Professor Betty Weiler BA (Alberta) MA (Waterloo) PhD (Victoria) Dr Betty Weiler holds a PhD from the University of Victoria (Canada) and has been researching and teaching tourism in Australian Universities for the past twenty two years. Much of Betty's research has focused on nature-based and heritage tourism, tourist experience, including the role of tour guide roles, competencies, training, accreditation, perceptions of quality and evaluation of outcomes. She has undertaken research with domestic and international visitors and on tour guides and tour guiding in several locations including North America, Latin America, Southeast Asia and locations in Australia including national parks, zoos and heritage locations. More recently Betty's work has focused on the use of persuasive communication by guides and others to influence tourist behaviour and on visitor planning and management, particularly in protected areas, heritage and nature-based attractions. Betty is a multi-award winning PhD supervisor, an editorial board member of international tourism journals, and a Fellow of CAUTHE. She is well known for her team-based approach to research and scholarship, and her collaborations with a range of industry partners particularly managers of protected areas, heritage and wildlife attractions.
Articles
Place attachment, place satisfaction and pro-environmental behaviour: a comparative assessment of multiple regression and structural equation modelling (with Haywantee Ramkissoon and Liam DG Smith), Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events (2013)
Using data collected from 452 visitors at the Dandenong Ranges National Park, Australia, this paper...
Testing the dimensionality of place attachment and its relationships with place satisfaction and pro-environmental behaviours: a structural equation modelling approach (with Haywantee Ramkissoon and Liam DG Smith), Tourism Management (2013)
Drawing on literature from environmental psychology, the present study examined place attachment as a second-order...
Visitor's perceptions of tourism impacts: Bruny and Magnetic Islands, Australia (with Brent D. Moyle and Glen Croy), Journal of Travel Research (2013)
Tourism on islands, as elsewhere, can have positive and negative economic, environmental, and sociocultural impacts....
Visitors' attitudes towards responsible fossil collecting behaviour: a structural attitude-based segmentation approach (with Aise KyoungJin Kim), Tourism Management (2013)
The purpose of this study was to examine visitors' attitudes towards an environmentally-responsible tourist behaviour...
Applying visitor preference criteria to choose pro-wildlife behaviors to ask of zoo visitors (with Liam Smith, Amy Smith, and Pieter van Dijk), Curator: The Museum Journal (2012)
Many zoos now emphasize that their role in conservation includes influencing the behavior of their...
Contributions to Books
Ecotourism and nature-based tourism: what's beyond the names and labels?, Critical debates in tourism (2012)
The Australian Alps Transboundary Partnership: analyzing its succes as a tourism/protected area partnership (with Jennifer Laing and Susan Moore), Parks, peace, and partnership: global initiatives in transboundary conservation (2012)
Sustainable host-guest interactions on islands: Bruny and Magnetic Islands (with Brent D. Moyle and W Glen Croy), Island tourism: sustainable perspectives (2011)
With more than 100,000 islands scattered across the globe, approximately one in ten people in...
The rhetoric versus the reality: a critical examination of the zoo proposition (with Liam Smith and Sam Ham), Zoos and tourism: conservation, education, entertainment? (2011)
This is the first book to specifically examine zoos as tourist attractions. Taking a global...
Mind, body and spirit: health and wellness tourism in Asia (with Jennifer H. Laing), Asian tourism: growth and change (2008)
Tourism in Asia is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, driven by the...
Newsletters
Assessing visitor expectations of contact with staff at Cape Byron State Conservation Area (with J Schielphack and Brent D. Moyle), Research Connections Newsletter (2012)
The aim of this study is to examine visitor expectations regarding the level of staff...
Conference publications
From memorable to meaningful: tour guiding as a tool for sustainable tourism, 3rd International Research Forum on Tour Guiding (2013)
The contribution of geography and economics to doctoral tourism research in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (with Brent D. Moyle and Char-Lee J. McLennan), 2nd Interdisciplinary Tourism Research Conference (2012)
Managers’ perceptions of the benefits projected by Australian parks agencies (with Brent D. Moyle), 18th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management: linking the north and south: responding to environmental change (2012)
Tourism, leisure and recreation in national parks offer a wide variety of benefits to visitors,...
Positioning parks to meet the needs of 21st century society (with Brent D. Moyle and S Moore), The 6th International Conference on Monitoring and Management of Visitors in Recreational and Protected Areas (MMV) (2012)
Saving our national parks from experience extinction, Department of Environment and Conservation Annual Parks and Visitor Services Conference (2012)
Reports, presentations
A synthesis of doctoral tourism research in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (with Brent D. Moyle and Char-Lee J. McLennan), School of Tourism and Hospitality Management PhD Workshop (2012)
An annotated bibliography of the benefits of parks: stage 1: technical report (with Brent D. Moyle and J Schielphack), Report to Parks Victoria, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Office of Environment and Heritage and the Parks Forum (2012)
Managers’ perceptions of the benefits of leisure and recreation in parks projected by NSW NPWS (with Brent D. Moyle), Board of Directors at the Office of Environment and Heritage (2012)
Testing and shifting the market position occupied by Australian parks agencies: stage 1: results (with Brent D. Moyle), Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW (2012)