- Introduction
The human history has been largely written in terms of the interaction between man and the environment over the terms of man’s existence and over the terms of his efforts to achieve his goals and aspiration. And for most of human history, the major threats to man came from the environment, but today man is the major threats to the environment and to himself, as he engages in economic activities meant to improve his welfare. These activities meant for man’s development are carried out in the environment and have impacted negatively on it; but environmental quality in turn affects the performance of the economy. Marshall in Arokoyu (2004:187) agreed that it is man’s developmental interventions that have caused environmental disturbances, when he stated that man cannot create material things. His efforts and sacrifices result in changing the forms or arrangements of matter to adapt it better for the satisfaction of his want as his production of materials product is really nothing more than rearrangement of matter which gives it new utilities, so his consumption of them is nothing more than a disarrangement of matter which diminishes or destroy its utilities.
Concern for the environment has increased significantly during the past few decades and, at the same time, people’s values and attitudes towards nature have changed substantially. As far as tourists are concerned, however, many research results have shown that environmental awareness has more to do with tourists’ aim to collect cultural capital than with their genuine concern for nature. In other words, there is an absence of environmental ethics as tourists do not transfer their environmental beliefs into their consumer behavior. This paper will focus on tourists’ images of the environment and on how these images will reflect their consumer behavior.
According to Ritchie & Adair (2002), sport and tourism are today among the most sought-after leisure experiences in the ‘developed´ world. Sport events, among other special events, are increasingly seen as unique tourist attractions and destination image-makers. However, it was not until in the 1990s that the field of special events was regarded as a serious area of research (Jago & Shaw 1998 cited by Gandhi-Arora & Shaw 2002). Gammon and Robinson (1997) divide sport and tourism into two categories:
Sport tourism and tourism sport. In sport tourism, sport is the principal motive, while in tourism sport, it is only a secondary motive of the holiday. Furthermore, sport tourism can also be divided into two subcategories: recreational and competitive. Accordingly, Ritchie & Adair (2002:2) see that sport tourism includes “travel to participate in a passive or active sport holiday and it may involve instances where either sport or tourism is the dominant activity or reason for travel”. Standeven and De Knop (1999:11-14) have defined sport tourism as follows: “all forms of active and passive involvement in sporting activity, participated in casually or in an organized way for noncommercial or business/commercial reasons, the necessitate travel away from home and work locality”. In the case of Sulkava Rowing Event we can see these both elements. Among participants there are those for whom sport plays a secondary and recreational role, while for rowers, especially for those who participate in the competition series, sport is the main motive for participating in the event. Similarly, participation in the event can be seen either as active or passive way of spending one’s holiday. Passive sport tourists are those who follow the event merely as spectators while active sports tourists take actively part in the rowing activities. In this research passive tourists are referred to as non-rowers and active ones as rowers.
Environmental attitudes and consumer behavior
Studies conducted in different countries have showed an awakening interest in green products or increase in environmentally friendly attitudes. During the latter half of the 1980s, environmental concern became translated into a specific activity of green consumerism. Surveys show that there has been a permanent change in consumers’ attitudes. The ecolabelling of tourism products seems to be an effective means of communicating the green message to the increasingly responsive tourist audience. However, there is no evidence to suggest that the increase in popularity of sustainable tourism as a whole is directly related to the emergence of green consumerism (Sharpley 2001). Sharpley & Sharpley (1996) see that the nature of tourist consumption has changed from a producer-led to a consumer-led form of consumption. Consequently, new and alternative forms of tourism, like ecotourism or nature-based tourism, have enjoyed increase in popularity. However, this has been more as a result of people’s need to maintain their cultural capital and social differentiation than of a genuine concern for the environment. Thus, as a form of consumption in modern society, tourism has become a marker of social status, a cultural signifier of taste. To their mind, ecotourism, for instance, is more about the tourists’ aim to collect cultural capital than about their concern for nature. Witherspoon´s research from 1994 (according to Sharpley 2001) confirms this result.
