ABSTRACT
Ecotourism and the travel behaviors of ecotourists, as a means to support conservation initiatives, have been highly researched in tourism publications (Benson, 2005; Campion & Shrum, 2002). However, as Slocum and Kline (2015) point out, conservation researchers as a seed market to tourism have been scarcely examined. They theorize that scientific tourism has the potential to influence the course of tourism development. Researchers hold knowledge and power, and through these work-related visits, governments are encouraged to promote tourism as a park revenue stream. “[I]t is argued that scientists traveling to remote areas to undergo research-related projects are often a primary push in the development of tourism to an area” (Slocum & Kline, 2015, p. 36). However, the impacts they bring to residents in remote areas while traveling have seldom been investigated.
