Polar bears, climate change, and trusted messengers: informing the Contextual Model of Transformative Learning Theory

ABSTRACTNature-based tourism is often touted as an inherently effective form of ecotourism, where visitors become ambassadors for the places they visit and participate in transformative experiences. However, research demonstrates that behavior change and transformative experiences remain elusive. This study builds upon the Contextual Model of Learning and Transformative Learning Theory by exploring visitors’ learning and behavior change at both in situ and ex situ polar bear tourism experiences. A detailed conceptual analysis and integration of existing literature provides evidence to support an integration of these learning frameworks to more effectively guide the intentional design of visitor experiences in order to target specific outcomes and domains of learning. This paper offers an important next step in providing a guiding process to facilitate and evaluate free-choice learning experiences that seek to offer visitors more intentionally designed, impactful, and potentially transformative experiences.KEYWORDS: Wildlife tourism; nature-based tourism; tourism learning; visitor experience; climate change learning; trusted messengers AcknowledgementsWe are thankful for the support of polar bear tour organizations and guides in Churchill and Winnipeg. Their cooperation made this research possible. We would also like to acknowledge the Churchill Northern Studies Centre for their financial support through the Northern Scientific Training Program and to Frontiers North Adventure Company, who provided access to tours and visitor interviews. Special thanks to the Assiniboine Park Zoo and its staff for their ongoing cooperation and facilitation of visitor tours to ensure participant recruitment for this study. Funding for this project was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Northern Scientific Training Program.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.