Education on marine mammal tours as agent for conservation—but do tourists want to be educated?

Environmental education and interpretation became common components on wildlife viewing tours. Whale and dolphin watching tours are no exception and research suggests the implementation of educational interpretation as an agent for conservation. However, there is little knowledge on how the tourists on those tours feel about interpretation, i.e. do tourists want to be educated during their holidays? This study addressed this question on swim-with-dolphin tours at three locations in New Zealand. The distributed questionnaires included specific questions, but also gathered open-ended data. Results support the demand for structured interpretation programmes on marine mammal tours. Despite interpretation in place (mostly about the dolphins), respondents clearly indicated that they would have liked to receive more information, in particular about the wider marine environment.