Do you really care about whales: Surveying the whale watching experience

As cetacean populations worldwide continue their gradual recovery from the devastating impacts of widespread commercial whaling throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the opportunities expanded to create successful business based around the practice of whale-watching.

Beginning in the Pacific coastal city of San Diego, California, in the 1950s for just $1 a ticket, the industry has since flourished across the globe and now around 13 million people join whale-watching tours each year generating an estimated $872 million annually in direct revenues, with a further $2.1 billion generated indirectly through related businesses such as leisure and hospitality.

Humpback whale, Picture by Miquel Pons

As cetacean tourism continues to expand, so too does the responsibility of tour operators to balance their commercial success with environmental stewardship and educational value. Companies such as Elding play a vital role not only in providing memorable experiences for passengers, but also in helping to shape the public’s perception of cetaceans and marine conservation more widely. Understanding passenger motivations, expectations, attitudes and the knowledge and understanding they take away from their experience on board is crucial for ensuring that tours remain both sustainable and impactful.

The following blog centres around an Elding Research project undertaken during July and August of the 2025 season in Reykjavik, describing the design, undertaking, results and implications of a questionnaire carried out onboard two Elding vessels: ‘Eldey’ and ‘Hafsulan’. The initial goal of the survey was to assess two main areas of interest:

1.           The experience of tourists onboard.

2.           The attitudes of tourists towards cetaceans, including the problems they face and their conservation, both within Iceland and worldwide.

Hafsulan with a humpback whale in 2023, Picture by Miquel Pons

Before designing the survey, a literature review was conducted to assess any gaps in existing knowledge and determine the best mode by which to undertake questionnaires, as well as to highlight any ethical considerations. Questions within the survey were designed to be as neutral and non-suggestive as possible to ensure answers remained unbiased. The questionnaire itself was to be undertaken by participants on ‘Google Forms’ which could be accessed by scanning a QR code placed around the two vessels in easy to reach areas (around the cafeteria, exits and seating areas). To maximise the number of respondents, a ‘direct-intercept’ approach was also used, directly approaching and inviting passengers to participate.

The survey consisted of 28 questions which were primarily either multiple-choice or checklists, with areas for longer, free-text answers clearly outlined as ‘optional’. Overall, the survey took no longer than 5 minutes for a participant to complete. Whilst the survey is (at the time of writing) still accessible to guests onboard Eldey and Hafsulan, the dataset was extracted when the number of responses reached circa 150 respondents (due to time constraints).  I still felt as though this was a dataset large enough to assess the goals of the survey in relative detail and accuracy.

And now, the results!

1.           Demographics of participants, motivations to join a tour & experience onboard

The demographics of respondents ranged widely, with participants originating from over 30 countries across three continents and encompassing a wide variety of age-groups and professions. The nationality that provided the largest number of responses was the USA, making up 27.3% of the total dataset, followed by the UK at around 12% (table 1).

Table 1: Ten most represented nationalities in the survey

The age-group most represented in the data is people aged between 30-49 years (41.7%), followed by ’18-29’ and ’50 – 59’, (25% and 20.8% respectively). The ‘70+’ category made up the fewest responses, with just 3.5% of the total. The dataset skewed slightly towards females (52.1%) as compared to males (45.8%), 2.8% either identified as non-binary or opted not to specify.

Almost 30% of participants said that the chance to come whale watching was a primary factor in their decision to come to Iceland, with the leading factor being the scenery of the country (80% of respondents selected multiple reasons). Unsurprisingly, the most common factor that motivated passengers to attend the tour with Elding was to see cetaceans up close, followed by the chance to enjoy nature and the marine environment. Whilst learning about cetaceans was still a significant factor, it did not seem to be the priority for the majority of respondents (figure 1).

Figure 1: A bar chart depicting motivating factors to attend a whale watching tour.

Participants were able to select multiple options.

When it comes to the species that attendees most wanted to see, humpback whales were the leading motivator (71.6%), followed by killer whales (46.1%) but responses ranged widely (figure 2).

Figure 2: Chart depicting the species which participants most wanted to see during the tour. Respondents were able to select multiple options.

