Trends in Park Tourism: Economics,Finance and Management

This paper discusses issues in tourism to protected areas/parks. Emphasis is given to the relationships between the globally growing numbers of parks, the rise in tourism to those parks and its economic impacts, and finance and management policies used within the parks. In-depth consideration is given to park pricing policies, park tourism competencies, the need for better visitation/visitor statistics, and new tourism management structures. The development of parastatal management structures with greater links between tourism competencies and conservation management techniques is seen to be central to the creation of both successful parks and sustainable tourism within those parks.     

Balancing the dual mandate of conservation and visitor use at a Canadian world heritage site in an era of rapid climate change

Abstract

National parks in Canada operate under the dual mandate of conservation and visitor use, which involves balancing ecological integrity and nature-based tourism activities. Climate-induced environmental change may increase the existing tension between conservation and visitor use as major tourism resources located in protected areas (PAs) are projected to undergo large-scale changes. This study draws upon the behavioural approach, scenario planning, and landscape visualizations to examine the relationship between climate change impacts, visitor perceptions, and visitor experience management at the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park, Canada. Four tourism development scenarios defined by two management drivers (ecological integrity and visitor demand) with corresponding storylines and visualizations were developed for 2050. The visualized scenarios were presented to visitors (n?=?304) in a survey to understand potential implications on visitor satisfaction. The results suggest that park managers need to find a balance between ecological integrity and visitor use in a way that ensures commercialized tourism development is limited, educational material is prioritized, and ecological integrity is maintained. While understanding the behaviour of future tourists is complex, it is a critical component of climate change adaptation planning and decision-making processes that needs to be prioritized by policymakers and PAs managers.     

Zoning in national parks: are Canadian zoning practices outdated?

Zoning is a common tool in protected areas, especially for visitor management purposes. Parks Canada has a long-established national zoning framework for all national parks. At the operational level, planners use this framework to spatially delineate each park into areas with varying levels of ecological integrity and human activity. After Parks Canada's recent major restructuring, and a new streamlined management planning process embedded in ecosystem management, it is important to examine if, or to what extent, zoning is effective in advancing the agency's goals. We interviewed Parks Canada employees about their perspectives on zoning. In their perception, the rigid definition of zones, fundamental differences between southern and northern parks, and the coexistence of the historical zoning framework with modern management policies constituted major challenges at the national or constitutive level. At the operational level, they were concerned about a status quo bias in zoning, purposeful delays in implementing zoning, and the absence of explicit evaluation of park zoning processes and outcomes. Zoning remains a necessary, albeit not central, component of the management planning process, but provides only crude spatial direction for core management activities. The relevance of zoning for other parks, and for sustainable tourism strategies is discussed.     

Computer Simulation as a Tool for Planning and Management of Visitor Use in Protected Natural Areas

The United Nations Environment Programme’s Principles on Implementation of Sustainable Tourism suggest that implementing sustainable tourism must include monitoring visitor use of protected natural areas and directing it to areas where the environmental and social impacts of tourism are minimised. Thus, sustainable tourism management requires information about the spatial and temporal flow of visitor use in protected natural areas to help identify potential tourism-related threats to the natural and cultural resources of an area and the quality of visitors’ experiences. Recent research has identified at least four ways in which simulation modelling of visitor use can facilitate more informed planning and management of sustainable tourism in protected natural areas, including (1) describing existing visitor use flows; (2) monitoring the condition of ‘hard to measure’ indicator variables; (3) testing the effectiveness of alternative visitor use management practices; and (4) guiding the design of research on public attitudes. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, using findings from studies conducted in the Inyo National Forest and Isle Royale National Park, USA, each of these four potential contributions of computer simulation to sustainable tourism management and planning. The paper concludes with an assessment of the limitations of existing applications of computer simulation to nature-based tourism and recommendations for future research.     

Good governance in protected areas: an evaluation of stakeholders’ perceptions in British Columbia and Ontario Provincial Parks

As government funding is reduced and tourism-based fees are increasingly used to fund protected area operations, two options are often used for management: transfer of tourism services to the private sector or operation of tourism services by a government agency that functions like a corporation. This paper reports stakeholders’ views concerning governance for two prominent, but different, management models for protected areas’ tourism services in Canada. British Columbia Provincial Parks uses profit-making companies to deliver park services; Ontario Provincial Parks uses the parastatal approach, where park staff members provide most services directly. Surveys of five key stakeholder groups (park staff, visitors, contractors working in park, nearby residents and NGOs with an interest in parks) provided higher rankings of perceptions of governance criteria closer to good governance for the Ontario approach, with important differences found between some groups and amongst some criteria in both park systems. This research suggests that the parastatal model is perceived as superior by important stakeholder groups, using the lens of standard governance criteria, compared to the outsourcing model that uses profit-making companies to provide park tourism services. This finding has implications globally where governments seek to shift park funding from government towards tourism fees and charges.     

