Human-Environment Relationships in Texas Agritourism

Abstract

Tourism literature is saturated with reports about tourism's
effects on the natural environment; however, little research has
been conducted regarding tourism's impact on humanenvironment
relationships. Through semi-structured interviews
and a survey, this study explored the ways in which Texas
agritourism operators value their land and construct their personal
relationships with the natural environment. With the research
data, Urry's (1992) four ideal types of societal relationships with
the environment were tested: stewardship, exploitation,
scientization, and visual consumption. Research participants
possess diverse relationships with nature and most individuals
demonstrated aspects from more than one ofUrry's categories. In
addition, strong relationships with nature were encountered that
were not compatible with Urry's four categories; therefore, the
study proposes the addition of two ideal types: spiritualization and
sociality.