Scientific Literature: Searchable Database

Environmental education and interpretation became common components on wildlifeviewing tours. Whale and dolphin watching tours are no exception and researchsuggests the implementation of educational interpretation as an agent forconservation. However, there is little knowledge on how the tourists on thosetours feel about interpretation, i.e. do tourists want to be educated duringtheir holidays? This study addressed this question on swim-with-dolphin toursat three locations in New Zealand. The distributed questionnaires includedspecific questions, but also gathered open-ended data. Results support thedemand for structured interpretation programmes on marine mammal tours. Despite interpretation in place (mostly about the dolphins), respondents clearly indicated that they would have liked to receive more information, in particular about the wider marine environment.