mLearning as a softer visitor management approach for sustainable tourism

With increased visitation to protected natural areas over the last four decades, there is a need for implementation of effective visitor management strategies at these sites to mitigate visitor impacts. This study explores the application of mobile learning (mLearning) in environmental interpretation and visitor education within the context of conservation and sustainable tourism. Specifically, it proposes a conceptual framework for mLearning as a visitor management tool for sustainable tourism. Current developments and innovations in mobile broadband networks, smartphone technology, and mobile software applications present opportunities for the utilization of such mobile-driven applications in interpretive programs to encourage free-choice learning and mindful visitor experiences. If effectively implemented, such interpretive programs and mLearning applications can affect visitor perceptions, attitudes, and future intentions toward conservation and environmental protection.     

Modelling attitudes to nature,tourism and sustainable development in national parks: A survey of visitors in China and the UK

This research undertook a visitor survey in two protected areas in different cultural contexts, namely China and the UK, to explore whether the value a person attaches to the environment influences their attitude towards sustainable tourism development in national parks. Structural equation models were developed with data from 597 and 368 questionnaires collected in Jiuzhaigou National Scenic Area, China and the New Forest National Park, UK respectively. The results suggested that anthropocentric or ecocentric values significantly influence people's attitudes to tourism and sustainable development. The same structured causal relationship was found in both samples, between people's attitudes towards the natural environment, conservation and tourism in a national park context.     

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。     

Transformative travel as a sustainable market niche for protected areas: a new development,marketing and conservation model

Many protected areas worldwide are mandated to provide visitor enjoyment and sustainable heritage conservation but face growing challenges and competition. To satisfy modern aspirational markets, parks must design meaningful experiences delivering long-lasting participant benefits that cultivate visitation rates and a conservation constituency. Transformative travel can deliver such benefits through participants’ psycho-physiological transformation but market insights critical for experience development in parks are lacking. Our systematic quantitative review of 126 transformative travel articles provides those insights, linking experiential characteristics, participant traits and motivations to experience outcomes according to five transformative travel typologies pertinent to parks: health and wellness, nature-based physical activity, spiritual, cultural and volunteering travel. We identified 35 travel motivations, 14 participant traits and 23 experience characteristics linked to transformation and 28 purposefully or incidentally realised benefits. Transformative travel improved participants’ psychological, physiological, social, economic and environmental conditions, as well as satisfaction with and destination loyalty towards parks. Socio-demographic characteristics and propensity for independent versus social travel shaped choice of travel experience. Our results are uniquely conceptualised in a transformative travel framework and transformative market niche model which we apply to sustainable experience development and marketing in parks. We identify implementation possibilities and areas for future research and monitoring.     

Micro-mobility patterns and service blueprints as foundations for visitor management planning

This paper proposes the use of micro-mobility patterns and service blueprints in visitor management planning. It argues that such planning approaches can improve management outcomes as well as visitor experiences whilst adding efficiency to the relevant management processes. The paper is based on the findings of visitor research on visitor flows and perceptions of visitor management in a nature-based tourism attraction in Wellington, New Zealand. These findings are used to adapt a service blueprint for the overall attraction to separately reflect visitor experiences of international visitors and New Zealanders. The paper posits that it is thus possible to identify and subsequently address the visitor management requirements of different visitor groups. Implications are discussed at three levels; first, for the case study attraction; second, for tourism attractions more broadly; third, conceptual implications for visitor management research are considered. Specific findings include the differences in micro-mobilities found across different market sectors, the need to improve signposting to offer distance and time guidance, the importance of topography, the potential to spread usage pressures across sites and the future potential to use mobile GPS units to obtain more detailed information.     

