Exploring Practitioner Conceptualisations of Professionalism among Australian Ecotour Guides

This study examines the work of ecotour guides and how they construct the idea of a 'professional' in their field. It uses a case study of the Ecotourism Australia's EcoGuide Certification Program. The study found that despite frequent use of the term 'professional' in ecotourism discourse, its use is arbitrary, poorly defined, and lacking a sound theoretical and empirical basis. Data was collected using in-depth interviews with certified and non-certified ecotour guides and key ecotourism industry stakeholders. The study found that ecotour guides' conceptualise a professional in terms of their passion for nature and people. Other industry stakeholders interviewed considered that guides should also have business skills. The findings are encapsulated in a conceptual model of a professional ecotour guide which is used to summarise the ideas from the findings of the study and point to future research.