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To Educate or Not to Educate: How the lack of education programs on whale-watching vessels can impact whale conservation and tourism in the Dominican Republic

Authors

Gleason, C.; Parsons, C.M.

Year

In Press

Journal

Tourism in Marine Environments

Keywords

Dominican Republic, education, environmental education, impact, management, tourism, whale watching

Abstract

Whales are watched in over 119 countries and territories bringing in $2.1 billion in revenue, with large growth seen in the Caribbean. The Dominican Republic has the largest whale-watching industry in the Caribbean. Although whale-watching thrives in the Dominican Republic, education programs are lacking. Currently in Samaná, only one vessel of approximately forty-five offers a formal education program. This is detrimental to both whale tourism and whale conservation. In an effort to increase education and better tailor current education programs, a survey based study was conducted to assess the conservation knowledge and opinions of whale-watching tourists. This study found tourists preferred on board education programs to be present on their whale-watching trip. Overall, to help improve tourists knowledge and conservation awareness, it is recommended a multi-lingual education program be created on all whale-watching vessels and that these programs should have more conservation based knowledge and away from basic biology..
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