Aligning tourist, industry and government expectations: A case study from the swim with whales industry in Tonga

Megan Kessler and Robert Harcourt

Marine Policy, 2010, vol. 34, issue 6, 1350-1356

Abstract: Swimming with humpback whales in the Kingdom of Tonga is a growing industry that provides important revenue for a small Pacific Island economy. However the sustainability of this industry has been questioned due to its potential impact on the animals involved. The activity focuses on an 'endangered' subpopulation of humpback whales, with swimming occurring in the breeding area primarily with groups of animals containing young calves. This paper examines the relationship between the existing Tongan Government draft regulations and Tonga Whale Watching Operator Association guidelines that control the industry and visitor expectations about the management of the activity. There is significant support from visitors for strong, easy to understand and enforceable regulations governing the swim with whales industry. There is a clear correlation between current moves to strengthen Government regulations and the expectation from visitors that their activity is, and will be, conducted in a sustainable manner. The study recommends that to ensure compliance with regulations, appropriate management fees should be charged, visitors should be engaged in environmental education activities and further research should be conducted on the impacts of swimming with humpback whales.

Keywords: Swim; with; whales; Policy; development; Tonga; Tourist; expectations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308-597X(10)00114-4
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:marpol:v:34:y:2010:i:6:p:1350-1356

Access Statistics for this article

Marine Policy is currently edited by Eddie Brown

More articles in Marine Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().