National Park Visitor Segments and their Interest in Rural Tourism Services and Intention to Revisit

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 88-103
Author(s):  
Невонен Марджо ◽  
Nevonen Mardzho ◽  
Сьеванен Туйя ◽  
Sevanen Tuyya ◽  
Поута Эйя ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Five Dimensions ◽  
Tourism Enterprises ◽  
Tourism Services ◽  
Guided Tours ◽  
Intention To Revisit ◽  
Area Data

The study aims to understand national park visitors’ interests to use tourism services provided in the vicinity of Linnansaari, Seitseminen and Repovesi national parks in Southern Finland. Separate visitor groups were identified based on their use of tourism services and their intention to revisit the area. Data were generated from a questionnaire survey of 736 visitors to the national parks. The analyses revealed five dimensions of interest in tourism services from which five visitor groups were identified: Countryside and outdoor friends, who were interested in recreation services; safari riders, interested in renting snowmobiles and similar services; guided visitors, who were interested in guided tours; room and rental seekers, whose main interest was accommodation and rental services, and uninterested, who had no interest in services. The strongest intentions to revisit the parks and the regions were recorded among “countryside and outdoor friends” and “safari riders”. The results of this study may help tourism enterprises, municipality decision makers and park managers in rural communities surrounding national parks to understand and recognize visitors’ overall needs of tourism services.

scholarly journals Successes and Challenge in Sustainable Development Goals Localisation for Host Communities around Kruger National Park

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5341
Author(s):  
Mashudu Andra Mabibibi ◽  
Kaitano Dube ◽  
Konanani Thwala
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Host Community ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Tourism Enterprises ◽  
Sustainability Challenges

Tourism has often been blamed for its unsustainable ways for a number of years now. Consequently, there have been efforts to ensure that tourism contributes to the host communities to address some of the sustainability challenges through responsible and sustainable tourism initiatives in the recent past. With less than nine years to go before the lapse of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a need to take stock of how tourism enterprises such as national parks are contributing to the SDGs. This study examines how Kruger National Parks (KNP) is assisting the host communities in meeting the SDG goals and targets. The study made use of 30 in-depth key informant interviews, field observations and critical document analysis. The study found that regardless of the challenges it faces as an organization in partnering with host communities for developmental purposes, Kruger National Park has assisted communities to meet at least 15 out of the 17 SDGs. These span from social to economic, environmental and cultural SDGs. Since KNP’s projects address host community needs, several challenges need to be dealt with to ensure the sustainability of these projects post COVID-19 pandemic, which has undermined many nature tourism establishments worldwide. Besides the pandemic, there is a need to manage community expectations with regard to how far it can address some of the challenges faced by communities.

scholarly journals Ecotourism Practices in Potatso National Park from the Perspective of Tourists: Assessment and Developing Contradictions

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12655
Author(s):  
Rumin Zheng ◽  
Shuo Zhen ◽  
Lin Mei ◽  
Hongqiang Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Environmental Behaviors ◽  
Five Dimensions ◽  
Education Community ◽  
Content Analysis Method

Ecotourism in Potatso National Park has been developing for more than 15 years, which has had important guiding significance for the development of China’s national parks. This paper analyzes ecotourism practices in Potatso by extracting related travel notes and adopting the ground theory and content analysis method. The results show that the current ecotourism practices in Potatso include 5 dimensions and 15 elements. The five dimensions are the natural environment, environmental education, community participation, ecotourism experience and socioeconomic background. The five most important elements are the ecosystem elements, sensory and behavioral ecotourism experience, ecological facilities and interpretation systems. There are also three contradictions: between tourists’ environmental awareness and lack of environmental behaviors, between community participation and residents’ reception capacity, and between environmental education and tourists’ experiences. Regarding the future development of Potatso, conservation will always come first. A breakthrough is needed to strengthen the conversion of environmental education to the environmental behavior of tourists, adjust the participation model of communities dynamically, and continue innovating in the form of environmental education.

scholarly journals The feasibility of national parks in South Africa endorsing a community development agenda: The case of Mokala National Park and two neighbouring rural communities

Koedoe ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendri Coetzee ◽  
Werner Nell
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Community Development ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Phase 3 ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Qualitative Phase ◽  
And Training