基于Agent的景区游客行为仿真建模与应用——以颐和园为例

我国旅游景区内部客流管理一直以来都没有得到应有的重视。通过对颐和园景区"五一"小长假和"十一"黄金周客流持续2年的实际观测,采用基于Agent的仿真建模方法,构建了游客到达、游客移动、游客停留等景区游客基本行为模型及其仿真运行环境——基于Agent的景区游客行为仿真系统。系统的正确性验证表明,仿真系统的输出数据能够反映景区各停留点游客数量的真实情况;系统的灵敏性验证表明,入口游客数、游客在景点的停留时间以及流向景点方向的客流量3个参数能够引起仿真系统各景点游客数量的灵敏变化。所建系统能够预测景区客流的时空分布,能够通过变换仿真参数值进行各种客流调控措施的仿真实验,并给出具体调控参数以支持景区管理者的客流管理实践。     

Financing the sustainable management of Rwanda's protected areas

Rwanda's Nyungwe National Park is a biodiversity hotspot with the most endemic species in the ecoregion and the highest number of threatened species internationally. Nyungwe supplies critical ecosystem services to the Rwandan population including water provisioning and tourism services. Tourism in the Park has strong potential for financing enhanced visitor experiences and the sustainable management of the Park. This paper explores quantitatively the economic impacts of adjustment in Park visitation fees and tourism demand as a source of revenues to improve Park tourism opportunities and ongoing operations and maintenance. The methods developed in this paper are novel in integrating the results of stated preference techniques with a regional computable general equilibrium modelling approach to capture multisectoral, direct, indirect and induced impacts. Such methods have strong potential for assessing revenue generation alternatives in other contexts where park managers are faced with the need to generate additional revenue for sustainable park management while facing diminishing budget allocations. Results of this analysis demonstrate that adjustment of Park fees has a relatively small impact on the regional economy and well-being when compared with a strategy aimed at generating increased tourism demand through investment in improving the visitor experience at Nyungwe National Park.     

Social big data informs spatially explicit management options for national parks with high tourism pressures

Nature-based tourism in protected areas is an easily experienced ecosystem service that humans enjoy, but it acts as tourism pressures on ecosystem. Some park managers, however, lack an understanding of the spatial distribution and ecological impact of these pressures. We analyzed the size and spatial distribution of these pressures in Korean national parks, using visitor statistics and social big data. In addition, by overlay it with endangered species distribution data, we analyzed areas where tourism pressures and ecologically significant areas could be conflicted. The tourism pressure differed according to the individual protected areas’ characteristics. Due to the unevenness of the magnitude and spatial distribution of pressures, the ecological impacts could be spatially differentiated. This study suggests that tourism pressure may be a decisive factor affecting protected areas' ecosystems with increased visitors. Using social big data, managers can establish spatially explicit management policies that consider tourism pressures on individual protected areas.     

Visitor management in the public planning policy context: A case study of Cambridge

Visitor management plans are increasingly seen by local authorities as an essential contribution they can make towards sustainable tourism. However, tourism is subject to many external influences and is only part of the system of activities and land uses at the destination. Successful visitor management must, therefore, be broadly based and rooted in a wide range of policies. The objectives for sustainable tourism in Cambridge are supported by policies at the European, national, regional, county and local level covering tourism, recreation, transport, the environment, land use and economic development. This results in an integrated policy framework that ensures consistency, encourages cooperation and long‐term planning, makes the best use of resources, opens up additional sources of finance and provides a firm justification for refusing undesirable development. Achieving integration requires the visitor management plan to be seen neither as an end nor as a beginning, but as part of a process. In Cambridge this has involved a commitment to monitoring and reviewing strategies and to ensuring a policy input on tourism issues at all levels of decision making. Appropriate ad hoc bodies have been set up. Visitor management cannot succeed in isolation: other policies must be made to work for it, not frustrate action.     

The Relationship Between Visitor-Based Standards of Quality and Existing Conditions in Parks and Outdoor Recreation

Abstract

Parks and related areas are increasingly adopting management-by-objectives/indicator-based frameworks to protect resources and the quality of visitor experiences. Indicator-based frameworks rely on development of indicators and standards of quality, and research has been developed to measure visitor-based standards of quality. In this research approach, visitors to parks and related areas judge the acceptability of a range of recreation-related impacts to natural/cultural resources and the quality of the visitor experience. The purpose of this paper is to explore the strength and variability of the relationship between visitor-based standards of quality and existing conditions in parks and related areas. Data were derived from studies conducted in 11 U.S. national park system units between 1995 and 2002. Results indicated that visitor-based standards of quality are generally unrelated to existing conditions. Implications of these findings are explored for research on visitor-based standards of quality and related issues, and for the management of parks and outdoor recreation.     

