Zdenka Sokolíčková Contributed to Research on Tour Guides in Antarctica

On the “The Conversation” website, you can read an article about Antarctic tour guides who decided to change their jobs and lifestyles for moral reasons. Zdenka Sokolíčková contributed to both the research and the article.

The decision by tourism workers to leave environmentally sensitive destinations represents a significant—yet as of now under-explored—perspective on pro-environmental behavior within the field of tourism research. This qualitative study addresses this issue through interviews with 25 former Antarctic tour guides who faced work-related dilemmas and decided to leave. Drawing on theories of dilemmas, moral reasoning, and environmental care, we examine the decision-making process the guides underwent before leaving their jobs. We reconceptualize the gap between attitudes and actions as three interconnected domains: between the problem and the solution, between the solution and the decision, and between the decision and the action—all of which are bridged through a gradual process of negotiation. Our findings challenge the assumption that environmental stewardship requires long-term commitment; rather, they show that leaving can be an act of stewardship—both for the fragile environment and for oneself.

A longer academic article is available on Sciencedirect.