Experiential and Learning Desires of Whale Watching Guides Versus Tourists in Bahía de Banderas, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

ABSTRACT

Whales are popular tourism attractions in many coastal areas of the world. Although not without disagreement, vessel-based whale viewing is widely considered to be a form of ecotourism, in which experiential and learning opportunities exist to engender pro-environmental awareness and behavior. Guides are considered to play an important interpretive role in this respect, although there is little research that explores what guides themselves desire to impart to their passengers. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we compared what whale watching guides in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (n = 9) desire their passengers experience and learn to that reported by the whale watchers themselves (n = 283). Guides placed a higher importance on education, while whale watchers indicated experiential elements such as viewing whales close up and spectacular behaviors. Furthermore, the guides held a strong view that emotional feelings of respect and love for whales were important for whale watchers to experience and learn about marine conservation.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation
• education
• emotions
• guides
• whale watching

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the whale watching companies, guides, and whale watchers that participated in this study. R. Moore, Brandon University, and numerous students at the Universidad de Gudalajara, Centro Univerisitario de la Costa, Puerto Vallarta, helped with data collection. Cartography was provided by W. van Heyst, Department of Geography, Brandon University. Funding for this project was provided by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Aid to Small Universities grant.