Birds, Beasts and Tourists: Human–Animal Relationships in Tourism

Kevin Markwell

Introduction

Animals (and the products derived from their bodies) are so much a part of our day-to-day lives that we often fail to register their presence, or, when we do, they are frequently relegated to the background. Regardless of whether we live in highly urbanised cities or rural villages, non-human animals co-habit these spaces with us. Some we regard as companions to be loved and cared for, inhabiting the intimate spaces of home, while others we construct as pests and try our best to exclude or even exterminate them from our domestic lives. Still others co-exist with us, sharing spaces and other resources, but not impacting on our own lives in any direct way.

Given the ubiquitous involvement of animals in our everyday lives, it should not be surprising that they inhabit tourism spaces and experiences in equally diverse arrangements. Animals contribute to tourism in multiple ways: as attractions in their own right – alive or dead, wild or captive; as forms of transportation; symbolically as destination icons; as travel companions; and as components of regional cuisine. Some, like leeches and flies, irritate us while we walk through forests admiring flamboyant butterflies and birds, while others, such as crocodiles and tigers, regard us as prey. Breaching humpback whales migrating along coastlines evoke feelings of awe and wonderment and sustain a rapidly expanding industry with substantial returns to regional economies, while the presence, real or imagined, of great white sharks can close beaches and damage the reputations of destinations. As will become evident, animals, whether invertebrate or vertebrate, cold-blooded or warm-blooded, friendly or otherwise, intersect with tourists and tourism in a multitude of diverse ways.

The ambition of this book, therefore, is to make a meaningful contribution to the growing body of knowledge concerning the relationships between animals, tourists and the tourism industry and to contribute to current debates about their involvement. By doing so I hope that the theoretically informed and empirically rich chapters that comprise the book will help to highlight key research questions and stimulate other researchers and students to reflect critically on the place of animals within tourism spaces, experiences, practices and structures. Given the numerous intersections between animals and tourism and the growing awareness more generally of issues relating to the use of animals, it is timely to consider critically our relations with animals within the domain of tourism.

The critical interrogation of human–animal relations more generally is the object of the emerging field of study known as human–animal studies or anthrozoology. This intellectually exciting field of inquiry examines the complex interrelationships between humans and animals constituted within the social and cultural worlds that they share with each other (DeMello, 2010; Shapiro, 2008). It seeks to reveal the diversity of relationships between humans and animals, the ways in which those relationships are changing and the meanings that are attached to those relationships. Human–animal studies questions our use of animals: as workers, performers and companions; as experimental subjects and as components of food; as living targets; and as subjects of art, literature and popular culture. It illuminates the contradictions, inconsistencies and ambiguities that characterise our relations with animals and highlights the implications these have for animal welfare, wildlife conservation, food security and public health (Bulliet, 2005; DeMello, 2010; Fennell, 2012; Franklin, 1999; Herzog, 2010). This scholarship challenges us to create more ethical and sustainable ways of living with, and among, animals.

Contemporary human–animal studies scholarship provides new insights into the ambiguous and multifaceted relationships that exist between humans and non-human animals – relationships that, as I mentioned previously, have tended to be taken for granted, backgrounded and not often subject to critical analysis. This is not to deny the rich scholarship that has already occurred and the field is indebted to the conceptual understandings revealed by scholars working in a range of disciplines such as anthropology, history, sociology, cultural studies, geography and psychology.

DeMello (2010) provides a detailed account of the emergence of human–animal studies and identifies key authors whose work has helped shape the field of study and the questions that it poses. These authors include John Berger (Why Look at Animals 1980) Yi-Fu Tuan (Dominance and Affection, The Making of Pets, 1984), James Serpell (In the Company of Animals, 1996), Harriet Ritvo (The Animal Estate, 1987) and Donna Haraway (Primate Visions: Gender, Race and Nature in the World of Modern Science, 1989). The 1980s appears to have been a particularly important decade for the publication of important books that helped build the foundations of human–animal relations. Other works of significance that followed included, among others, Steve Baker's Picturing the Beast: Animals, Identity and Representation (1993), Arnold Arluke and Clinton Sanders' Regarding Animals (1996), Jennifer Wolch and Jody Emel's edited collection, Animal Geographies: Place, Politics and Identity in the Nature–Culture Borderlands (1998), Adrian Franklin's Animals and Modern Cultures: A Sociology of Human–Animal Relations in Modernity (1999), Chris Philo and Chris Wilbert's edited collection, Animal Spaces, Beastly Places (2000) and Richard W. Bulliet's Hunters, Herders and Hamburgers: The Past and Future of Human–Animal Relationships (2005).

