Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2007. Sectio Scientarium Economicarum et Socialium. (Acta Academiae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 34)

Chambliss Karen-Slotkin Michael H.-Vámosi Alexander R.: A 'javító' fenntarthatóság a'steady-state' fenntarthatóság és a strukturált ökoturizmus

28 Chambliss Karen -Slotkin Michael H.-Vámosi Alexander R. The SCBWF has evolved into an ecotourist attraction of international note due to the reputation and cache of the interpreters, appealing to the structured ecotourists' desire for service and mediation. This essay now concludes with an examination of three proposals to extend the emerging literature on structured ecotourism. 4. Research Prospectus This section broadly outlines some proposed research extensions based on WL and an article written by Singh et al. (forthcoming) on environmental advocacy and sustainability. Two of these initiatives are intended to validate, from supply-side and demand-side perspectives, the ecotourist typologies established by WL. The objective of the third study is to uncover behavioral differences related to environmental advocacy and enhancive sustainability, among these clusters. The latter study will also fully integrate, for the first time, the elements of the Tourism Triple-E into its modeling framework. 4.1 Extension 1: A Case Study of Structured Ecotourism Events Because of its unique geographical location in the southernmost part of the eastern United States, Florida is endowed with the only tropical habitat (the Everglades) on the North American Continent. Florida's diverse habitats and favorable climate, together with the confluence of two flyways, attract many species of birds and provide spectacular settings for staging ecotourism festivals and events. More than twenty bird, wildlife, and nature viewing celebrations [Slotkin and Vamosi (2006)] combine the elements of the Tourism Triple-E (previously described) to attract ecotourists to their host communities and promote environmental sustainability. The relative newness of these festivals provides an ideal opportunity to study the ecotourism typologies identified by WL from a supply-side point of view. The first study in the proposed agenda is to develop a case analysis centered on at least four BWFs hosted in the State of Florida. The purpose of the study would be to validate, from the supply-side, the existence of a structured ecotourism market, and to test the thesis that nature-based festivals and events reflect a market-driven response to the structured ecotourist typology. Each festival will be evaluated with respect to the 10 criteria listed by WL (see Figure 1). The information will be gathered using closed end Likert-scaled survey items, in conjunction with extensive interviews with festival organizers. In choosing the events to investigate, consideration will be given to the strategic mission advanced by the festival's organizers. Doing so would provide an additional dimension on which to evaluate the festivals, thereby increasing the likelihood of reaching generalizable conclusions. The objective is to determine whether strategic missions manifest into significant differences in the types of activities and services offered at these festivals. We expect that they do. The relevance of strategic mission is highlighted in a case analysis written by Chambliss et al. (2002), which compares economic performance and management