Research priorities in park tourism

Park tourism is a large and important activity on which a substantial body of research work has been published. This paper reviews that work in the light of the issues now faced by parks and park tourism, and argues that there are significant research gaps that urgently need additional work. The paper outlines 10 such areas, including: visitor use monitoring; park tourism economic impact monitoring; park finance; professional competencies for tourism management; building public support; visitor satisfaction; licenses, permits, leases, and concessions for tourism; pricing policies; management capacity; and park tourism governance. The paper suggests that work in these areas is so important that the long term political and social relevance, effective management and sustainable future of many parks and protected areas depend on the results. It points to the park creation phase being over after about 150 years of growth, and the need to move more effectively into the long-term management phase. A number of key questions arise. The numerous parks must fulfill their conservation mandate and they must be financially secure. They almost certainly must forge links to tourism, yet not be dominated by tourism's demands, creating, therefore, a new and sustainable research-based relationship.     

The Role of the Proximate Principle in the Emergence of Urban Parks in the United Kingdom and in the United States

Abstract

Residences located close to urban parks frequently sell at a premium. The increased home values represent a ‘capitalization’ of a park’s value to proximate homeowners and this phenomenon has been termed ‘the proximate principle’. The evolution of the principle from squares and gardens in small private estates to large park areas occurred with the development of Regent’s Park in London. The proximate principle’s dissemination into the new industrial cities of the UK first emerged at Prince’s Park in Liverpool, but it was still confined to private developments. Its transition into the public sector occurred with the development of Birkenhead Park. The data showing that Birkenhead Park was potentially a self‐financing venture funded by the enhanced value of proximate profits were widely disseminated and provided the financial rationale for many subsequent urban parks in other UK cities. This principle was absorbed by Frederick Law Olmsted on two early visits to Birkenhead Park and incorporated into the design of Central Park in New York City, the first large urban park in the US. Olmsted meticulously documented the impact of Central Park on adjacent property values and demonstrated that the park made a ‘profit’. These data were crucial in verifying the legitimacy of the proximate principle and in providing the justification for large urban parks in a host of other US cities. Although these data are naïve when viewed through the lens of modern social science, recent studies using sophisticated techniques have confirmed the fundamental legitimacy of the proximate principle.     

游客对国家公园功能的认知及其实现路径——以武夷山国家公园为例

中国国家公园体制以“生态保护第一、国家代表性、全民公益性”为核心理念,通过游憩功能体现其公共资源属性,促进全民公益性目标实现,是确保国家公园生态保护成效的基本要求。为寻求实现国家公园功能的路径,本文基于问卷调查,考察游客对武夷山国家公园功能的认知、对游憩服务的期待以及参与国家公园保护的态度。研究表明,游客看重与其切身利益密切相关的游憩和环境教育等功能,但在空间认知上割裂了保护和利用在国家公园内的统一性;游客关注国家公园在游憩机会上的多样化和创新性,关注点受到年龄、职业、收入、教育程度等人口统计学因素影响;游客的生态保护参与意愿普遍较强,但对保护对象并无具体认知。因此,国家公园游憩功能的发展需要从前端导入国家公园概念、功能和管理目标等公益性的基础理念,既需要根据游客多样性需求完善服务,也需要引导游客了解公园区域定位和内部功能分区。研究指出,国家公园需要在增强游客对其功能公益性理解的基础上,探索自然保护地旅游发展的新范式,从而改善游憩体验,促进游客更好地参与生态保护。     

适应性管理视角的国外国家公园野生动物保护与游憩利用案例研究

野生动物旅游是国家公园践行公共性和福祉性功能的重要体现,对野生动物保护管理要允许野生动物资源的可持续利用,自然保护与可持续发展并重。适应性管理是国家公园管理的重要方法,可以缓解野生动物保护与游憩利用的矛盾。本研究引入国外适应性管理理论,从管理模式、利益相关者、监测评估、功能分区等方面对非洲克鲁格国家公园、美洲班夫国家公园和澳洲卡卡杜国家公园3个案例地深入分析,得出国家公园野生动物适应性管理的主要经验：（1）建立连接社会的可持续国家公园系统;（2）构建利益相关者协调机制,促进参与和共同管理;（3）建立动态监测评估体系,加强野生动物研究;（4）科学评估生态状况,实行公园动态分区管理。研究结果可为中国国家公园野生动物保护和游憩利用提供参考。     

境外国家公园社区管理冲突：表现、溯源及启示

国家公园社区冲突研究对于目前中国正开展的国家公园体制试点工作具有指导意义。文章以境外国家公园社区冲突为现实案例，梳理公园管理机构与社区之间冲突的具体表现，发现社区冲突是由公园定界、公园生态保护和公园开发利用3个方面所引致，由此追根溯源至土地政策、利益机制和管理手段。当这三者置身于国家公园体制框架中时，从土地权属保障制度、社区参与制度和特许经营制度3个方面着手预防或改善公园与社区居民之间的关系是具有可操作性和针对性的。文章提出的4类土地权属关系可从一定程度上解决生态保护和社区发展的矛盾，PAC模式保证了社区在国家公园利益分配和补偿中的重要地位，透明顺畅的信息沟通增强社区对公园的信任和信心，社区特许经营制度向社区的倾斜可保障失地社区居民生计。当社区居民“得以偿失”，社区冲突就会止于源头。     

俄罗斯国家公园建设与管理体系及其对中国的启示

本文回顾了俄罗斯国家公园的发展历史,在重点分析俄罗斯国家公园的管理体系和经验的基础上,探讨其对中国国家公园建设与管理的启示意义。研究发现：（1）俄罗斯国家公园的建设与发展和俄罗斯自然保护区的发展历史密切关联,俄罗斯国家公园的建设与管理大致分为5个阶段;（2）俄罗斯国家公园经过近40年的发展,在法律体系、管理战略、空间管制和社区发展等方面积累了较为丰富的实践经验;（3）建议中国借鉴俄罗斯国家公园管理经验,尽快制定《国家公园法》,实施国家公园管理战略,严格空间管控,完善社区协同发展机制等。     

Developing a better understanding of the complexities of visitor loyalty to Karijini National Park,Western Australia

Visitor loyalty is essential for the future of parks; however our knowledge of it is poor and confounded by conceptualisation and measurement issues with loyalty often considered a single construct. Furthermore, previous research has focussed on loyalty to a single destination rather than loyalty to a park system. This paper analyses the loyalty intentions of visitors to Karijini National Park, Western Australia. Relationships between loyalty measures to this park and to parks generally are explored. Rather than a single construct, loyalty was evidenced by three dimensions within an increasing hierarchy of effort – a) visiting another park, b) referring and recommending, and c) advocating, paying, volunteering, and visiting again. Visitors who wanted access to friendly, helpful rangers were more likely to undertake loyalty behaviours requiring greater effort. Further refining loyalty's multiple dimensions is an important focus for future research complemented by recent efforts to match loyalty measures with actual visiting behaviour.     

美国海峡群岛国家公园环境教育实践经验及对中国的启示

海洋海岛类国家公园是中国国家公园体系的重要类型之一,开展环境教育建设对于国家公园公益性的发挥具有重要作用。本文根据美国海峡群岛国家公园的实地考察及资料分析环境教育特点,总结环境教育实践经验,提出对中国海洋海岛国家公园环境教育体系建设的启示。结论如下：（1）海峡群岛国家公园环境教育具有生态系统及景观特殊性、教育场所弱可达性及教育方式多元性。（2）海峡群岛国家公园环境教育体系以教育内容和支撑体系为主体架构,其中教育内容划分为海岸、海岛、沿海（潮间带与泛洪区）、海下区域4类,支撑体系涵盖管理、资金、解说、传播、人才5个方面。（3）中国海洋海岛国家公园环境教育可在统筹管理、解说规划、人才培养等多方面予以借鉴,以探索符合中国国情的海洋海岛国家公园的环境教育建设模式。     

Public and private cooperation in the National Park Service

A major function of the US National Park Service—protecting the parks—requires information that will influence visitor patterns to be disseminated to the public. The private sector is helping in this in many ways. Pooling public and private expertise is also helping in eg collecting more useful statistics, in training tour escorts, and in encouraging travel writers to familiarize themselves with the parks and their needs.     

Carbon dioxide emissions from transport in Taiwan's national parks

Transport profoundly affects energy use and carbon dioxide emissions in the tourism sector. This study focuses on five national parks in Taiwan, namely Kenting National Park, Yushan National Park, Yangmingshan National Park, Taroko National Park and Sheipa National Park, and applies a bottom-up approach to determine the amount of CO₂ emissions from domestic tourism transport in 1999–2006. The CO₂ emission factor of private car derived in this study reveals a higher value than that of previous study due to its lower load factors. Moreover, CO₂ emissions per person are different in each national park, influenced by the attributes of travel distance and transport mode. The scenario analysis indicates that CO₂ emission can be reduced by increasing load factors of transport, tourist switching from private cars to public transport and going to destinations close to their points of departure, which can be achieved by authorities through activity management, regulation control and price adjustment. This is also an adequate solution for Taiwan Government owing to the increases in transport volume and the limited tourism budget.     

