Ecological risk perception of diving guides and community-based resource management system in marine wildlife tourism

本研究以泰国潜水旅游为个案，说明潜水导游的风险认知。由于需要人类长时间呆在水下，水肺潜水也是一项本质上危险的活动。因此，与其他旅游活动不同，潜水员需要非常注意安全和风险管理。通常情况下，大多数潜水员很难独自管理潜水活动中的各种风险因素。水肺潜水行业将风险管理实践商业化，这体现在对潜水员的必要教育中。除了娱乐顾客外，潜水业还通过为潜水员提供教育机会和出售潜水相关资格证书（参加潜水之旅的人都需要）来盈利。潜水行业的这些特点使得潜水导航员更有责任进行事故（伤害）风险管理，而不是生态风险管理。

Through a case study of diving tourism in Thailand, this research illustrates the risk perception of diving guides.As it requires human beings to stay underwater for a long time, scuba diving is also an activity inherently dangerous. Therefore, unlike other tourist activities, divers need to pay much attention to safety and risk management. Usually, it is difficult for most divers to manage various risk factors during diving activities on their own account.The scuba diving industry commercializes risk management practices represented in the necessary education of divers. In addition to entertaining customers, the diving industry makes profits out of both providing educational opportunities for divers and selling diving-related qualifications, required for anyone participating in a diving tour. Such characteristics of diving industry make diving guides to be more conscious of their responsibility on accident (injury) risk management rather than ecological risk management.