Consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the Ningaloo Coast region
In this paper, we examine the expenditure of whale shark tour participants at Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia; the location of the world's first whale shark tourism industry, established in 1989. We demonstrate that in 2006, participants' expenditure in the region was $894 per trip...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
McGraw-Hill
2010
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/30290 |
| _version_ | 1848753046049259520 |
|---|---|
| author | Catlin, James Jones, Tod Norman, B. Wood, David |
| author_facet | Catlin, James Jones, Tod Norman, B. Wood, David |
| author_sort | Catlin, James |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In this paper, we examine the expenditure of whale shark tour participants at Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia; the location of the world's first whale shark tourism industry, established in 1989. We demonstrate that in 2006, participants' expenditure in the region was $894 per trip, total expenditure was $6.0 million (all figures are in Australian dollars), and between $2.4 and $4.6 million would have been lost to the region if whale shark tourism did not exist. Our measure of participants' expenditure is substantially lower than the calculation of $2370 per participant from a previous study of whale shark tourists using data collected in 1995. We argue that this is consistent with a change in the types of wildlife tourists that participate in an activity as the industry reaches the point of consolidation. Our results also suggest that using old data to forecast wildlife tourists' expenditure needs to take into account the industry's stage of development. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:18:17Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-30290 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:18:17Z |
| publishDate | 2010 |
| publisher | McGraw-Hill |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-302902017-09-13T16:07:59Z Consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the Ningaloo Coast region Catlin, James Jones, Tod Norman, B. Wood, David expenditure wildlife tourism whale shark In this paper, we examine the expenditure of whale shark tour participants at Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia; the location of the world's first whale shark tourism industry, established in 1989. We demonstrate that in 2006, participants' expenditure in the region was $894 per trip, total expenditure was $6.0 million (all figures are in Australian dollars), and between $2.4 and $4.6 million would have been lost to the region if whale shark tourism did not exist. Our measure of participants' expenditure is substantially lower than the calculation of $2370 per participant from a previous study of whale shark tourists using data collected in 1995. We argue that this is consistent with a change in the types of wildlife tourists that participate in an activity as the industry reaches the point of consolidation. Our results also suggest that using old data to forecast wildlife tourists' expenditure needs to take into account the industry's stage of development. 2010 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/30290 10.1002/jtr.742 McGraw-Hill restricted |
| spellingShingle | expenditure wildlife tourism whale shark Catlin, James Jones, Tod Norman, B. Wood, David Consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the Ningaloo Coast region |
| title | Consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the Ningaloo Coast region |
| title_full | Consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the Ningaloo Coast region |
| title_fullStr | Consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the Ningaloo Coast region |
| title_full_unstemmed | Consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the Ningaloo Coast region |
| title_short | Consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the Ningaloo Coast region |
| title_sort | consolidation in a wildlife tourism industry: the changing impact of whale shark tourist expenditure in the ningaloo coast region |
| topic | expenditure wildlife tourism whale shark |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/30290 |