Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Understanding Risk Perception and Behavior Related to 
Negative Wildlife Encounters: Some Empirical Evidence
The previous reviews and the exploratory critical incidents study have suggested a
number of factors related to negative wildlife tourist encounters that are worthy of
research attention. In order to explore some of these issues one of the authors con-
ducted a survey of visitors to the North Queensland region focusing on their per-
ceptions of threatening and attractive wildlife species, the risks they associated
with these species, and the impacts of their awareness of these species on their
travel behaviors and decisions. The North Queensland region is a major destina-
tion for both domestic and international visitors in Australia. In particular it relies
heavily on its natural environments, including the World Heritage listed Wet
Tropics Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef, to attract visitors.
Within these environments, the wildlife is a major component of the destina-
tion’s attractiveness for tourists. Surveys of visitors to the region have found that
more than 60% of tourists report that seeing wildlife is one of the factors in their
choice of the region as a holiday destination. These tourists also listed coral, fish,
turtles, and sharks as the wildlife they would most like to see on the Great Barrier
Reef and birds, kangaroos, crocodiles, butterflies, and cassowaries as the animals
they would most like to see in the Wet Tropics region (Galletly and Moscardo,
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2001; Moscardo, 2001). Some of these attractive species, such as crocodiles and
sharks, also pose a risk to tourist safety. In addition to the wildlife that attract vis-
itors to the region there are a number of other species which pose risks to tourists’
safety including marine jellyfish, especially the box jellyfish and Irukandji, ven-
omous snakes, and scrub ticks and the potential to contract dengue and Ross River
virus from mosquito bites.
A total of 382 usable questionnaires were completed by domestic and interna-
tional tourists to the region who were surveyed at a major tourist attraction and
transport node in the region. The sample was achieved with a response rate of 91%.
Table 3 summarizes the key sociodemographic and travel related characteristics of
the sample. As can be seen the majority of the tourists surveyed were international
visitors, with the majority (45%) in the 21 to 30 year age group. The majority
(72%) were on their first visit to the region and most were independent travelers.
This profile fits with available profiles of visitors to the region (Tourism
Queensland, 2003).
The first questions sought to determine awareness of dangerous or threatening
wildlife in the region and the attractiveness of seeing different wildlife species in
different settings. The answers to these questions are summarized in Table 4. These
responses confirm a number of features already identified. First, some wildlife
perceived as dangerous, particularly large predators, are also very attractive to vis-
itors, although this study shows that for some visitors these animals are attractive
only within the confines of a controlled tourist setting such as a zoo or aquarium.
Secondly, insects and rodents are seen as both dangerous and unattractive, thus
confirming previous studies of wildlife preferences. Thirdly, perceptions of which
animals are dangerous are not always accurate. The list of wildlife in the region
seen as dangerous includes animals such as the blue ringed octopus that are not
found in the region, as well as animals which do not generally pose much of a risk,
such as spiders and cassowaries. These inaccuracies are notable given that the
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