Friday, July 21, 2017

I'm a nature tourism analyst


Post her here just because Margot Kidder's Lois Lane
 is a cool investigative journalist...
It occurred to me just now that I didn't market myself properly. I mostly market myself as a whale and dolphin researcher (leaving out the dugongs just because I'm not an Sirenian expert). However, I am also a marine tourism analyst. I have not only analysed dolphin tourism in Asia, but I have also analysed coral reef tourism in Bali and am currently analysing sharks and rays tourism in Indonesia (for Wildlife Conservation Society).

That means that I work with any marine animals, not just the dolphins or whales. Bring on those sharks, rays, sea turtles and penguins to me (if any).

Now it occurred to me, that I should not restrict myself to marine. As long as we talk about nature and sustainability, I feel comfortable in it.





Hence, I'd like to label myself as a nature tourism analyst. I'm interested in analysing the human dimension part of nature tourism (particularly wildlife tourism), be it in a marine or terrestrial setting. So, no more just limiting myself to marine setting; bring on those elephants and giraffes. Heck, I'd love to analyse some Himalayan nature tourism cases one day!

Oh, and although I am more interested in developing country settings, I'm also open to analyse any cases in developed countries as well.

And I'm always reachable through putuliza at gmail dot com.




Friday, July 14, 2017

Updates about the first semester of 2017

Apologies for the sloppy updating...

The first semester of 2017 was filled with writings... proposals and papers... and also giving some guest lectures to two subjects at James Cook University. My NGO (Cetacean Sirenian Indonesia) have lodged some proposals, yet no traction yet - but we won't give up!

I have submitted a book chapter with Ms Naneng Setiasih and Associate Prof. Riccardo Welters about tourist experience and economic benefits of dolphin watching in Lovina, updating my PhD work. The chapter will be included in a book about coral reef tourism, edited by Dr Anja Pabel and Prof Bruce Prideaux of Queensland University of Technology in Cairns Australia. Hopefully the book will be published before 2017 ends.

Meanwhile, I've also been hired by Wildlife Conservation Society Indonesia Programme to do a study on the benefits of sharks and rays tourism to conserve sharks and rays. The project started in May and will finish this August. I will keep update this blog on the results.