Dr Po-Hsin Lai

While tensions between the sacred and the profane in tourism have been of long standing interest to tourism scholars, there is a dearth of literature on the growing influence of tourism on local residents¿ spirituality and religious practices in sacred landscapes. This paper examines how local residents¿ interpretations of sacred landscapes are influenced by tourism development, and whether tourism plays a role in influencing and reproducing sacred landscape and place-based spiritual values. This exploratory study is based on four months of fieldwork conducted in 2014 and 2015 in Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park in Nepal¿s Khumbu Region. Results of the 33 interviews conducted with ethnic Sherpa community indicate the Sherpa consider their homeland as a beyul (sacred, hidden valley), and its landscapes (i.e. mountains, forests and lakes) as the abode of local deities. Tourism¿s influence on local spiritual values is evident and reflected in changes in mountain deity worship, shift in human-environment relationship, and alterations in religious routines and practices. Although Sherpa still regard Khumbu as a sacred place and are actively involved in maintaining their spiritual values and cultural identity, the religious influence of beyul is slowly diminishing as reliance on tourism grows.

This study explores the representation that owners and managers of small tourism firms ascribe to their rural destination and how non-tourism induced changes interfere with this representation and motivate coping as guided by social representations theory. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-four owners and/or managers of at least one small accommodation property in Gloucester, New South Wales, Australia. The informants became involved in the area's accommodation sector primarily driven by the lifestyle goals embedded in their representation of Gloucester. The perception that mining-induced changes might transform Gloucester into a mining town as opposed to its current representation as a town with a mine has motivated many informants to cope. However, coping is impeded by feelings of powerlessness, perceived uncertainties, and distrust in both government and industry. The findings provide preliminary insight into why and how small tourism firm owners/managers cope when faced with change from the perspective of social representations.

Mountain destinations are often managed not only to support tourism and recreation but also to maintain a range of sensitive ecological processes and services. Resource use and management activities in mountain destinations are manifestations of various representations of mountain landscapes that may contribute to tension and conflicts, or collaboration and learning between stakeholders of mountain destinations. Adaptive co-management (ACM) that adopts a social learning model to forge collaborative natural resource management provides one approach to managing complex and dynamic social-ecological systems in mountain destinations. Social representations (SR) theory, as a theory of social knowledge and social change, offers one theoretical lens with which to gain insights into the representations that different stakeholders ascribe to mountain landscapes and to assist in developing functioning ACM. The utility of SR theory for ACM arrangements is examined using a case study that explores the representations of the mountain landscape within Yushan National Park (YNP) in Taiwan from the perspectives of three resource user groups: committed mountaineers, professional guides, and mountain tourists. The study findings are used to demonstrate how the processes of representations and dialogical antinomies embedded in representations can impede or facilitate stakeholder interactions in ACM.

Our study examined the representations of Yushan National Park from the perspectives of two tourism stakeholders, including an indigenous local community and the national park service. Social representations theory was applied to explore competing claims for a legitimate version of the park by each group. Additionally, the concept of territoriality was adopted to examine territorial expressions associated with the park and places therein. Sixteen community and twelve park service informants were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling. Both groups were found to converge in certain representations they ascribed to Yushan. More frequently, they were discordant in what consisted of its ideal image. Territorial strategies were employed by some informants to defend their ideal representation. Implications for collaborative partnerships are discussed. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

This paper examines local responses to potential ecotourism development in the Tawushan Nature Reserve located in southeastern Taiwan. Community attitude and intention toward four dimensions of ecotourism, including conservation of natural resources, preservation of cultural tradition, sustainable community development, and participation in ecotourism planning and management, were measured. Furthermore, the paper examines whether or not there is congruence between community attitude and intention toward ecotourism development. Analysis is based on data collected using face-to-face questionnaire interviews in two indigenous communities consisting primarily of the Paiwan ethnic group. The study findings show that local people hold generally positive views of the measures necessary to achieve ecotourism; however, their intentions to engage in behaviors to support these measures do not entirely match with their positive views. This suggests that while local residents may support ecotourism development based on international guidelines, their intentions to act will depend on local environmental, social, and politico-economic conditions. It is suggested that issues related to community empowerment, relationship between government and communities, value conflicts introduced by ecotourism development, and the dynamics among and between various community groups will need to be addressed if positive community intention to participate in ecotourism is to be encouraged. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The advance of Internet technology worldwide has contributed to the growing impacts of online marketing of ecotourism destinations. Despite much discussion devoted to defining ecotourism conceptually, knowledge regarding how ecotourism is actually practiced and how it is marketed through the Internet is still lacking. The purpose of this study was to address these issues by exploring how ecotourism is marketed through the Internet. A sample was selected from ecolodge operators listed on the website of The International Ecotourism Society. Content analysis was used to examine the online marketing information of these ecolodges. The study findings suggest that ecolodge operators sampled in this study provided a variety of ecotourism products to meet the diverse interests of the ecotourist market. The online marketing messages of these ecolodges also indicated that most of them only partially aligned with ecotourism principles. Recommendations are made regarding social marketing and ecolabelling for online ecotourism marketing to better shape tourist expectations, attitudes and behaviours in ways that support the sustainable practice professed as ecotourism. © 2005 P-H. Lai and S. Shafer.