Wildlife Tourism: Extending Post-Experience Conservation Engagement Through Interpretive Nonfiction Narratives
When complimented by effective interpretation, experiential wildlife tourism has been identified as a pathway to potentially transform tourists’ environmental knowledge and attitudes. However, such powerful engagement capacity is often diluted post-experience and the opportunity for its translation to behavioural change is lost. Utilising non-traditional forms of conservation-related messaging has the capacity to broaden the conservation potential of wildlife tourism by extending learning and prompting behavioural change. This paper explores the power of long-form nonfiction narratives to extend the learning from on-site interpretation and broaden conservation engagement. It is illustrated by the case study of collaboration between Dr Wong Siew Te, founder and Director of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, and Dr Sarah Pye’s author of nonfiction narratives based on Dr Wong’s experiences.
Keywords: wildlife tourism, nonfiction narratives, extending conservation, Dr Wong Siew Te, Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre