Mountain Places,Cultural Spaces: The Interpretation of Culturally Significant Landscapes

This paper presents an overview of how national park interpretation in New Zealand is incorporating Māori perspectives of cultural landscapes. Since the formation of the Department of Conservation in 1987, interpretive material containing information about the relationship between local iwi (Māori tribal groups) and natural areas has increased. Co-operative management strategies have been instigated by the Department to ensure that interpretation conveying Māori perspectives and cultural values for the landscape is accurate and authorised by iwi members. The paper analyses the findings from a survey that asked visitors about their experiences of the cultural interpretation at Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. At this site, Department of Conservation staff aim to (1) increase visitors' understanding of the Māori relationship to the land and (2) direct appropriate visitor behaviour whilst in the area. Many survey respondents were unaware of the relationship between Māori and the area prior to their visit, despite reporting cultural activities and experiences with indigenous peoples as travel motivators. On-site interpretation contributed to raising visitors' awareness that the landscape has special significance to local iwi, thus providing a cultural dimension to the visitors' experiences at this internationally renowned natural area.     

Outside Looking In: Resisting Colonial Discourses of Aboriginality

Using postcolonial theory, this article examines the ways in which the staff and members of the board of directors of Outside Looking In (OLI), a youth development through arts- and leisure-based program for Aboriginal youth in Canada, respond to discourses about Aboriginality. Based on interviews with OLI staff and board members, field notes, and the review of archival documents, we argue that OLI staff and board members encounter three dominant discourses: hip-hop is not an Aboriginal activity, Aboriginal youth should learn through mainstream forms of education, and Aboriginal peoples are inherently flawed. We show, however, how OLI exemplifies Bhabha's (1994) notion of hybrid third spaces because it reflects Aboriginal youth's contemporary cultural interests in hip-hop, it integrates kinesthetic education into Eurocentric learning regimes, and its participants return the colonial gaze at OLI's annual performance. OLI exemplifies how leisure activities can be used to challenge colonial discourses of Aboriginality in Canada.     

Chinese and international visitor perceptions of interpretation at Beijing built heritage sites

Research exploring visitor perceptions of heritage sites indicates that a site may hold different meanings for visitors depending on their cultural backgrounds. Little research has, however, identified visitor cultural preferences and so informed the development, delivery and management of on-site heritage interpretive experiences. This paper addresses this need by identifying cultural differences and similarities between Chinese and international visitors in relation to their interpretive motives, preferences and perceptions. Questionnaires were completed by 277 domestic Chinese visitors and 94 international visitors at five key Beijing built heritage sites. Differences between Chinese and international visitors’ conceptions of heritage; ratings of importance of facilities, services and interpretive content; and perceptions of the visitor experience are identified. Amongst many findings, Chinese respondents were more likely than international respondents to state that heritage sites should be an important part of the country's national heritage, convey the country's power and be famous. They sought built heritage sites visited by someone famous and that feature in well-known Chinese paintings and poetry. International visitors were more likely than Chinese visitors to state that heritage sites should have authentically old buildings and be relevant to contemporary life. Implications for interpretive and management practice at Chinese heritage sites are discussed.     

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Interpretation within Dartmoor National Park in Reaching the Goals of Sustainable Tourism Development

In the face of growing pressure placed on the natural environment from increased tourism, this study considers the role of interpretation in achieving sustainable tourism development in natural areas used for tourism. Knowledge gain, attitude change and behaviour modification were used as key indicators in the assessment of the interpretive effectiveness of the High Moorland Visitor Centre in Dartmoor National Park, UK. Through comparing responses to questionnaires from pre- and post-visit samples, this study found that interpretation added to visitor's knowledge of the site. This increase in knowledge encouraged visitors to see how they could change their behaviour to be more respectful of the natural environment. This indicates that there is indeed scope for interpretation, to help modify the behaviour of tourists through increased knowledge and awareness. Attitude change did occur as a result of interpretation in the centre, but only to a limited extent. Participant observation carried out at the centre revealed that interactive material played a vital part in the effectiveness of interpretive messages. Overall results from this study suggest that interpretation, if carefully designed, is capable of contributing to the goals of sustainable tourism development by achieving knowledge restructuring and resulting behavioural intentions of visitors.     

