Mountain bikers' attitudes towards mountain biking tourism destinations

<p>This thesis, grounded in consumer culture theory, delves into the sociocultural dynamics involved in tourist attitude content and formation. It addresses gaps in special interest tourism, sports tourism and tourist attitudes towards destinations literatures and further knowledge of mountain biking tourism, a niche, but growing, market. Qualitative methods grounded in interpretivism were used to understand how mountain bikers purposefully traveling to mountain bike tourism destinations form attitudes towards these destinations. Twenty-five mountain bikers from Wellington who qualified as serious leisure participants and had previously travelled for the primary purpose of mountain biking were interviewed. Social influence – through social ties, interactions and subcultural involvement – plays a central role in the respondents’ travel motivations and information search process, and thus influences attitude formation, strength and content. Therefore, the respondents are grouped based on centrality of mountain biking identity and subsequent desire to align with the subculture, and differences in attitude formation processes are highlighted. The respondents hold positive attitudes towards most destinations, emphasizing the need to investigate attitude strength and degree of positivity. Four main evaluative dimensions of attitudes are detailed (adventurous, natural, social and utilitarian). It is established that attitudes towards tourism destinations are (1) a qualitative evaluation of the experience anticipated or enabled rather that a quantitative appraisal of attributes, (2) continuously adjusted from the point of naïve awareness onwards, and (3) most relevant and revealing when operationalised as holistic summary evaluations rather than interrelated components. Based on an increased understanding of attitudes towards mountain biking tourism destinations, their formation and mountain biking subculture, recommendations are drawn to better design, maintain and promote sites.</p>

Mountain bikers' attitudes towards mountain biking tourism destinations

<p>This thesis, grounded in consumer culture theory, delves into the sociocultural dynamics involved in tourist attitude content and formation. It addresses gaps in special interest tourism, sports tourism and tourist attitudes towards destinations literatures and further knowledge of mountain biking tourism, a niche, but growing, market. Qualitative methods grounded in interpretivism were used to understand how mountain bikers purposefully traveling to mountain bike tourism destinations form attitudes towards these destinations. Twenty-five mountain bikers from Wellington who qualified as serious leisure participants and had previously travelled for the primary purpose of mountain biking were interviewed. Social influence – through social ties, interactions and subcultural involvement – plays a central role in the respondents’ travel motivations and information search process, and thus influences attitude formation, strength and content. Therefore, the respondents are grouped based on centrality of mountain biking identity and subsequent desire to align with the subculture, and differences in attitude formation processes are highlighted. The respondents hold positive attitudes towards most destinations, emphasizing the need to investigate attitude strength and degree of positivity. Four main evaluative dimensions of attitudes are detailed (adventurous, natural, social and utilitarian). It is established that attitudes towards tourism destinations are (1) a qualitative evaluation of the experience anticipated or enabled rather that a quantitative appraisal of attributes, (2) continuously adjusted from the point of naïve awareness onwards, and (3) most relevant and revealing when operationalised as holistic summary evaluations rather than interrelated components. Based on an increased understanding of attitudes towards mountain biking tourism destinations, their formation and mountain biking subculture, recommendations are drawn to better design, maintain and promote sites.</p>

Towards quantifying the mass extinction debt of the Anthropocene

To make sense of our present biodiversity crises, the modern rate of species extinctions is commonly compared to a benchmark, or ‘background,’ rate derived from the fossil record. These estimates are critical for bounding the scale of modern diversity loss, but are yet to fully account for the fundamental structure of extinction rates through time. Namely, a substantial fraction of extinctions within the fossil record occurs within relatively short-lived extinction pulses, and not during intervals characterized by background rates of extinction. Accordingly, it is more appropriate to compare the modern event to these pulses than to the long-term average rate. Unfortunately, neither the duration of extinction pulses in the geological record nor the ultimate magnitude of the extinction pulse today is resolved, making assessments of their relative sizes difficult. In addition, the common metric used to compare current and past extinction rates does not correct for large differences in observation duration. Here, we propose a new predictive metric that may be used to ascertain the ultimate extent of the ongoing extinction threat, building on the observation that extinction magnitude in the marine fossil record is correlated to the magnitude of sedimentary turnover. Thus, we propose that the ultimate number of species destined for extinction today can be predicted by way of a quantitative appraisal of humanity's modification of ecosystems as recorded in sediments—that is, by comparing our future rock record with that of the past. The ubiquity of habitat disruption worldwide suggests that a profound mass extinction debt exists today, but one that might yet be averted by preserving and restoring ecosystems and their geological traces.

KAJIAN KESEJAHTERAAN DI PROVINSI BENGKULU: SEBUAH TEMUAN DARI ANALISIS JALUR

The paper conducts a quantitative appraisal of existing empirical testing on economic variable determinants of welfare in Bengkulu Province, analyze how economic growth dan income inequality affect welfare in Bengkulu Province directly or and using an intermediary variable. To capture this issue, path analysis is applied in this study as to the analysis method. The study addressed the measurement of the welfare of Bengkulu Province using the Human Development Index, and using the Williamson Index as representative of income inequality, also apply observational data for all variables in the period 2005-2017. The result shows that economic growth and income inequality to be associated with welfare in Bengkulu Province, and income inequality is proven an intervening variable affecting welfare. Keywords : Welfare1, Economic Growth2, dan Income Inequality 3