Over the past decade many more titles (and journal articles) have been published which continue to address questions arising from human–animal relations. Some of these have been targeted at more general readerships reflecting the rapidly growing interest in the topic outside academia. These include Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy (2010), Some We Love, Some We Hate and Some We Eat by Hal Herzog (2010) and, more specifically related to tourism, Wild Ones by Jon Mooallem (2013). Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006) and Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals (2009) have done much to encourage people to think more critically about the food choices they make and the implications of these to the ways we treat animals. It is clear then from these lists of publications that the field of human–animal studies is attracting greater levels of attention from scholars working in a diverse range of disciplinary areas and fields of study. One of these is the field of tourism studies and the following section will provide a brief overview of work that has been conducted on the intersections of tourism and animals.

Human–Animal Relationships in Tourism

Cohen (2009) argues that tourism is an ideal context for the exploration of human–animal relationships because of the opportunities it affords for various forms of interaction, such as viewing, hunting, fishing, playing and, indeed, eating. However, Cohen's attention is directed primarily at wildlife tourism where, admittedly, much of the human–animal interaction in tourism occurs. But tourism, as a system of representations and organised and embodied social and economic practices, intersects with animals in a diversity of ways beyond their role as attractions. As Fennell (2012) makes clear, the involvement of animals in tourism includes their role in transportation and gastronomy and as hazards to be avoided or managed. Animals feature in the travel narratives that excite our imaginations and help create the desire to visit places where we might see them at first hand; some become icons that contribute to the creation of place identity and help to market destinations and, for others, their bodies are manufactured into tourist souvenirs. Surely, one of the most successful and most popular animal icons in tourism marketing must be Mickey Mouse, who continues to play a major role in the global popularity of Disneyland Park and Walt Disney World (Figure 1.1).

While the focus of this book is on the intersections of animals in contemporary tourism forms and practices, animals have been involved in recreational travel in one way or another since its earliest beginnings in ancient civilisations. Travel across long distances was complicated not only by the presence of thieves and thugs but also, in some places, by dangerous animals. Beasts of burden such as donkeys, oxen, horses and camels transported goods and wealthier travellers. Ancient Romans took pet birds such as exotic parrots with them when they travelled (Johnson, pers. comm, 2014) and no doubt dogs were included in some travel parties for companionship and as protection against dangerous animals and thieves. However, it is the incorporation of animals into the spectacles of death that took place in the ancient Roman arenas that has attracted most attention from scholars. While there does not appear to be any evidence that the Romans enjoyed viewing animals in their own habitats and for their own sake, their collective gaze was, instead, directed towards the bloody performances in the arenas. As Kalof (2007: 27) observed, 'for more than 450 years ... the public slaughter of animals (and humans) was a celebrated form of Roman entertainment'. Public displays of exotic animals in menageries and 'zoos' occurred in ancient Egypt and Greece (Kalof, 2007) and in Rome (Kalof, 2007; Kyle, 1998).

Research into contemporary forms of human–animal interactions in tourism has tended to focus on (live) animals as attractions and much of the initial research attention was aimed at understanding the impacts of tourism on certain species. The literature concerning the ecological impacts of tourism on animals and their habitats (principally through wildlife tourism) emerged in the late 1970s, corresponding broadly with Jafari's (2001) 'cautionary platform'. The bulk of this early research, which embraced recreational and tourism impacts, was not undertaken by social scientists, understandably, but by ecologists, who began to observe that the consequences of persistent encounters with wildlife through tourism and recreation activities could have adverse effects on the ecology and behaviour of certain species. Over the course of the past 40 years or so a considerable body of literature has been built up on a diverse range of taxa including cetaceans (whales and dolphins) (see, for example, Christiansen et al., 2010; Lusseau & Higham, 2004; Orams, 2000) nesting seabirds (Burger & Gochfield, 1993; Fowler, 1999; McClung et al., 2004) and marine turtles (Jacobson & Lopez, 1994; Johnson et al., 1996), great white sharks (Laroche et al., 2007), gorilla (Muyambi, 2005) and Komodo dragons (Walpole, 2001).

