Flippers and wings: Michael Lück's professorial address
| Date: | Wednesday 10 Apr, 4:30pm - 5:30pm |
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| Location: | AUT City Campus WA Building, WA Conference Centre Auckland New Zealand |
| Contact: | sue.chapman@aut.ac.nz |
Marine wildlife watching in Aotearoa New Zealand
Over the past decades, wildlife tourism has evolved from niche activities to more mainstream tourism products, and marine wildlife tourism is no exception. Particularly, interactions with whales and dolphins attract large numbers of tourists in many locations on all continents. In addition to these immensely popular species, there is a growing number of human-wildlife interactions with other coastal and marine fauna, such as polar bears, seals, sharks, pelagic birds, and penguins.
In his inaugural professorial address, Professor Michael Lück explores this phenomenon, introducing the cases of dolphin swimming and albatross viewing in Aotearoa New Zealand. He looks at the motivations and profiles of these tourists, and why it is important to understand their needs and preferences and concludes his presentation with a look at an entirely different type of sea creature: mermaids. ‘Mermaiding’ has become a popular activity, and will be introduced in this presentation.
Michael Lück is a professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism at Auckland University of Technology, associate director for the coastal and marine tourism research programme at the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute and founding co-chair of the International Coastal and Marine Tourism Society (ICMTS). He has more than 10 years’ work experience in the tourism industry and his research interests include marine wildlife tours, the cruise industry, ecotourism, the impacts of tourism, and aviation. He is founding editor-in-chief of the academic journal Tourism in Marine Environments, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Ecotourism, Human Dimensions of Wildlife, Marine Policy and Frontiers. He has edited or co-edited ten volumes on ecotourism, marine and polar tourism, events and low-cost airlines, as well as the Encyclopedia of Tourism and Recreation in Marine Environments (CABI) and co-authored the text book Tourism (CABI).