What goes up must come down: An evaluation of a zoo conservation-education program for balloon litter on visitor understanding, attitudes, and behaviour
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Journal of Sustainable Tourism
Volume
27
Issue
9
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
RAS ID
43089
Abstract
Balloons used outdoors can fly away, posing ingestion and entanglement hazards to wildlife. “When Balloons Fly” (WBF) conservation-education program seeks to educate zoo visitors about these threats and encourage the use of wildlife-friendly bubbles at outdoor events. We examined the effect of WBF on visitor knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours (intentions and actions) over 6 months (N = 624). We compared outcomes among visitors who viewed a presentation and exhibit, to viewing the exhibit-only, and investigated the priming influence of completing a survey before entering the exhibit (pre-survey). Visitors had greater depth of understanding about the impact of balloons immediately following the visit, but post-visit message recall was low. General Linear Models revealed that over 6 months WBF significantly (p < .05) influenced positive attitudes concerning balloon use, increased likelihood to use bubbles, and reduced likelihood to use balloons. Completion of a pre-survey significantly influenced positive attitudes and reduced likelihood to use balloons. WBF is promoting conservation behaviour, with two-thirds of the follow-up sample reporting that behaviours they changed while hosting or attending an outdoor event since their visit were influenced by the zoo experience. Future work can investigate materials that might mimic a priming effect (e.g., worksheets).
DOI
10.1080/09669582.2019.1625908
Access Rights
subscription content
Comments
Mellish, S., Pearson, E. L., McLeod, E. M., Tuckey, M. R., & Ryan, J. C. (2019). What goes up must come down: An evaluation of a zoo conservation-education program for balloon litter on visitor understanding, attitudes, and behaviour. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 27(9), 1393-1415. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2019.1625908