Experiential and learning desires of whalewatching operators versus tourists

There is little inquiry into the experiences and education whale watching operators desire to deliver to their passengers. In Bahía de Banderas, México, we used quantitative and qualitative methods to compare what operators... [ view full abstract ]

There is little inquiry into the experiences and education whale watching operators desire to deliver to their passengers. In Bahía de Banderas, México, we used quantitative and qualitative methods to compare what operators feel is important their passengers experience and learn to that which passengers feel is important. We also collected passenger satisfaction data and comments, in order to examine whether the operators were successful. We first asked operators (n=9) and passengers (n=347) the importance of 14 items regarding the whale watching experience; the items included seven experiential (e.g. “see a whale,” “take pictures of whales”) and seven learning items (e.g. “learn about whale biology,” learn about protection of whales”). Passengers placed statistically higher importance on two experiential items, while operators indicated statistically higher importance for four learning items. Importance-performance (i.e. satisfaction) analysis indicated a similar trend, where passengers indicated a statistically higher satisfaction for two experiential items than the importance placed upon them by the operators, while the operators placed a statistically higher importance on three learning items than the satisfaction indicted for them by the passengers. For the qualitative portion we asked the operators two open-ended questions: “What do you want your passengers to experience?”, and “What do you want your passengers to learn?”, and the passengers four questions: “What did you like?”, “What did you dislike?”, “What did you learn about?”, and “What would you have liked to learn about?” Answers were sorted into themes and expressions using key word and word repetition techniques. With respect to the experiential, operators’ desires tended toward delivery of emotional experiences, rather than service; for learning, operators desired passengers learn about respect and conservation of whales. Passengers were most pleased with the act of seeing whales; they reported learning about whale behaviours, not conservation, although a portion of the respondents indicated they would have like to. The results of this mixed method approach should help operators to better understand their passengers and develop interpretive programs that incorporate opportunities to instil the emotional responses and learning outcomes they desire, deliverables that more effectively fulfil the aims of ecotourism.