Birds, Beasts and Tourists: Human–Animal Relationships in Tourism

Kevin Markwell

Introduction

Animals (and the products derived from their bodies) are so much a part of our day-to-day lives that we often fail to register their presence, or, when we do, they are frequently relegated to the background. Regardless of whether we live in highly urbanised cities or rural villages, non-human animals co-habit these spaces with us. Some we regard as companions to be loved and cared for, inhabiting the intimate spaces of home, while others we construct as pests and try our best to exclude or even exterminate them from our domestic lives. Still others co-exist with us, sharing spaces and other resources, but not impacting on our own lives in any direct way.

Given the ubiquitous involvement of animals in our everyday lives, it should not be surprising that they inhabit tourism spaces and experiences in equally diverse arrangements. Animals contribute to tourism in multiple ways: as attractions in their own right – alive or dead, wild or captive; as forms of transportation; symbolically as destination icons; as travel companions; and as components of regional cuisine. Some, like leeches and flies, irritate us while we walk through forests admiring flamboyant butterflies and birds, while others, such as crocodiles and tigers, regard us as prey. Breaching humpback whales migrating along coastlines evoke feelings of awe and wonderment and sustain a rapidly expanding industry with substantial returns to regional economies, while the presence, real or imagined, of great white sharks can close beaches and damage the reputations of destinations. As will become evident, animals, whether invertebrate or vertebrate, cold-blooded or warm-blooded, friendly or otherwise, intersect with tourists and tourism in a multitude of diverse ways.

The ambition of this book, therefore, is to make a meaningful contribution to the growing body of knowledge concerning the relationships between animals, tourists and the tourism industry and to contribute to current debates about their involvement. By doing so I hope that the theoretically informed and empirically rich chapters that comprise the book will help to highlight key research questions and stimulate other researchers and students to reflect critically on the place of animals within tourism spaces, experiences, practices and structures. Given the numerous intersections between animals and tourism and the growing awareness more generally of issues relating to the use of animals, it is timely to consider critically our relations with animals within the domain of tourism.

The critical interrogation of human–animal relations more generally is the object of the emerging field of study known as human–animal studies or anthrozoology. This intellectually exciting field of inquiry examines the complex interrelationships between humans and animals constituted within the social and cultural worlds that they share with each other (DeMello, 2010; Shapiro, 2008). It seeks to reveal the diversity of relationships between humans and animals, the ways in which those relationships are changing and the meanings that are attached to those relationships. Human–animal studies questions our use of animals: as workers, performers and companions; as experimental subjects and as components of food; as living targets; and as subjects of art, literature and popular culture. It illuminates the contradictions, inconsistencies and ambiguities that characterise our relations with animals and highlights the implications these have for animal welfare, wildlife conservation, food security and public health (Bulliet, 2005; DeMello, 2010; Fennell, 2012; Franklin, 1999; Herzog, 2010). This scholarship challenges us to create more ethical and sustainable ways of living with, and among, animals.

Contemporary human–animal studies scholarship provides new insights into the ambiguous and multifaceted relationships that exist between humans and non-human animals – relationships that, as I mentioned previously, have tended to be taken for granted, backgrounded and not often subject to critical analysis. This is not to deny the rich scholarship that has already occurred and the field is indebted to the conceptual understandings revealed by scholars working in a range of disciplines such as anthropology, history, sociology, cultural studies, geography and psychology.

DeMello (2010) provides a detailed account of the emergence of human–animal studies and identifies key authors whose work has helped shape the field of study and the questions that it poses. These authors include John Berger (Why Look at Animals 1980) Yi-Fu Tuan (Dominance and Affection, The Making of Pets, 1984), James Serpell (In the Company of Animals, 1996), Harriet Ritvo (The Animal Estate, 1987) and Donna Haraway (Primate Visions: Gender, Race and Nature in...