‘An edifying spectacle’: A history of ‘tourist corroborees’ in Victoria,Australia, 1835–1870

Parsons [Parsons, M. (2002). “Ah that I could convey a proper idea of this interesting wild play of the natives” corroborees and the rise of indigenous Australian cultural tourism. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2(1), 14–27.] has persuasively argued that nineteenth century corroborees performed for non-indigenous audiences may be considered to be Australia's pre-eminent prototypical indigenous cultural tourism product. This paper extends Parsons' [Parsons, M. (1997). The tourist corroboree in South Australia. Aboriginal History, 21(1), 46–69; Parsons, M. (2002). “Ah that I could convey a proper idea of this interesting wild play of the natives” corroborees and the rise of indigenous Australian cultural tourism. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2(1), 14–27.] analyses of ‘tourist corroborees’ in nineteenth century South Australia to corroborees staged in Victoria during the pastoral period and the gold rushes of the 1850–1870s. It argues that an Aboriginal-grown ‘business acumen’ developed rapidly in the economic climate of the Victorian goldfields. It also provides a historical context to this commodification.     

Residents' Perceptions of the Impact of Cultural Tourism on Urban Development: The Case of Gwangju,Korea

Cultural tourism constitutes an alternative strategy of sustainable urban development for improving quality of life. The main objective of this type of tourism is to transform regions characterized by cultural resources into ideal places for vacation, residence or business. In this study residents' perceptions of cultural tourism were examined in a case study of Gwangju, Korea. It was found that the majority of the respondents were aware of the importance of cultural tourism and that they argued that it could contribute to urban development. The findings also suggest that there is a strong relationship between the respondents' characteristics and their perceptions of the impact of cultural tourism on urban development.     

The Effects of Korean Pop Culture on Hong Kong Residents' Perceptions of Korea as a Potential Tourist Destination

The goal of this study is to assess the influences that Korean pop culture has on Hong Kong residents' perceptions of Korea as a potential tourist destination. Among the 500 distributed questionnaires, 456 were collected. Finally, 440 usable surveys were used for data analysis after eliminating 16 questionnaires with multiple missing answers that were deemed unusable. Data analyses produced many meaningful results. For example, respondents who were less educated and tended to spend more on Korean cultural products had a higher intention to visit Korea after they tasted Korean food. Expenditures on Korean cultural products were a significant contributor to Hong Kong residents' intention to visit Korea after experiencing the three types of Korean pop culture used in this study. Results of this study confirm those of previous studies, which found that the media had a significant influence on a person's choice of tourist destination.     

Sound and meaning in Aboriginal tourism

Musical heritage is a profitable resource in the development of cultural tourism worldwide, yet the identities of the communities whose music is recontextualized at venues are frequently co-opted in the process. Centering on an Aboriginal tourism company operating in Ottawa, Canada, this paper demonstrates how marginalized communities having greater control over the space where products are consumed gain more flexibility and agency in the struggle to reappropriate the semantic, social, and economic uses of their cultural assets. The study’s findings confirm that interpreters are responding to opportunities generated by tourism development and changes in federal–Aboriginal relations to challenge non-native stereotypes and resignify aesthetic forms with indigenous meanings through musical interaction with tourists.     

Pro-poor tourism: residents' expectations,experiences and perceptions in the Kakum National Park Area of Ghana

This paper examines Ghana's evolving tourism policies with special reference to its spatial and pro-poor impacts. Using a sample of 182 respondents around the Kakum National Park in Ghana's Central Region, an area which is rich in tourism assets but economically poor, it examines residents’ expectations, experiences and perceptions about tourism development in the area. While some expectations were too much, others had been met, if only somewhat. Residents’ experiences in terms of direct socio-economic benefits were modest. But largely on account of indirect gains from a range of pro-poor interventions, the majority had a fairly positive perception of tourism in the area. Respondents of communities beyond the Park's reception area had gained more from associated interventions rather than from tourism. Age and place of birth were also found to be key variables that influenced residents’ perspectives on tourism development in the area. Nevertheless, residents’ overall perception suggests that sustainable tourism development requires an approach that simultaneously improves the tourism product and enhances residents’ livelihood options. The need for residents to be involved in decision-making if pro-poor tourism is to be successful was underlined.     

Ecotourism and the Conservation Ethic: Recruiting the Uninitiated or Preaching to the Converted?

