Environmental Interpretation: Towards a globally relevant model for communicating with tourists from culturally diverse backgrounds. Environmental interpretation, a widely accepted approach to communicating with tourists in North America, Latin America and the U.K., is based on communication research undertaken mainly by researchers in western cultures or focused on Anglo-Saxon audiences. This project advances theory and practice by critically examining the relevance of this model for communic ....Environmental Interpretation: Towards a globally relevant model for communicating with tourists from culturally diverse backgrounds. Environmental interpretation, a widely accepted approach to communicating with tourists in North America, Latin America and the U.K., is based on communication research undertaken mainly by researchers in western cultures or focused on Anglo-Saxon audiences. This project advances theory and practice by critically examining the relevance of this model for communicating with visitors from a range of cultural backgrounds. Environmental messages, communication media and the application of environmental interpretation principles are experimentally manipulated to evaluate their relative effectiveness in communicating with international and domestic visitors from culturally and ethnically diverse backgrounds, as a basis for refining the model for wider application.Read moreRead less
Fostering pro-environmental behaviour of zoo visitors through strategic communication. A key part of achieving an Environmentally Sustainable Australia is to change human behaviour. Given annual visitation to Australia's zoos of 14.5 million, including about 4.2 million to the partner organisations, there is great potential for zoos to use their experiential platform to foster pro-environmental behaviour. How best to persuade people to change their behaviour, however, is still poorly understood ....Fostering pro-environmental behaviour of zoo visitors through strategic communication. A key part of achieving an Environmentally Sustainable Australia is to change human behaviour. Given annual visitation to Australia's zoos of 14.5 million, including about 4.2 million to the partner organisations, there is great potential for zoos to use their experiential platform to foster pro-environmental behaviour. How best to persuade people to change their behaviour, however, is still poorly understood. This research will improve the capacity of zoos to achieve pro-environmental behaviours among their visitors and thus have significant environmental and social benefits. Linking motivational factors with visitors' susceptibility to persuasion will assist any organisation that seeks to foster pro-environmental behaviour.Read moreRead less
Transforming Tourists' Antarctic Experience. With the Antarctic tourist industry currently growing and diversifying, the project aims to discover how cruise operators can foster positive and culturally informed relationships with the region among visitors of different national backgrounds. Through extensive in-situ fieldwork with partner Intrepid Travel, the project expects to generate new understandings of how operators' active mediating role combines with multisensory experience of Antarctica ....Transforming Tourists' Antarctic Experience. With the Antarctic tourist industry currently growing and diversifying, the project aims to discover how cruise operators can foster positive and culturally informed relationships with the region among visitors of different national backgrounds. Through extensive in-situ fieldwork with partner Intrepid Travel, the project expects to generate new understandings of how operators' active mediating role combines with multisensory experience of Antarctica to forge human connections with this extreme but fragile place. Anticipated outcomes include protocols for best practice in designing and implementing tourist experiences. By encouraging diverse visitors to value Antarctica, the project should benefit both operators and the polar environment.Read moreRead less