#Wildlifeselfies: insights into the ocular consumption of marine wildlife

ABSTRACT

Wildlife tourism has experienced a shift from passive observations towards highly interactive encounters between tourists and wild animals. Tourist behaviour is influenced by the pursuit of ‘visual trophies’ for social media. More specifically, the ‘wildlife selfie’ phenomenon, which requires proximity to a plethora of animal species, may contribute to compromised tourist safety and harassment of wildlife. This paper explores the perceptions of swim-with wildlife tour participants regarding wildlife-focused user-generated content such as wildlife selfies in three different commercial encounter settings in the South Pacific. In-depth qualitative interviews and a thematic analysis of the data yielded two prominent themes: Tourists perceived human-wildlife interactions online as ‘a double-edged sword’, identifying animal welfare as a key concern. Such content was found to shape the decision-making processes of tourists and affected tourists’ perceptions, creating unrealistic expectations of wildlife encounters. Further, whale-swim participants were identified as non-selfie-takers/opponents, while seal swimmers and shark divers were somewhat supportive, actively participating in selfie-taking behaviour to provide proof to peers (‘to selfie or not to selfie’). Those findings indicate that a sound monitoring of the constructed human-wildlife relationship in the twenty-first-century media landscape with a focus on guidelines and regulations to ensure tourist safety and animal welfare is required.

KEYWORDS:

• Marine wildlife tourism
• swim-with programmes
• selfies
• user-generated content
• social media

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the participants in this research, the tour companies who provided access, and the governments of Niue and Fiji for granting permission to conduct local fieldwork. Special acknowledgements are also given to Professor Mark Orams for his guidance and advice as well as the reviewers for their valuable contributions to improve the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The first author would like to thank the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, for funding her studies through the Vice-Chancellor’s Doctoral Scholarship.

Notes on contributors

Chantal Denise Pagel

Chantal Denise Pagel is a graduate from Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, exploring commercial in-water interactions with marine wildlife in the South Pacific. While becoming a conservation biologist, Chantal has worked with sustainable wildlife watching since 2010, including the exploration of the global whale watching phenomenon and baseline research on the swim encounters with Norwegian killer whales. She is further providing advice and guidance on managing commercial swim-with programmes as a founding member of the responsible whale watching certification programme initiated by the World Cetacean Alliance.

Michael Lück

Michael Lück is a Professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. He is the founding co-chair of the International Coastal & Marine Tourism Society (ICMTS). Michael has more than ten years of work experience in the tourism industry, and his research interests include (marine) wildlife tourism, the cruise industry, ecotourism, interpretation, and education on wildlife tours, the impacts of tourism, and aviation. He has published in a number of international journals, is founding editor of the academic journal Tourism in Marine Environments, Associate Editor of the Journal of Ecotourism, and editorial board member of Marine Policy and Frontiers. Michael has edited or co-edited twelve volumes on ecotourism, marine and polar tourism, events, and low cost airlines, as well as the Encyclopedia of Tourism and Recreation in Marine Environments (CABI), and co-authored the introductory text Tourism (2nd ed., CABI).