城市特征对城市游客满意度的影响——基于Probit模型的定量分析

游客满意度是衡量城市旅游发展的重要指标之一,掌握和控制游客满意度的影响因素对城市旅游发展和管理越来越关键。国内外研究综述表明,城市旅游的游客满意度影响因素及其关系的定量研究尚不多见,尤其对城市特征因素的研究。城市特征是城市旅游的必要组成,作为客观因素对游客满意度的影响不言而喻。文章运用文献分析法、问卷调查法和二元Probit离散选择模型计量法,以长沙市477名游客的现场调查数据为基础,对城市特征、个人特征和旅游动机三大变量下10个影响因素与游客满意度之间的假设关系进行检验。研究结果显示,修正后的游客满意度影响因素Probit模型具有统计学意义,6个研究假设得到验证;研究结论表明,城市社会发展水平、城市绿化水平、环境保护水平、旅游资源丰富程度、游客月收入、游客是否主动到访等因素对城市旅游的游客满意度产生显著的正面影响,其中,游客主动到访因素对游客满意度的影响作用最大,城市社会发展水平影响作用最小。研究结论一定程度上有利于促使城市管理者更多关注城市发展与旅游质量,最后,从满意度改善系统、城市要素建设、城市旅游资源开发和游客营销引导等方面提出政策建议。     

Local discourses and international initiatives: sociocultural sustainability of tourism in Oulanka National Park,Finland

National parks have become important tourist attractions and tools for regional development. New international initiatives, such as PAN (Protected Area Network) Parks in Europe, now promote sustainable tourism in protected areas. This paper examines the sociocultural sustainability of tourism perceived by local stakeholders of Oulanka National Park in northeastern Finland. The central question concerns the role of PAN Parks certification in community and tourism development. Four discourses were identified, based on 40 semi-structured interviews exploring different views on sociocultural development pertaining to tourism in the national park: (1) integrating nature-based tourism and conservation, (2) defending the rights of local people, (3) stressing the economic utilization of nature and (4) accepting tourism development and the national park. Although local stakeholders mostly have a positive perception of tourism in the park, it cannot be concluded whether the park facilitates development in a sustainable manner or not. Key problems identified are lack of participation opportunities and contradictions with traditional subsistence economies. The various positions of stakeholders in these discourses tend to influence their views on sustainability. Findings imply the necessity to monitor the distribution of benefits and burdens of park development holistically to multiple stakeholders.     

Visitor Attitudes to Stonehenge: International Icon or National Disgrace?

Stonehenge is the UK's major prehistoric tourism attraction, with almost 1 million annual visitors, one of the top 10 UK visitor attractions since the early 1990s and an international icon used in tourism marketing. However, Stonehenge is controversial; major issues are access, authenticity and interpretation, with the actual visitor experience being criticised and termed ‘a national disgrace’ by British Members of Parliament (MPs). This paper reports on research conducted at Stonehenge in late summer and early autumn 2004. This involved a questionnaire survey that asked about motivations, visitor impacts and satisfaction levels. Results reveal educational factors to be major motivators and that Stonehenge is a World Heritage Site was also an important motivation. The results reveal a variety of views, and a more complex picture than is apparent from much rhetoric concerning Stonehenge as a visitor attraction. Overseas visitors were more positive in their reaction than British visitors, first time visitors more satisfied than repeat visitors and female visitors somewhat more positive in their reaction than men. In terms of their experience, and largely contradicting the UK Government committee claims, the majority of visitors indicated that Stonehenge has good interpretation, a fair entrance charge, provides good value for money and, overall, is an enjoyable experience.     

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.     

Changing Conceptions of Protected Areas and Conservation: Linking Conservation,Ecological Integrity and Tourism Management

From their first creation, national parks and equivalent reserves were socially constructed in the New World as static, primordial, untouched representations of a pre-European contact environment characterised by the ‘balance of nature’ resting in a steady (climax) state. While these images still linger in the minds of the public, the recent utilisation of landscape ecology, conservation biology and social constructivism to study and re-conceptualise protected areas has demonstrated that parks are not the protected islands of virgin wilderness they were constructed to represent; rather than protecting these areas from disturbance, we now recognise that disturbance is a major component in ecological integrity. We suggest that the resultant shift from species- to process-based conservation (i.e. ecological integrity), from attempting to cocoon parks from outside influences to re-engaging parks with landscape-level processes, has critical ramifications for protected area and sustainable tourism management. Land managers need to adapt to a new paradigm that reflects and supports this philosophical change in conservation principles; this shift is also reflected in science itself, manifested by a move from normal to ‘post-normal’ science which embraces these new principles. This approach should link visitor expectations with dynamic, non-linear, self-organising natural processes in order to meet conservation objectives.