This article explores the feasibility of South African National Parks (SANParks) endorsing a community development agenda, using Mokala National Park (MNP) and two neighbouring rural communities as case study. A three-phase sequential exploratory, mixed-methods approach was followed: an initial exploratory qualitative phase aimed at identifying the development needs of the two communities; a quantitative phase aimed at verifying and quantifying the identified needs; and a final qualitative phase (with a minor quantitative component) to determine what parks can reasonably achieve in terms of community development based on their available resources, capacity and expertise. Qualitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews (Phase 1: n = 22; Phase 3: n = 6), which were thematically analysed. Quantitative data were collected via a structured questionnaire (Phase 2: n = 484; Phase 3: n = 6) and analysed using SPSS 23. Findings revealed that the communities’ most significant needs centred on employment opportunities; improved healthcare, service delivery and waste management; and education. Community members also expressed the need for improved community policing, safety and security; social services; agricultural support and training; general skills development and training; local leadership; recreational facilities; local economic development and conservation initiatives. Results from the third phase of the study suggest that parks such as MNP can realistically only address some of the identified community needs significantly; primarily job creation (via temporary employment), skills development, local economic development, support of local conservation (especially via environmental education) and, to a lesser extent, agricultural support and training and permanent job creation.Conservation implications: The findings could be of practical use to SANParks to steer its community development initiatives towards attaining a more optimal balance between actual community needs and what the organisation can realistically offer, thus rendering SANParks’ efforts more efficient and effective in supporting the establishment of equitable and sustainable rural communities.

From Competition to Cooperation: A History of Canada–US National Park Relations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Young ◽  
Alan MacEachern ◽  
Lary Dilsaver
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Park Service ◽  
Settler Societies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
The Relationship

This essay explores the evolving international relationship of the two national park agencies that in 1968 began to offer joint training classes for protected-area managers from around the world. Within the British settler societies that dominated nineteenth century park-making, the United States’ National Park Service (NPS) and Canada’s National Parks Branch were the most closely linked and most frequently cooperative. Contrary to campfire myths and nationalist narratives, however, the relationship was not a one-way flow of information and motivation from the US to Canada. Indeed, the latter boasted a park bureaucracy before the NPS was established. The relationship of the two nations’ park leaders in the half century leading up to 1968 demonstrates the complexity of defining the influences on park management and its diffusion from one country to another.

Into Russian Nature

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan D. Roe
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
National Parks ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
National Park ◽  
World War ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
Development Goals

Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great October Revolution but pushed the Soviet government successfully to establish nature reserves (zapovedniki) during the USSR’s first decades. However, as the state pushed scientists to make zapovedniki more “useful” during the 1930s, some of the system’s staunchest defenders started supporting tourism in them. In the decades after World War II, the USSR experienced a tourism boom and faced a chronic shortage of tourism facilities. Also during these years, Soviet scientists took active part in Western-dominated international environmental protection organizations, where they became more familiar with national parks. In turn, they enthusiastically promoted parks for the USSR as a means to reconcile environmental protection and economic development goals, bring international respect to Soviet nature protection efforts, and help instill a love for the country’s nature and a desire to protect it in Russian/Soviet citizens. By the late 1980s, their supporters pushed transformative, and in some cases quixotic, park proposals. At the same time, national park opponents presented them as an unaffordable luxury during a time of economic struggle, especially after the USSR’s collapse. Despite unprecedented collaboration with international organizations, Russian national parks received little governmental support as they became mired in land-use conflicts with local populations. While the history of Russia’s national parks illustrates a bold attempt at reform, the state’s failure’s to support them has left Russian park supporters deeply disillusioned.

scholarly journals Values of Travel Time for Recreational Trips under Different Behavioural Rules

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6831
Author(s):  
Rosa Marina González ◽  
Concepción Román ◽  
Ángel Simón Marrero
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
National Park ◽  
Revealed Preference ◽  
Discrete Choice Models ◽  
Model Specification ◽  
Regret Minimization ◽  
Random Regret Minimization

