Zoos and Tourism

Book excerpt: Zoos are important and popular tourist attractions. Spread around the world, they are typically located in major cities, with visitation levels comparable to other major attractions. Nature-based attractions constructed in artificial settings, they face the challenge of trying to balance potentially conflicting aims of conservation, education and entertainment. The best are continually developing fresh and effective techniques on visitor interpretation and management, the worst highlight the manipulation of animals for human gratification. Taking a global approach, this book examines the problems and paradoxes of zoos as they try to balance their roles as visitor attractions while repositioning themselves as leading conservation agencies. "This book provides a detailed and critical examination of the conflicting roles and identities of the modern zoo from a tourism perspective and as such reminds us that zoos are as much about the people who visit them as about the animals that they display. At a time when they are under continual critical scrutiny, this book delivers a fresh approach to our understanding and appreciation of zoos and of the challenges and opportunities that they face as they strive to remain relevant within modern society." Andrew Tribe, University of Queensland, Australia