ABSTRACT
Wildlife tourism is well developed and accepted in Australia, and is regarded as an opportunity for both wildlife conservation and regional economic development. This research aims to explore the involvement of wildlife tourists in Dolphin Discovery Centre (DDC) Bunbury, West Australia. A variety of empirical quantitative analysis methods, including the construction of a measurement scale for place involvement, K-means cluster, independent sample t-test, ANOVA, and Scheffe’s post hoc test were used. The main findings for this research are taxonomies were proposed according to the cluster analysis: place involvement was divided into three categories according to its overall extent level with scale measurement: deep place involvement (DPI), medium place involvement, and shallow place involvement (SPI). It was found that nationality, age, and family background had significant difference on place involvement (p < 0.05), while gender, educational background did not (p < 0.05). Tourist behaviors, such as, length of stay, place consumption, source of information, travel companion, and satisfaction also had significant differences in involvement (p < 0.05).This research could provide the decision-making base for wildlife also. They could be applied to tourism destination marketing in DDC and might extend to other regions with similar situation.
“Non-consumptive wildlife tourism marks a clear shift from the traditional consumptive uses of wildlife resources.”