Respondents to the survey reported very high degrees of satisfaction with their safety and comfort onboard (average score of 4.79 & 4.41 out of 5 respectively), as well as the quality of their sightings (average score 4.31 out of 5). In regards to the perceived educational value of the tour, when asked the extent to which they felt that the tour contributed to their overall knowledge of cetaceans and conservation, participants reported on average a score of 4.25 out of 5.

Finally, when asked how likely they would be to recommend Elding whale watching tours to others (on a scale of 1-10) the average score was 9.07, indicating a very high likelihood.

2.           Attitudes towards cetaceans and their conservation

This section made up the majority of questions within the survey and, as mentioned above, focused on assessing the value that participants place upon cetaceans and their continued conservation.

The overwhelming majority of participants (85.2%) said that the protection of cetacean populations worldwide is extremely important to them, and in free-text responses there were a range of reasons provided, illustrated in the samples below:

·        “The ocean is the basis for all life on earth, so we must protect all marine life to maintain ecosystems. Also they are cool to look at and I want other people in the future to also be able to see them in all their natural beauty.”

·        “Reckless treatment of animals and the environment has caused many unforeseen and catastrophic consequences. As humans it is our responsibility to harbour safe living spaces for animals as we have become the most powerful predator on earth. The loss of an entire species affects entire ecosystems, causing over population of certain species and loss of others within the ecosystem.”

·        “I like whales :)”

A follow up question asking whether participants felt as though the tour expanded their knowledge of the threats faced by cetacean species also received very positive results, with an average score of 4 out of 5 (5 being ‘Yes, very much so’).

As we learnt in a previous blog by Lenja, whale watching tours may themselves have an impact on the species they aim to view. This was addressed in the survey questions, and participants made it clear that it was extremely important that tours minimise any potential disturbance to cetacean species (average score: 4.55, 5 being ‘Yes – a top priority’).

This was put to the test in a follow-up question: ‘If an animal were to show signs of potential distress or disturbance (such as slapping of the tail and/or pectoral fins towards the vessel/s), how would you prefer the tour to proceed?’. 34% of respondents said that they would prefer the boat to move away before continuing to observe, whilst over half of respondents (56.3%) said that they would rather the vessel left the whale alone entirely and searched for a different individual, even if this meant potentially not seeing another cetacean during the tour (figure 3).

Figure 3: Pie chart depicting the actions participants would prefer to take if a whale showed signs of potential distress

Following this, participants were asked to rate on a 1-10 scale how respectful they believed the tour was to the cetaceans, the average score of which was 9.12 (extremely high). Guests praised both the captains and guides in their recognition of potential overcrowding and distress in several responses:

·                 “I liked that the guide noticed when they seemed not social so we left them alone. I also liked that he said it's getting too crowded so let's go and try to find other whales.”

·                 “We were 5 boats near a whale and our captain decided to go away and look for another spot”

·                 “Team on boat was very respectful about personal space of cetaceans”

·                 “It was very cool to see them, while still having a distance to them compared to the other whale watching boat that sailed very close to them. It made it more respectful to me, that this one kept it's distance.”

Finally, a few questions aimed at understanding attitudes towards whaling were included. When asked their opinions on commercial whaling worldwide, responses were strongly in opposition to this (figure 4), with 92.3% of respondents said they had not and will not eat whale meat during their visit.

Figure 4: Pie chart of answers to the question 'Do you support the commercial hunting of whales within Iceland or elsewhere?'

Final remarks and implications of the survey

The data gathered demonstrates clearly that Elding’s tours are educating guests, even though learning about cetaceans had not necessarily been the top motivating factor for their visit. The survey has also demonstrated that visitors leave with a significantly increased understanding of the environmental and commercial threats that whales face. Equally, it is also clear from responses that guests value the respect for cetaceans that the Elding team demonstrate, and that this ‘whale-first’ approach did not interfere with the satisfaction of guests in terms of either the quality of their sightings and their overall experience onboard, and in fact may actually increase satisfaction as a result of the company’s clear demonstration of its professionalism and ethical approach.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to all onboard for helping support the undertaking of the questionnaire!

Jude Hughes