Resources

RESOURCES


RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Julia N. Albrecht & Trisha Dwyer
School/Work Place : University of Otago, New Zealand & Department of Conservation, New Zealand
Contact : julia.albrecht@otago.ac.nz
Year : 2015

Scholarship on guiding and interpretation positions formal training as a central factor in guide instruction. Guide training operates in the area that mediates between personal characteristics, attitudes and knowledge of the guides and what may be desirable qualities from the visitors’ perspectives. Notably, this dichotomy is not necessarily reflected in the formal guide training provided by industry associations, tertiary education institutions and tour operating companies. Generally, the focus in training for guiding and interpretation is on knowledge of the tour content, communication skills, delivery of presentations, customer service skills, group management, and health and safety. Competency in particular skills such as climbing or kayaking may be required for adventure tourism guides. Certificates thus earned may be a requirement for future employment as a guide. The underlying assumption of these training approaches is that they are conducive to guide learning. Little is known about how guides actually acquire knowledge and develop their skills in guiding and interpretation over time. This paper departs from the assumption that training has a vital impact on guide development and instead posits lifelong learning as the most significant formative influence on guides. Studies on guiding have to date overlooked the importance of informal learning and its potentially influential role in professional development. This paper, based on primary empirical research on guides’ perspectives on the interpretation of indigenous cultural heritage, argues that lifelong learning is more formative than formal guide training and related education. Life experience and prior learning of both indigenous and non-indigenous guides inform and influence their performance. In addition to the empirical findings, the discussion in this paper is based on a review of the relevant literatures on guiding, interpretation, and learning in the context of tourism.


List of Articles
No. Subject Viewssort Date
42 Think Tank VII Innovative Technologies in Travel and Tourism - Toward... file 5400 Oct 13, 2013

While it seems to be gradually dawning on humankind that the quality of our lives and (in extremis)survival of our and subsequent generations will depend to a significant extent on our ability and willingness to make urgent and significant ...

Author: Ivo Martinac 

Year: 2007 

41 Think Tank XIV The Prospects for Sustainable Tourism in Vanuatu in th... file 5382 Jun 26, 2014

This paper explores the feasibility for Vanuatu of implementing several key international recommendations for policy-makers for the sustainable development (SD) of national tourism sectors (UNEP-WTO, 2005). It shows that the remarkable fragm...

Author: Valentina Dinica 

Year: 2014 

40 Think Tank VIII Tourism Professionals’ Attitudes towards Climate Chang... file 5364 Oct 13, 2013

This paper discusses three aspects of the interrelationship between tourism and climate change: the perception of the problems related to global warming by tourism professionals, their suggestions concerning possible actions that can be tak...

Author: Xavier Matteucci & Dagmar Lund-Durlacher 

Year: 2008 

39 Think Tank XII Mobile Learning for Sustainable Tourism Development: T... file 5364 Nov 06, 2013

This paper examines how mobility in higher tourism education may contribute to a dynamic leaning environment capable of integrating transnational and intercultural learning for sustainable tourism development. Central to this is the opening ...

Author: Janne J. Liburd 

Year: 2012 

38 Think Tank XIII City Slicker to Roo Carer: The Journey of a Wildlife V... file 5257 Nov 06, 2013

The level of interest and participation in voluntourism has progressively become a major sector in contemporary tourism. The notion of combining a novel and pleasurable tourism experience with the fulfillment of contributing a worthwhile cau...

Author: Eunice Tan 

Year: 2013 

37 Think Tank XV Social Representations of Tourist Selfies: New Challen... file 5183 Jul 27, 2015

A number of recent incidents have focussed media attention on the phenomenon of tourist selfies, described their negative consequences for tourist destinations and identified a number of challenges for tourist site managers. This paper repor...

Author: John Pearce & Gianna Moscardo 

Year: 2015 

36 Think Tank VIII A Framework for Work-Life Balance Practices in the Tou... file 5121 Oct 13, 2013

This paper addresses the key issues surrounding the debate over work-life balance. It provides an overview of current thinking in the general work environment, with specific focus on the issue within the tourism industry. This paper present...

Author: Margaret Deery & Leo Jago 

Year: 2008 

OPA: 2008 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

35 Think Tank XV Perceptions of local communities participation in rura... file 5118 Jul 27, 2015

In order to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs, rural communities should be able to participate actively in all aspects of tourism, including planning and management. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the local communit...