Ecotourism is being promoted as a sustainable alternative to mass tourism, although critics suggest that it may be just as damaging because it encourages increased use of natural areas. One of ecotourism's claimed benefits is the promotion of pro-environment attitudes and behaviours. However, this may not occur if ecotourists are already 'converted' to the pro-environment cause. To test this claim, a study was undertaken of ecotourists visiting Lamington National Park in southeast Queensland. A pre-/post-visit questionnaire survey was conducted on-site, as well as a follow-up mail-out survey four months later. This paper presents results of that study in terms of four ecotourist groups. Results indicate that ecotourism can increase environmental knowledge and influence conservation views and behaviours. Of the four groups, coach day tour visitors were the least pro-environment initially but had relatively strong ecotourist motivations. They achieved the highest gains in knowledge and in the short term were influenced the most by the visit. In the long term, respondents who were the most pro-environment and who had learnt most during their visit were influenced the most. Therefore, for immediate effects of the experience on the uninitiated to endure, motivations need to be stimulated to encourage further involvement in and learning about nature. The question remains as to whether encouraging such involvement will have net benefits for the environment.     

Performing culture at indigenous culture parks in Taiwan: Using Q method to identify the performers' subjectivities

Performance of indigenous culture at culture parks for tourism is traditionally viewed from a modernist ontological perspective as exploitative and from a managerial perspective as the provision of a service. These views might fail to accommodate the performers' subjectivities. In this Q method study the views of the performers are identified based on a sample of 30 respondents and 42 Q sort items. Respondents were performers employed at the Indigenous Peoples Culture Park in Taiwan. The replicability of a previous Q study was tested using the same design in a different research setting. In both studies two clusters of subjectivity were found: the ‘Performers’ View’ and the ‘Instructors’ View’. Neither view conforms to the modernist or managerial perspective identified in tourism research. Instead, the reflexivity of Q suggests that in the performance of indigenous culture, these fixed ontological categories are porous and situational.     

Visitors to Litchfield National Park,Australia: A Typology Based on Behaviours

Litchfield Park is located in the Northern Territory, Australia, and attracts over 280,000 visitors a year. The paper reports results derived from a visitor monitoring system established by the Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory in 1997. Specific attention is paid to the development of clusters of visitors. Five such clusters were identified and the paper reports not simply the results of a cluster analysis, but additionally provides an importance–satisfaction matrix for the total sample. These five clusters were described as 'day visitors', 'hedonists', 'generalists', 'four-wheeldrive enthusiasts' and 'information seekers'. It was found that there was a desire to limit commercial activities within the park. It is suggested that the Parks and Wildlife Commission might have to view advertising parks as a series of complementary attractions linked to specific usage patterns rather than simply regard each park as an isolated unit. The paper also provides background data about the park, and the activities undertaken by visitors.     

Who visits the Kruger National Park,and why? identifying target markets

This study identified viable target markets at South Africa’s most renowned nature reserve, the Kruger National Park, using market segmentation based on demographic characteristics. International, domestic, and local nature tourists were surveyed and categorized into three distinct clusters. The results show that block clustering based on visitors’ demographic characteristics is a useful research tool for producing a clear visitor profile and showed that during the process of market segmentation it is necessary to establish the relationship between a particular segmentation base and visitors' behavior and preferences. This is useful information for managing this Park, and other similar parks, more sustainably.     

Exploring the Chinese Immigrants' Preference of Tourist Activities During Their Homeland Visit and Use of Past Memories

The present study attempts to explore Chinese immigrants' preference of tourist activities during their homeland visits and examine how their past memories related to their homeland may influence their preference of tourist activities. Data were collected by using a semi-structured interview and a survey of 500 Chinese immigrants. The findings revealed two types of tourist activities, namely “sightseeing” and “relive the past”. It was found that respondents' length of living in Macao and their homeland, travel patterns, and use of their past memories related to their homeland in their present life could significantly influence their preference of tourist activities during their homeland visits. Moreover, respondents, who planned to revisit their homeland in the near future, had participated in these two types of tourist activities during their last homeland visit significantly more than those respondents who had not. The results suggested that the Chinese immigrants' preference of tourist activities during their homeland visit reflected their needs of connecting to their cultural identity, reliving their past life, and learning about the changes of their homeland and personal life over the past years. The findings offer some marketing implications for destination managers in relation to tourist experience management.     

