The Impacts of Climate Change Interpretation on Leisure Experiences: A Lab-based Experimental Design Approach

• Author / Creator

  Mu He

• Rapid environmental changes caused by climate change have challenged commercial tourism operators working in sensitive alpine environments. Evidence of climate change at these sites also provides an opportunity for operators to offer interpretive programs on this subject as part of their tours. However, there is a perceived risk in doing this, as the impacts of climate change interpretation on visitors’ leisure experiences are unknown. Using a commercial snocoach tour at the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park as a study setting, this lab-based experiment compared the leisure experiences of an experimental group of young adults exposed to climate change information during the interpretive program to participants of a control group who did not receive this information as part of their simulated tour. All other aspects of the simulated tour were identical. Results indicated that incorporating a climate change interpretation had a significantly positive impact on visitors’ overall satisfaction and on the education dimension of the leisure experience. No significant negative impacts were found in terms of the other three individual dimensions of leisure experiences (i.e., entertainment, escapism, and aesthetics). These findings provide positive signals for tourism operators who may be concerned about the risks of introducing an environmental change component to their product for fear of eroding the leisure experience of their patrons. This study also contributes to tourism and leisure literature by adopting an experimental research design, which may prove useful in addressing similar types of research questions.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • climate change; interpretive program; leisure experience; experimental design

• Graduation date

  Fall 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-r24q-g398

• License

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