Author: Limpho Lekaota & Jarkko Saarined 

Year: 2015 

34 Think Tank IV Tourism focused NGO's - An Online Content Analysis file 5105 Oct 13, 2013

The number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) increased from 31,246 to 37,281 (19.3%) between 1990 and 2000, (Human Development Report, 2002). The importance of NGOs is documented in United Nations Local Agenda 21 Chapter 27, 'Strength...

Author: Meng-Mei Chen & James Holleran 

Year: 2004 

33 Think Tank XIV Sustainability and the Politics of Place in Resort Des... file 5028 Jun 26, 2014

The nature of a resort will reflect the varying coalitions, partnerships and discourses that emerge from the relative power of actors within the dominant political regime (Gill 2007). In this paper we examine the evolving discourse around th...

Author: Alison M. Gill & Peter W. Williams 

Year: 2014 

32 Think Tank XIV Stakeholder Collaboration and Contestation in Tourism ... file 4956 Jun 26, 2014

Since Timor-Leste gained its independence in 2002, tourism has been promoted by both government and NGOs as a means to create jobs, build businesses, create income for national and local economics and improve regional economic imbalances (Ti...

Author: Sara Currie & Lindsay Turner 

Year: 2014 

31 Think Tank XIV Influence of Assets and Capital Structure on the Perfo... file 4943 Jun 26, 2014

The global economic and financial crisis could be seen as old news according to the UNWTO’s data on international tourist arrivals. Europe recorded a solid 5% growth in 2013, and Mediterranean countries performed even better with 6% growth i...

Author: Kir Kuščer & Domen Trobec 

Year: 2014 

30 Think Tank XII Slow Travellers - Who Are They, and What Motivates Them? file 4913 Nov 06, 2013

Tourism’s contribution to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is estimated to be around 5% and is forecast to grow rapidly, to around 16% of global emissions by 2020. Future strategies for mitigation must address the levels of demand for t...

Author: Derek Robbins & Jaedong Cho 

Year: 2012 

OPA: 2012 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

29 Think Tank XII Unsustainable Travel Development: The Case of Aviation... file 4779 Nov 06, 2013

Considering the apparent importance of low-cost aviation, and its dramatic development, there is remarkably little research done about its consequences on European mobility. A few studies have mapped the development of networks (cf. Dobruszk...

Author: Jan Henrik Nilsson 

Year: 2012 

28 Think Tank XV Conserving biodiversity as tourism (including wildlife... 4749 Jul 27, 2015

Governments throughout Australia and elsewhere recognise that tourism is an important sector of the economy, and are encouraging its growth in a variety of ways, some more environmentally sound than others. This papers presents not the resul...

Author: Ronda J Green 

Year: 2015 

27 Think Tank IV Environmental Attitudes of Tourism Activity Providers ... file 4712 Oct 13, 2013

This paper looks at the issue of environmental awareness and the related topic of 'ecolabels' in a New Zealand context, adopting a supplier's perspective to gain a greater insight into the attitudes of those managing and providing tourism pr...

Author: Christian Schott 

Year: 2004 

26 Think Tank XIV Welcoming Chinese Visitors and the Easternization of t... file 4673 Jun 26, 2014

Tourism academics, practitioners, governments and agencies around the world are in general agreement about the future of tourism in what commentators have tagged The Asian Century. Assuming demographic and economic conditions persist, the in...

Author: Patricia C. Johnson 

Year: 2014 

25 Think Tank XII Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation of Tourism Flows:... file 4649 Nov 06, 2013

The aim of this working paper is to demonstrate an interactive, real-time, transparent and dynamic approach to modelling tourism mobilities using agent-based simulation models [ABM]. ABM has previously been employed in studying organizationa...

Author: Jack Carlsen & Scott Heckbert 

Year: 2012 

24 Think Tank VII Social Responsibility and Innovation on Trafficking an... file 4538 Oct 13, 2013

Ethical questions related to globalization, human rights, unfair labor practices and trans-boundary exchanges of capital and work force create ever more complex challenges for the tourism sustainability agenda. In recent years, the tourism i...

Author: Camelia Tepelus 

Year: 2007 

23 Think Tank V An Economic Explanation of the Net Benefits of Tourism... file 4524 Oct 13, 2013

International tourism is increasingly viewed as one of the best opportunities for a sustainable economic and social development of developing countries. There is also an increasing concern from public policy makers as to whether mass tourism...

Author: Mondher Sahli & Jean-Jacques Nowak 

Year: 2005 

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