Place construction and public space: Cantonese opera as leisure in the urban parks of Guangzhou,China

This article explores the relationship between traditional leisure activities and public space by studying Cantonese opera in the urban parks of Guangzhou, China. The approach utilises place construction theory to analyse the public space construction processes of Cantonese opera. This study found that Cantonese opera, as leisure embedded in the urban parks, constructs the park as a site of performativity and joyful togetherness. The local government constructs the urban park as a locale to celebrate traditional culture and market the city to its residents and visitors alike. Cantonese opera participants frequent the park and find it suitable for coordinating simple leisure activities and professional performances. This may be due to the perceived benefits of self-entertainment, health promotion and culture promotion. These factors, in turn, demonstrate the performativity of urban parks. As for joyful togetherness, elderly participants seek a sense of belonging and personal safety in urban parks by means of traditional leisure activities and social relationships, which help to ease the psychological impact of rapid urbanisation. During the place construction process, leisure participants gain an awareness of culture and space as part of this social ritual. Therefore, the influence of these operas extends to the local city and governmental spheres.     

Promoting justice for underserved groups in periurban parks: the potential of state-community partnerships

The documented under-representation of ethnoracial minority population in peri-urban parks can be considered an environmental justice issue. This exploratory qualitative study examined the outreach efforts and challenges faced by a large state parks agency in attracting underserved and under-represented visitors from low-income and ethnoracial minority groups to its parks. It also explored if and under what conditions partnerships between the public agency and community-based and nonprofit organisations or their coalitions may help bring more under-represented groups to parks. Findings were based on a triangulated three-pronged set of qualitative data from a) an online survey of state park personnel that yielded 58 responses; b) semi-structured interviews with 19 park leaders; and b) semi-structured interviews with representatives of 12 nonprofit groups. Findings indicated that despite its good intentions, the State Parks agency fell short of increasing the accessibility and fit of its parks for its low-income and ethnoracial minority constituents. Further findings suggested that partnerships between the state parks agency and open space nonprofit organisations and their coalitions offer a promising strategy for increasing diversity in parks, but only under certain caveats.     

Heterogeneity in Urban Park Use of Aging Visitors: A Latent Class Analysis

This study describes and predicts urban parks use patterns for various age groups, with specific attention to the growing group of older adults. Park use intensity of various age groups is described. Subsequently, a multinomial logit model is estimated to describe urban park choice as a function of park features, activities, and socio-demographics. To identify segments in park use patterns of aging visitors a latent class model is estimated. Data are collected from a sample of 1,107 residents of the Eindhoven region in The Netherlands in 2002. The results indicate that age significantly affects park choice behavior. Specifically, four segments of older visitors were identified that clearly differed in their park use patterns: active health oriented users, active socially oriented users, passive local users, and moderate users.     

基于CiteSpace的中国国家公园游憩利用研究知识图谱

以CNKI中国知网为数据源,运用CiteSpace科学计量工具深入分析了国家公园游憩利用研究的多维知识图谱。研究结果表明:国家公园游憩利用研究作者合作结构松散,尚未形成紧密的学术研究合作机构与团队;研究知识演进可划分为经验借鉴萌芽(1982~2006年),初步探索成长(2007~2013年)以及深入试点发展(2014年至今)等3个阶段;研究主题富有国家政策导向性,2006年与2014年为研究转折性节点;研究主题演变主要从国家公园游憩利用理念借鉴、游憩多维评价、生态旅游开发与规划等转移到国家公园社区旅游、游憩经营与管理、游憩生态影响、游憩公共公益性,再到游憩利用维度视角的国家公园体制机制。学术界研究视角主要涉及风景园林学、经济学、地学、旅游学、生态学等。今后,需从国家公园体制建设现实出发开展多学科、跨机构、多平台的深入合作,对国家公园游憩空间价值与伦理进行深度关怀与反思,而探索建立中国本土特色的国家公园游憩利用持续发展模式与机制应当成为未来亟须研究的重点。     

Visitors to national parks: A test of the elitism argument

It frequently has been assumed that the poor and some minority groups largely lack the financial wherewithal to travel to America's national parks. Data showing an underrepresentation of the poor among visitors at some parks has spurred charges of “elitism” in national park use, and has been an often‐used argument to justify more development (especially the provision of low‐cost facilities) in the national parks. This study tested for relationships between several status characteristics and the national park visitation of residents of the Pacific Coastal Region. As hypothesized, income, education, occupation and a cumulative status measure were all positively related to the frequency of national park going. But the low magnitude of the relationships suggests that the charges of “elitism” in national park going are overdrawn, and that perhaps there has been a substantial democratization of social‐class access to a “national park experience” during this century.     

