Challenges and Opportunities in Botanic Garden Tourism
A special issue of Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens (ISSN 2673-5636).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2024) | Viewed by 2356
Special Issue Editors
Interests: marketing strategies and market analysis; rural tourism and rural development policy; economic assessments of ecosystem services and cost-benefit analysis
Interests: natural and cultural heritage policy; economics and assessment; cultural ecosystem services; tourism and conservation conflicts; outdoor and nature recreation; nature and human wellbeing
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Botanic gardens are multifunctional institutions that hold “documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display and education”[1]. They are also often popular attractions for both tourists and recreationists alike. Botanical garden tourism has the potential to help gardens engage with and educate the public and to generate revenue to support expansion projects and general upkeep. However, research has shown that visitor perception is focused on aesthetics, facilities and services and not on living plant collections, conservation, displays and educational content. However, botanical gardens concentrate excessively on the service- or entertainment-oriented offerings that attract visitors, they risk losing sight of their other missions. Furthermore, increasing tourism to gardens might lead to the degradation or banalization of the living plant collection. Delicate historic or rare specimens might be damaged or killed, and visitors might dislike areas of great scientific and conservational value such as those left to go to seed, which are often misinterpreted as abandoned. On the other hand, if botanical gardens do not take visitor needs into account, they risk losing public support and relevance. This becomes ever more important, as botanic gardens receive less public funding and must financially sustain their activities through sales and fundraising.
Thus, this Special Issue focuses on tourism’s double-edged potential, both to support botanic gardens’ missions but also to impede them. Contributions that can help botanic garden managers steer towards positive forms of garden tourism and avoid pitfalls are especially welcome. These might include innovative management practices, business and economic evaluation methods, or investigations of emerging issues such as community involvement, social inclusion and sustainability accounting. The ramifications of emerging forms of tourism (such as proximity, experiential, bleisure and wellness tourism) and risin trends in visitor demographics are also of interest. Up until now, botanical garden research has tended to be divided into two groups, those who see the botanic garden’s role as a visitor attraction and those who sees it as a research and conservation institution. This Special Issue will contribute to the literature by promoting research that investigates the interconnectedness of these activities.
[1] https://www.bgci.org/about/botanic-gardens-and-plant-conservation/, (Accessed on 10 November 2022).
Looking forward to your contributions.
Prof. Caterina Di Franco
Guest Editor
Cassandra Funsten
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- botanical garden business models
- carrying capacity
- conservation management
- environmental accounting
- public engagement
- strategic planning
- sustainable tourism
- visitor management
