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.     

Seeing the forest for the trees: tourism and the International Year of Forests

The year 2011 is the United Nations International Year of Forests. In addition to performing extremely significant environmental, economic, and social services, forests are also important tourism attractions in their own right and locations for recreation and tourism activities. The limited statistical data available suggest that there are billions of tourism and recreational visits to forests each year. This paper provides a global overview of biodiversity conservation, protected areas, recreational access, and management objectives in forests before outlining some of the main themes in the relationship between tourism and forests. It concludes that there is a need for a research effort on tourism and forests in order to provide greater recognition for the economic and environmental contributions of tourism in forest areas as well as the overall value of forests for health and wellbeing.     

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.     

‘A sliver of the true fort’: imagining Fort Edmonton, 1911–2011

Over the course of the twentieth century, the Fort Edmonton Park living history museum helped to coordinate the city's hinterland origins as a military and trading post with its metropolitan ambitions. In the process, it has served as a symbol of community progress and spirit as well as a tourist attraction. In 2009, Park management proposed a series of touristic enhancements including holographic characters, interactive games, sound effects, new rides, and Wild West-style theatrics. Immediate public debate arose in response to the spectre of theme park marketing, a body of discourse building on a century of negotiations over form, content, and control of Fort Edmonton's commemoration. A study of discourse from several main periods reveals a recurring set of conceptual clashes and interactions between values of, first, historical authenticity and local legitimacy in representation and, second, the practical challenges of operating a sustainable and competitive leisure attraction. After focusing on the construction of the Park from the 1970s through the 1990s, this paper concludes with an overview of current issues of representation in public history in the city at the turn of a new century.     

A comparison of local and non-local visitor information-seeking behavior by visitors to civil war-related US National Park Service sites

Although previous research has documented differences between local and non-local visitors, the differences in the information sources referenced when planning trips have not been assessed in published studies. Differences in the sources used by local and non-local visitors to National Park Service Civil War conflict sites were examined, as were differences in ages and visitation characteristics. Although the vast majority of respondents had gathered information about the sites prior to visiting, differences existed in the type of sources used in general, sources used by locals as opposed to non-locals and sources used by visitors of different ages. Locals were more likely to be younger and to use past experience and the advice of acquaintances, whereas non-locals were more likely to be older and use impersonal sources. The results from this study can be used to target certain geographic or demographic populations with site information.     

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.     

‘A‘ohe pau ke ‘ike ka hālau ho‘okahi [All knowledge is not taught in the same school]1 Welcoming Kānaka Hawai‘i Waves of Knowing and Revisiting Leisure

As we reflect on the leisure science canon, we use this occasion to ponder how our scholarship has engaged with communities with alternative worldviews compared with the Euro-North American worldview dominant in leisure scholarship. While some Indigenous cultural practices may, at first glance, seem similar to behaviors found in Euro-North American leisure space-time, such a comparison is often problematic when an Indigenous language has no equivalent concept or word for leisure and the worldview assumes a different relational reality. Drawing on our ongoing research working with Kanaka Hawai‘i, we offer a discussion of the relevance and need for Ieisure scholars and practitioners to engage with Indigenous worldviews, ways of knowing and being. We specifically focus on approaches and dispositions relevant to scholars and practitioners as we look to nourishing possibilities for richer relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples through leisure.     

Connecting Visitors to People and Place: Visitors’ Perceptions of Authenticity at Canyon de Chelly National Monument,Arizona

This study examines the effect of visitors’ characteristics, motivations and sense of place attachment on perceptions of authenticity at a cultural heritage site. Data were collected in summer and fall 2006 through an on-site survey questionnaire administered to a random sample of visitors to Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona ( n = 379; 76% response rate). The most important motives for visiting were ‘To enjoy nature’ and ‘To experience Navajo culture’. Additionally, visitors perceived a strong sense of place identity but a weaker sense of place dependence. Preservation of the archaeological resources was the most important contributor towards an authentic experience, followed by learning about customs and values of local people, meeting local people and visiting with an authorised Navajo guide. Attending interpretive programmes contributed the least. Results show that motivation to experience Navajo culture, the place identity dimension of place attachment, educational attainment, age and past experience at the monument had significant effects on the perception of an authentic experience at the monument. Place identity emerged as the strongest predictor of perceptions of authenticity, suggesting that a strong emotional bond is an important factor in visitors perceiving a site to be authentic. As visitor motivations for learning about the Navajo culture increased, so did perceptions of authenticity. Higher age also led to increased feelings of authenticity. As education levels and prior experience increased, perceptions of authenticity decreased.     

