Wildlife tourism and co-existence between humans and animals: a study of travelers' attitudes and worldviews

Abstract

The Earth is facing issues in co-existence between humans and animals. Anthropocentric practices, actions, attitudes and worldviews are causing increasing worry, especially in the case of wildlife tourism. The worry stems from human interference on non-human, non-domesticated animals specifically in the form of supporting unethical wildlife tourism attractions where the fair treatment of animals is poor or non-existent. Not only are animal welfare issues the topic of concern in terms of co-existence but so is the severe crisis of biodiversity loss leading to ecosystem extinction and worst-case scenario, the permanent disappearance of life on Earth, unless transformative change is implemented in every aspect of decision making by humans.

To understand such matters from the perspective of others, the attitudes and worldviews of travelers were studied and qualitative research was conducted. An extensive amount of secondary data in the form of books, journals, and articles were gathered to compose background information. Primary data was implemented with semi-structured interviews in which five respondents participated. Color coding and constant comparison were implemented as a method of analysis of the primary data.

With the division into three themes, the results of the semi-structured interviews were presented. The results indicated the complexity of categorizing one into a specific attitude or worldview but rather possessing a mixture of many. Education and awareness sharing were found crucial to enable co-existence, especially on behalf of the tourism industry. Based on the data gathered, both primary and secondary, vulnerable storytelling was presented as an option of transformative change to preserve biodiversity and enable humans and animals to co-exist on Earth.