Public–private partnerships and contested cultural heritage tourism in national parks: a case study of the stakeholder views of the North Head Quarantine Station (Sydney,Australia)

This paper examines the public perceptions of stakeholders towards a proposed cultural heritage public–private partnership (PPP) within a national park in Sydney, Australia. Governments in Australia are initiating PPPs for the purposes of designing, planning, constructing and operating projects that would traditionally be regarded as ‘public goods’. The North Head Quarantine Station (Sydney, Australia) was one of the first proposed PPPs in national parks that moved beyond the licensing of private sector operations within park boundaries. The Quarantine Station is used as a case study to offer insights into the PPP process because of its place in the cultural heritage of Australia, its prime a facie tourism position within Sydney Harbour and its prolonged history of development. The case study provides a mechanism for examining public opinion on cultural heritage tourism issues in national parks through understanding stakeholder perspectives presented in newspaper media accounts. The accounts are analysed on political and environmental considerations with implications drawn for future developments.     

Can nature-based tourism benefits compensate for the costs of national parks? A study of the Bavarian Forest National Park,Germany

German national parks are increasingly under pressure from land use change and need objective information on economic values associated with different forms of use to help policy-makers resolve conflicting policy goals. To date, a complete cost–benefit analysis of a German national park has not been undertaken. This paper addresses this gap through a study from the Bavarian Forest National Park (BFNP), the oldest and best known park in Germany. The research questions are: (1) Is the designation of the national park economically justified? and (2) Can revenue from park tourism compensate for its costs? Databases used include a visitor and enterprise survey, qualitative interviews and secondary sources; analyses involved several interrelated environmental valuation methods. Results suggest that the BFNP is an economically favourable land use option under most scenarios. At national level, half of the scenarios show a benefit–cost ratio (BCR) greater than 1. At regional level the park acts as a tool for economic development, generating net monetary gains for surrounding counties, with BCRs of over 1 throughout. Tourism contributes to over 60% of the benefits and compensates for more than two-thirds of the costs in half of the scenarios discussed. Key policy implications are listed.     

Heritage Tourism,Heritage Landscapes and Wilderness Preservation: The Case of National Park Thy

Tourism involving national parks manifests itself explicitly or implicitly as heritage tourism because national parks represent important symbols of the national landscape. This paper traces the journey of the proposed National Park Thy in northwestern Denmark from ordinary landscape to symbolic landscape, to candidacy for national park status and focus for heritage tourism. It is argued that the processes at work in Denmark are similar to those underpinning the creation of national parks elsewhere.     

Tourism stakeholders’ perceptions of national park management in Norway

Local tourism firms represent an important stakeholder interest in national parks. The present study examines these stakeholders’ perceptions of management processes and their assessments of the resulting management plans and operations. This research is based on qualitative interviews with representatives of tourism businesses in two different national park settings in Norway – Rondane National Park and Jotunheimen National Park. The findings illustrate that despite their general support for the national park status, the local tourism stakeholders interviewed had experienced only minor involvement in the management planning process, and had had very little influence in the final management decisions. They believed that opportunities for business operations were lacking due to excessive management restrictions, and that managers lacked competence with regard to business management and tourism development issues. In addition, they thought that management authorities should more explicitly include sustainable tourism development in their visions and goals. Based on the findings, it is assumed that there is potential for local tourism operators to take greater responsibility in planning processes and management operations. It is concluded that measures should be taken to foster durable social links and trustworthy planning partnerships between responsible managers and local tourism stakeholders in the two national parks.     

Antecedents of augmented reality experiences: potential tourists to Shangri-La Potatso National Park,China

ABSTRACT

Smartphone technology has the potential to change the nature of a tourists’ experience in a protected area. A smartphone running an augmented reality (AR) app may contribute to the protection of national parks while enhancing a visitor’s experience. This paper examined potential visitors’ to Potatso National Park, Shangri- La, China, their preferences for seven such AR experiences and the effect of visitors’ acceptance of technology on the perceived value of visiting the park. An online questionnaire (n?=?323) identified results and provided insights for enhancement of national park experiences using AR.