity; particularly
those that are orientated toward a single focal species, are short-lived, lack sufficient inter-
pretation, and are mass marketed (Kerley, Geach, & Vial, 2003). These trips tend toward
a myopic view of nature in so far as the complex inter-relationships between habitats and
other species are largely ignored in place of only the popular, charismatic and flagship
mega fauna. On such trips the short time spent in the field, whether or not focal wildlife
is seen, the behavior of the crowd, noise, and the quality of interpretation can negatively
impact upon the experience (Skibins, Hallo, Sharp, & Manning, 2012; Zinn, Manfredo, &
Decker, 2008). On such occasions the extent to which wildlife tourism reconnects people
and nature is somewhat questionable. These tourism providers are neither imaginative nor
passionate in their product design and interpretation of fauna and flora and they do not
convey to tourists the “magic” of the natural world; how plants and animals in a habitat
co-exist and survive; as they only focus on the obvious flagship and marketable species.
Nature’s “magic” can also be lost when tourist experiences are heavily mediated
and controlled by the use of trails, jeeps, fences, hides, and boundaries that formalize
the relationship between humankind and nature; thus reinforcing nature as “other.” Such
highly mediated experiences can lack the intimacies that provoke emotional and poten-
tially lifelong affiliations with the natural world. Franklin (2007) refers to this segregation
of humankind and nature as a “museumised nature where sensual, embodied and consump-
tive ties and skills are lost and where the possibility of indifference can occur” (p. 146). The
reverse of this is the “freedom to roam” that is more likely to provoke moments of absorbed
enlightenment and thus a greater personal attachment and affiliation (Macnaghten & Urry,
1998). Nature in our dreams and perceptions is not fenced or contained. By definition it is
unbound, authentic and wild, and in it we can find personal, spatial and temporal freedoms.
 Wildlife Tourism 551

Conclusions
This discussion article adopts Franklin’s (2007) assertion that the academic community
should view tourism experiences as a new platform from which to explore “unintended and
intended consequences” (p. 135). It proposes that the study of wildlife tourism can foster a
deeper understanding of the relationship between humans and nature. Using what is already
known about restorative environments, its central thesis is that rather than concentrating
on the negative implications of the intrusion of humans into nature and wildlife habitats,
that wildlife tourism represents another important platform to investigate and understand
how wildlife and nature is psychologically potent and important to society at large. The
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discussion draws on various bodies of literature to explore major social themes that are
used to explain the increase in demand for wildlife tourism experiences and also to shed
light on the key societal changes that have partly fostered the tourist desire and inherent
need to re-engage with nature.
The article illustrates that our experience of urbanization and disconnection from
nature eventually manifests a search for more meaningful, authentic things in life; one of
which is an interest in nature and animals. This is evident in the growth of interest in active
memberships of conservation organizations, wildlife gardening, pet keeping, feeding wild
birds, and travel to see natural landscapes and in-situ wildlife. This is not an entirely surpris-
ing response as throughout human history, nature has provided not only the raw materials
for human existence but also inspiration and psychological succor plus an opportunity to
escape from the physical and psychological bounds of modern urban life.
Many famous environmentalists began their love of nature and wildlife through direct
experience of it and through exploration and adventure. It was during such adventures that
kinship, empathy, and extended relations of care with the natural world were manifest.
If we apply the same logic today, then it is only through direct experience of nature and
wildlife that modern societies can do likewise, and wildlife tourism, if delivered appropri-
ately, is an ideal vehicle for such re-engagement. Our gift to habitats and wildlife today
is to encourage people to engage with them, to empathize with the plight of disappearing
species and habitats and to acknowledge their importance and their intrinsic value to the
future of humankind. By furthering our understanding of what is driving the demand for
nature and wildlife experiences in contemporary societies, we can present opportunities for
people to engage with wildlife in a more positive and meaningful way that opens the door
for the necessary eco-centric shift in nature and animal value orientations.
Rather than only focusing attention on the negative impacts of tourism on species
and habitats, the study of wildlife tourism needs to stop perpetuating the assumption that
tourists’ presence in the natural environment is an inherently bad thing. As by doing so,
it merely maintains the common mantra of trying to keep humanity out, which may, in
the long term, do more damage to conservation and nature preservation as it will sever
the opportunity to increase personal connection to nature and to develop political sup-
port for conservation. There are many instances, such as in the case of tigers (Buckley,
2012), whales and sea turtles (Wilson & Tisdell, 2003), and mountain gorillas (Nielsen
& Spenceley, 2010) where the survival of them and their habitats is highly dependent on
the continued presence of tourists in terms of generating income for local communities,
protecting wildlife from poaching and/or other uses, and for providing income for their
conservation (Buckley et al., 2012). Future challenges will concern how best to explore the
ways in which tourist experiences in these settings can influence the human psyche beyond
the boundaries of the experience itself.
 552 S. Curtin and G. Kragh

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