Search Help Show/Hide Menu
Summary
Item Identification
Keywords
Physical Location
Support Roles
Extents
Access Info
Data Quality
Child Items
Catalog Details

Summary

Description

Background: The practice of viewing animals in captivity is losing popularity among tourists, who would rather observe wildlife in their natural environments. A laudable sustainability goal is to provide enjoyable viewing possibilities while also protecting wildlife. Focus of the Article: This study contrasted a social marketing campaign that promoted replacement behaviors to regulatory signage in persuading individuals to respect the viewing distance guideline for Hawaiian green sea turtles. The characteristics of one of the study sites also offered the opportunity to study the impacts of symbolic barriers and enforcement from authority-like figures on people's compliance. Research Question: The study addresses three research questions: (1) Can a social marketing-based approach encourage respectful wildlife viewing? (2) How does the approach compare to one providing simplistic information about the behavior and associated laws? (3) How do symbolic barriers and enforcement by authority-like figures add impact to influencing respectful wildlife viewing? Program Design/Approach: The Amazing from Afar campaign was designed with insights from federal natural resource managers, existing literature on tourists' psychology and goals, and key informant interviews with local residents. The campaign promoted replacement behaviors of taking forced perspective photos of sea turtles and was evaluated alongside other techniques to encourage respectful viewing. Importance to the Social Marketing Field: This article demonstrates the added impact on people's adherence to wildlife viewing distances achievable through social marketing relative to stating rules/laws and putting up symbolic barriers. Plus, it illustrates how symbolic barriers and enforcement can enhance impact. Methods: Research took place over two studies on Oahu (n = 1,437) and the Island of Hawaii (n = 10,217) using a quasi-experimental design where the control conditions reflected existing efforts at the site. Using naturalistic observation, we categorized and counted people at various distances from basking sea turtles before and during the social marketing campaign. Results: Findings showed regulatory information signs located near the sea turtles positively impacted people's compliance with the viewing distance guideline, and the social marketing campaign improved compliance even further. The symbolic barrier could help or hurt compliance depending on how close sea turtles got to its edges, but compliance was over 90% with the social marketing campaign in place. Recommendations: Natural resource managers and conservationists should carefully consider how regulations/enforcement, environmental design, and marketing can work together to achieve wildlife protection while preserving fulfilling viewing opportunities. Limitations: The field research relying on observations of people's behavior did not allow for assurances of exposure to signage, and in some cases, the symbolic barriers could have been overlooked as well. Instead, there could have been descriptive normative cues from others as it was common for multiple parties to be viewing at once.

Contact Information

Point of Contact
Justin D Hospital
justin.hospital@noaa.gov
(808)725-5399

Metadata Contact
Justin D Hospital
justin.hospital@noaa.gov
(808)725-5399

Extents

Time Frame 1
2020-03-04 - 2020-03-21

Item Identification

Title: Encouraging Respectful Wildlife Viewing Among Tourists: Roles for Social Marketing, Regulatory Information, Symbolic Barriers, and Enforcement
Status: In Work
Abstract:

Background: The practice of viewing animals in captivity is losing popularity among tourists, who would rather observe wildlife in their natural environments. A laudable sustainability goal is to provide enjoyable viewing possibilities while also protecting wildlife. Focus of the Article: This study contrasted a social marketing campaign that promoted replacement behaviors to regulatory signage in persuading individuals to respect the viewing distance guideline for Hawaiian green sea turtles. The characteristics of one of the study sites also offered the opportunity to study the impacts of symbolic barriers and enforcement from authority-like figures on people's compliance. Research Question: The study addresses three research questions: (1) Can a social marketing-based approach encourage respectful wildlife viewing? (2) How does the approach compare to one providing simplistic information about the behavior and associated laws? (3) How do symbolic barriers and enforcement by authority-like figures add impact to influencing respectful wildlife viewing? Program Design/Approach: The Amazing from Afar campaign was designed with insights from federal natural resource managers, existing literature on tourists' psychology and goals, and key informant interviews with local residents. The campaign promoted replacement behaviors of taking forced perspective photos of sea turtles and was evaluated alongside other techniques to encourage respectful viewing. Importance to the Social Marketing Field: This article demonstrates the added impact on people's adherence to wildlife viewing distances achievable through social marketing relative to stating rules/laws and putting up symbolic barriers. Plus, it illustrates how symbolic barriers and enforcement can enhance impact. Methods: Research took place over two studies on Oahu (n = 1,437) and the Island of Hawaii (n = 10,217) using a quasi-experimental design where the control conditions reflected existing efforts at the site. Using naturalistic observation, we categorized and counted people at various distances from basking sea turtles before and during the social marketing campaign. Results: Findings showed regulatory information signs located near the sea turtles positively impacted people's compliance with the viewing distance guideline, and the social marketing campaign improved compliance even further. The symbolic barrier could help or hurt compliance depending on how close sea turtles got to its edges, but compliance was over 90% with the social marketing campaign in place. Recommendations: Natural resource managers and conservationists should carefully consider how regulations/enforcement, environmental design, and marketing can work together to achieve wildlife protection while preserving fulfilling viewing opportunities. Limitations: The field research relying on observations of people's behavior did not allow for assurances of exposure to signage, and in some cases, the symbolic barriers could have been overlooked as well. Instead, there could have been descriptive normative cues from others as it was common for multiple parties to be viewing at once.