In this study, discrete choice models that combine different behavioural rules are estimated to study the visitors’ preferences in relation to their travel mode choices to access a national park. Using a revealed preference survey conducted on visitors of Teide National Park (Tenerife, Spain), we present a hybrid model specification—with random parameters—in which we assume that some attributes are evaluated by the individuals under conventional random utility maximization (RUM) rules, whereas others are evaluated under random regret minimization (RRM) rules. We then compare the results obtained using exclusively a conventional RUM approach to those obtained using both RUM and RRM approaches, derive monetary valuations of the different components of travel time and calculate direct elasticity measures. Our results provide useful instruments to evaluate policies that promote the use of more sustainable modes of transport in natural sites. Such policies should be considered as priorities in many national parks, where negative transport externalities such as traffic congestion, pollution, noise and accidents are causing problems that jeopardize not only the sustainability of the sites, but also the quality of the visit.

scholarly journals The Wadden Sea as a National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site: Students’ Word Associations with These Two Conservation Designations

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 8006
Author(s):  
Till Schmäing ◽  
Norbert Grotjohann
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Wadden Sea ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Site ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
Word Associations ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Unesco World Heritage Site ◽  
Significant Difference

The Wadden Sea ecosystem is unique in many respects from a biological perspective. This is one reason why it is protected by national parks in Germany and by its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In biology didactics, there are only a few studies that focus on the Wadden Sea. This work investigates students’ word associations with the two stimulus words “national park” and “UNESCO World Heritage Site”. The survey was conducted among students living directly at the Wadden Sea and among students from the inland. The analysis of the identified associations (n = 8345) was carried out within the framework of a quantitative content analysis to be able to present and discuss the results on a group level. A statistically significant difference was found between the two groups. Overall, results showed that the students made subject-related associations as well as a large number of associations to both stimulus words that could be judged as non-subject-related. In some cases, a connection with the region of residence could be found, but this was not generally the case. Even students’ immediate residential proximity to the Wadden Sea is no guarantee that they have knowledge of the two considered protection terms.

scholarly journals Does a National Park Enhance the Environment-Friendliness of Tourists as an Ecotourism Destination?

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (16) ◽  
pp. 8321
Author(s):  
Eunseong Jeong ◽  
Taesoo Lee ◽  
Alan Dixon Brown ◽  
Sara Choi ◽  
Minyoung Son
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Behavioral Intention ◽  
National Park ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Environment Friendly ◽  
Sustainable Environment ◽  
The Relationship

Governments have designated national parks to protect the natural environment against ecosystem destruction and improve individuals’ emotional and recreational life. National parks enhance environment-friendly awareness by conducting ecotourism activities and individuals with environment-friendly awareness are inclined to continue to visit national parks as ecotourism destinations. The New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) is a widely used measure of environmental concern, suitable for measuring the environment-friendly attitude and revisit intention of visitors of national parks. Therefore, the study carried out structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the relationship between the NEP, national park conservation consciousness and environment-friendly behavioral intention. Based on the results, an implication is presented to induce national parks to cultivate individual environment-friendly awareness and for visitors to pursue sustainable, environment-friendly tourism behavior. The findings indicate that national parks are to expand educational programs and facilities for eco-tourists visiting national parks to maintain a balanced relationship between themselves and nature and have a strong environmental awareness to preserve the natural environment.

scholarly journals Water Quality Estimation and Population’s Attitudes: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective of Environmental Implications in Tara National Park (Serbia)

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Jovana Brankov ◽  
Ana Milanović Pešić ◽  
Dragana Milijašević Joksimović ◽  
Milan M. Radovanović ◽  
Marko D. Petrović
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Pollution Index ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Polluted Water ◽  
Pollution Level ◽  
Environmental Implications ◽  
Water Pollution Index

The paper analyzes the water quality of hydrological resources in the wider area of Tara National Park (NP Tara) in Serbia and the opinions of the local community and the national park visitors about the grade of the possible damage. The pollution level of the Drina River at the Bajina Bašta hydrological station was analyzed using the Water Pollution Index. The results showed that water quality corresponded to classes II (clean water) or III (moderately polluted water) and revealed the presence of organic pollution. In addition, using a survey combined with field research, the perceptions of local inhabitants and national park visitors related to environmental pollution were analyzed. The community believed that tourism does not cause significant damage to the environment. However, the older and more educated groups of residents and visitors had a more critical perception of the environmental impact of tourism. The results also indicated that the perceptions of visitors were mostly in agreement with measured water quality in the Drina River. The findings of this study have important implications for the management of protected areas and future policies related to national parks.

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