Benchmarking Giant Panda Welfare in Tourism: A Co-Design Approach for Animals, Tourists, Managers, and Researchers

Area of Science:

• Animal Welfare Science
• Conservation Education
• Sustainable Tourism

Background:

• Understanding tourist perceptions of animal welfare is crucial for effective conservation.
• Existing methods often lack integration of diverse stakeholder perspectives.
• Wildlife tourism presents unique challenges in balancing visitor experience and animal well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a co-design benchmarking framework for assessing tourist perceptions of animal welfare.
• To integrate perspectives from tourists, researchers, and animals into a unified methodology.
• To enhance the effectiveness of conservation education in wildlife tourism settings.

Main Methods:

• Leveraged scientific theories to establish benchmark dimensions for animal welfare.
• Incorporated visitor input to refine the framework and ensure adaptability.
• Analyzed 4839 visitor comments from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

Main Results:

• The co-design framework provides a robust tool for assessing tourist perceptions of animal welfare.
• Visitor insights were crucial in adapting the theoretical framework.
• The study highlights the importance of communication in enhancing public knowledge of animal welfare.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework is theoretically grounded yet flexible, incorporating animal participation.
• Effective communication and education are key to fostering commitment to animal welfare and conservation.
• This approach can lead to more impactful conservation education and promote sustainable tourism practices.