Keywords

Theme Keywords

Thesaurus Keyword
UNCONTROLLED
None behavior change
None conservation marketing
None green sea turtle
None natural resource management
None replacement behaviors
None wildlife tourism

Physical Location

Organization: Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
City: Honolulu
State/Province: HI
Country: USA

Support Roles

Data Steward

CC ID: 1199245
Date Effective From: 2023
Date Effective To:
Contact (Person): Leong, Kirsten M
Address: 1845 Wasp Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 96818
USA
Email Address: kirsten.leong@noaa.gov
Phone: (808)725-5398

Distributor

CC ID: 1199246
Date Effective From: 2023
Date Effective To:
Contact (Organization): Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC)
Address: 1845 Wasp Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 96818
USA
Email Address: pifsc.info@noaa.gov
Phone: 808-725-5360
URL: https://www.pifsc.noaa.gov
Business Hours: 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Contact Instructions:

email Justin.Hospital@noaa.gov

Metadata Contact

CC ID: 1199247
Date Effective From: 2023
Date Effective To:
Contact (Person): Hospital, Justin D
Address: 1845 Wasp Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 96818
USA
Email Address: justin.hospital@noaa.gov
Phone: (808)725-5399

Point of Contact

CC ID: 1199248
Date Effective From: 2023
Date Effective To:
Contact (Person): Hospital, Justin D
Address: 1845 Wasp Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 96818
USA
Email Address: justin.hospital@noaa.gov
Phone: (808)725-5399

Extents

Extent Group 1

Extent Description:

Alii Beach, Oahu Island

Extent Group 1 / Time Frame 1

CC ID: 1203964
Time Frame Type: Range
Start: 2020-03-04
End: 2020-03-21

Extent Group 2

Extent Description:

Punaluu Beach, Hawaii Island

Extent Group 2 / Time Frame 1

CC ID: 1203965
Time Frame Type: Range
Start: 2021-11-22
End: 2021-12-28

Access Information

Security Class: Unclassified
Data Access Policy:

see manuscript for links to data utilized in analysis

Data Access Procedure:

see dataset for access to data

Data Access Constraints:

see dataset for access to data

Data Use Constraints:

see dataset for access to data

Data Quality

Representativeness:

We collected primary data through observations of people's interactions on beaches with basking sea turtles. Behavior of all individuals within 25 feet of turtles during the observation period were recorded.

Accuracy:

not applicable

Analytical Accuracy:

not applicable

Horizontal Positional Accuracy:

not applicable

Vertical Positional Accuracy:

not applicable

Quantitation Limits:

not applicable

Bias:

not applicable

Comparability:

not applicable

Completeness Measure:

not applicable

Precision:

not applicable

Analytical Precision:

not applicable

Field Precision:

not applicable

Sensitivity:

not applicable

Detection Limit:

not applicable

Completeness Report:

not applicable

Conceptual Consistency:

not applicable

Quality Control Procedures Employed:

multiple observers recorded data and were trained on protocols and inter-observer reliability

Catalog Details

Catalog Item ID: 68859
GUID: gov.noaa.nmfs.inport:68859
Metadata Record Created By: Kirsten M Leong
Metadata Record Created: 2022-12-19 22:26+0000
Metadata Record Last Modified By: Kirsten M Leong
Metadata Record Last Modified: 2023-01-17 19:12+0000
Metadata Record Published: 2023-01-17
Owner Org: PIFSC
Metadata Publication Status: Published Externally
Do Not Publish?: N
Metadata Last Review Date: 2023-01-13
Metadata Review Frequency: 1 Year
Metadata Next Review Date: 2024-01-13