Leadership,power and racism: lifeguards’ influences on Aboriginal people’s experiences at a Northern Canadian aquatic facility

Using a Foucauldian and postcolonial lens, this case study examines the ways in which leadership styles used by lifeguards and supported by the structure, rules and regulations at a northern Canadian swimming pool influenced Aboriginal people’s experience of the facility. Participant observation, semi-structured interviews and a focus group were used to identify the ways in which Eurocentric lifeguard training, exercises of power, institutional racism and an absence of cultural competency can intersect to influence Aboriginal people’s use of a local pool and their considerations of lifeguarding as a potential employment opportunity. On the basis of these findings, the study suggests that the development and implementation of anti-discriminatory policies and procedures for swimming pools and the inclusion of cultural competency teachings in lifeguard training are necessary measures to enhance Aboriginal people’s experiences at northern swimming pools, to foster opportunities to become lifeguards and to augment Euro-Canadian lifeguards’ capacity to maintain a safe and welcoming aquatic environment in a cross-cultural context.     

Developing Standards for Trail Conditions Using Image Capture Technology

Abstract

This study compares normative standards for trail impacts measured using three alternatives suggested by the literature. During September and October 2002, data were collected from a survey of 281 day hikers at three trail locations in Mudeung-Mountain Provincial Park, Korea. For the overall photo evaluation method (OPEM), respondents were asked to rate the acceptability of bare soil area for each of a series of photographs. For the specific photo evaluation method-1 (SPEM-1), respondents were asked to select a photograph that illustrated the largest acceptable proportion of bare soil area from a series of 10 photographs. For the specific photo evaluation method-2 (SPEM-2), respondents were asked to circle a number representing the largest acceptable proportion of bare soil area on a scale after looking at three referent photographs. Aggregated normative standards varied somewhat for different measurement alternatives and trail locations. Although SPEM-1 was the easiest alternative for respondents, followed by SPEM-2 and OPEM, more respondents preferred OPEM and SPEM-1 compared to SPEM-2.     

Back to literacy

One of the seminal works in the development of British cultural studies was Richard Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy , in which he presents a vision of working class communities in the 40 years since the First World War. To do this he drew particularly on his experiences of Hunslet in South Leeds. In this paper we revisit South Leeds 40 years on to examine continuities and changes in the community as evidenced through people's leisure and compare this with Hoggart's analysis. To do this we have drawn on census and other official statistics and our own observation and interviews in the field. In order to interpret today's communities in South Leeds we make use of theoretical developments in the interim. We suggest that in what Bauman (1997) refers to as ‘two nations society mark two’ people try to reinvent community and it is through leisure in particular that this is evidenced. We therefore conclude that any attempt to understand ‘community’ at the millennium must place leisure centre stage.     

Cultural capital and online purchase of tourism services

Based on an original conceptual framework that links cultural capital and pro-active behaviors, this paper investigates whether individuals' cultural capital increases the probability of purchasing tourism services through the Internet.The identification of possible direct channels through which tourism firms can address and attract consumers is particularly relevant for an industry in which re-intermediation processes by big online travel agencies have partly dampened the benefits of disintermediation along the supply chain.Through a Heckman-corrected probit run on year 2016 microdata referred to the Italian population, evidence is found that the cultural participation is associated to individuals' higher probability to purchase tourism services online. This adds some new dimensions to the understanding of factors that have a bearing on online purchasing.     

Natural area destinations: the Moroccan experience

The fact that America's 337 natural and historical national park areas currently record more than 300 million visits each year has not gone unnoticed by tourism experts from other countries. Priscilla R. Baker, special assistant to the director (tourism) at the National Park Service in the USA, recounts how a team from the US Park Service travelled to Morocco to complete a study for the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism.     

Using Video Surveys to Access Dispersed Backcountry Visitors' Norms

Image Capture Technology (ICT), or the capture and editing of photographic images using microcomputers, has been used in a variety of settings to assess social and ecological impacts. This study illustrates the application of this technology in a VHS videotape survey designed to assess visitors' norms for varying numbers of watercraft, sounds from aircraft and motorized boats, and the acceptability of floating outfitting camps. Acceptability ratings for three setting contexts (access areas, attraction sites, and wild places) within Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, British Columbia, were evaluated. Methodologically, use of the videotape survey proved to be a cost effective vehicle in evaluating both sight and sound impacts. More than 75% of the respondents indicated that the images served as useful reminders of their visit and helped them articulate their norms. These normative standards were consistent with other studies conducted in backcountry areas. The implications of this technology for addressing natural resource management issues are discussed.