The research effort across taxa is far from even, however, and there are substantial difficulties in undertaking field-based studies on the effects of tourism on many species, particularly if they are relatively small and occur in fewer numbers. As can be seen from the small sample of research given above, studies have tended to be made on species that are relatively large, readily observable and/or occur in reasonably large numbers. Elucidating the factors affecting individuals and populations of animals that derive from tourism and not from other ecosystem influences is challenging and it is usually difficult if not impossible to control for these other variables in field-based projects. Funding opportunities for this kind of research are usually limited and the meagre funds that are available tend to be targeted at those species that demonstrate high economic value. The findings of ecological, behavioural and physiological research are crucial, however, if the negative effects of tourism are to be understood and managed.

Appropriate management of tourist–animal interactions depends not just on understanding the effects of tourism on the animal species but also, just as critically, understanding the human dimension of those interactions. Over the past couple of decades a considerable body of social science research has accumulated that examines the experiences of tourists encountering animals. Given that much of the most obvious interaction takes place within wildlife tourism, it is not surprising that a very strong theme has focused on wildlife-based tourism, with several books and hundreds of journal articles published (see, for example, Higginbottom, 2004; Newsome et al., 2005; Shackley, 1996). An important sub-theme of this scholarship has focused specifically on the display of captive animals as visitor attractions. This research on wildlife tourism including captive displays, feeding wildlife and educational outcomes constitutes the bulk of literature dealing with tourism–animal relationships. Indeed, in a special issue on animals in the tourism and leisure experience of the journal, Current Issues in Tourism (edited by Neil Carr, 2009), two-thirds of the articles were about some form of wildlife tourism. The remaining articles concerned hunting and angling, which comprise another theme within the tourism–animal literature that is slowly growing in terms of the number of publications (see, for instance, Brent Lovelock's Tourism and the Consumption of Wildlife, 2008). The final coherent, although not yet well developed, theme that I can discern in the literature concerns the ethics of using animals in tourism. David Fennell's seminal Tourism and Animal Ethics (2012) gives a comprehensive overview of the research that has been undertaken both outside and within tourism studies.

A Model of Tourism–Animal Relationships

Figure 1.2 depicts a model of tourism–animal relationships. It is organised, following Leiper (2004), spatiotemporally into the tourist-generating region (TGR), tourist transit region (TTR) and the tourist destination region (TDR). These regions broadly correspond with the constituent phases of the tourist experience: pre-travel decision making; travel to destination; at-destination experiences; and post-travel remembering, and feeds into the decision-making process for forthcoming trips.

Tourist generating region: Pre-departure

During the pre-travel phase in the TGR, prospective tourists engage in decision-making behaviours concerning their forthcoming holiday. Animals become involved in this phase mostly, but not only, through their representations in literature and the media. Popular culture such as fiction and non-fiction books and magazines, travelogues, television programmes and Web 2.0 forms such as blogs, postings on social media and photo- and video-sharing platforms are important ways by which animals enter into the tourist's imagination and influence decisions about where to travel and what to see and experience. Indeed, the title of this chapter is derived from the title of one of the books by British naturalist, Gerald Durrell, Birds, Beasts and Relatives, which humorously recounts his idyllic childhood on the Greek island of Corfu. Durrell's immensely popular books – about his childhood in Corfu, his adventures capturing animals for zoos in Africa and South America and his later books on his own zoo on Jersey – motivated many to travel to seek their own adventures with wildlife. His books on Corfu were so popular that they are regarded as being a factor in increasing tourism to the island – something that the author apparently 'deeply regretted' (Horrocks, 2012, np).

These representations of animals, whether textual or visual, not only fuel our desire to see these animals 'for real', but they also powerfully shape our constructions and understandings of them. As Baker (1993) has argued, our understandings of animals are moulded largely by cultural representations of them and many of us unselfconsciously pack these understandings with us when we travel in search of them. For those of my generation, our childhood understandings of dolphins were constructed through watching Flipper, chimpanzees through The Hathaways and, as an Australian, my early understandings of kangaroos came from the television series Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo. Shot though lenses smeared with an anthropomorphic gel, these television programmes accentuated the human-ness of these animals which appeared to live happy and contented lives intertwined with the lives of humans. The programmes represented close, friendly relationships between the animals and their human best friends. It is no surprise then that many of us yearn for these innocent, friendly, close-up encounters with wild animals when we travel.