Heritage authenticities – a case study of authenticity perceptions at a Danish heritage site

Authenticity in reconstructions of the past is essential to heritage management, and new technologies have made this a highly pertinent dilemma. Demands for new interpretation offers and experiences raise questions of the extent to which such demands can or should be met. New technologies have already made their way into the heritage industry as a means of innovation for interpretation offers, among these is augmented reality. New technologies have made a limited break-through arguably rooted in conservatism among heritage managers. This raises a question of managers' understandings and perceptions of authenticity and effects on heritage and new technologies. Based on an exploratory case, Lindholm Høje Viking burial and museum in Denmark, this paper proposes that different conceptions of authenticity can co-exist within the tourist setting, whereby new technologies can be implemented to strengthen heritage sites as tourism attractions while still paying attention to authenticity and ongoing authentication processes. Abstract, conceptual discussions of authenticity often stress the extremes, but it is here argued that a combination can exist in practice. The paper also suggests that understanding levels and patterns of authenticity among various groups of actors is central to discussions of authenticity and its role in tourism settings.     

基于社区参与的农业文化遗产旅游解说资源研究--以浙江青田稻鱼共生系统为例

旅游解说是实现旅游目的地与游客之间有效沟通的桥梁,发现和挖掘解说资源是旅游目的地解说系统建设的基础性工作。社区居民是农业文化遗产的创造者和传承者,对遗产地历史文化及旅游资源最为了解。鉴于此,文章运用欣赏式探询研究方法,从遗产地社区参与的角度探究浙江青田稻鱼共生系统核心保护区龙现村社区居民认知的旅游解说资源以及当地社区可参与旅游解说的途径。研究建立了以主体旅游解说资源和辅助旅游解说资源为主要内容的农业文化遗产旅游解说资源体系,并以龙现村实地调研获取的第一手数据为基础,进行了实证分析与可视化空间分析与展示;在此基础上分析了遗产地社区参与旅游解说的相关途径。分析发现,农业文化遗产社区认知中的解说资源更具象化,多与社区居民自身生产生活息息相关;龙现村解说资源的空间分布以村庄内聚集式分布和村庄周边块状分布为主,集聚程度从居民居住地向村外梯度递减。这为旅游解说资源研究提供了新视角,为深入挖掘农业文化遗产的独特价值,建立和完善农业文化遗产解说体系奠定基础。     

解说:一种重要的遗产保护策略

遗产保护是一项复杂而系统的工程,不同历史时期面临的主要任务不同。20世纪90年代以来,中国旅游业的高速发展引发了众多问题,如何降低和消除旅游业对遗产资源的负面影响成为当今遗产保护的一项重要工作。解说,作为一种重要的遗产保护策略,有着非常重要的作用。解说能够通过影响游客的知识重组和行为意图,帮助达到旅游可持续发展和遗产资源有效保护的双赢目标。     

国外自然保护地分区模式比较及启示

分区是自然保护地得以有效管理的必要手段,它伴随保护地内部及周边矛盾的出现而产生,并随矛盾的不断演化而发晨.现阶段各国由于保护地具体情况以及面临同题不同而采用不同的分区模式.本文以分区与其矛盾的对应关系为主线,论述了保护地内不同功能区的产生背景;重点比较了美、加、日、韩等国国家公园分区模式的差异及产生原因,在此基础上,归纳总结了自然保护地分区的三种基本模式,以及分区制与保护地面临矛盾的对应关系.最后对我国自然保护地分区提出建议.