Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
1.1 Tourism and the Context of the Survey
For much of this century the tourist industry has been a prime cause and benefi-
ciary of the emergence of hyper-mobility as a phenomenon. In this time tourist
movement has moved increasingly further from the historical model of a single
destination journey towards itineraries of far greater length, with more stopovers,
greater individuality and greater complexity (Forer and Simmons
2011
).
The increasing number of Free Independent Travellers (FITs) has contributed to
the more dynamic and complex modern tourist movement patterns and to the
tourists' increasing carbon footprint (Hart et al.
2004
). Such individual travellers
with multiple purposes visit more places for more reasons and with different
satisfaction goals. Not surprisingly a far more complex pattern of movement can
be expected to emerge (Tideswell and Faulkner
1999
). With greater issues such as
environmental footprints and local economies riding on travel patterns and
behaviour, an understanding of these patterns and their impacts is coming to
command greater resources than in the simpler past, therefore the collection of an
enhanced range of information is needed. Contemporary tourism management and
development need insights on tourists' itineraries: where they are, when they are
there, how long an individual (or individuals) conducts a particular activity and
where they are afterwards and what they seek next, what is the nature of their
complete itinerary (Zhao
2003
; Forer et al.
2005
). The WCTFS was designed to
provide such information at a regional level with appropriate detail on activity,
expenditure, location, stay times, overnight stays and personal backgrounds.
The survey was undertaken in the West Coast of New Zealand between
Karamea in the North and Haast in the South (Fig.
1
). The Coast is an isolated
strip of land separated from the rest of the country by the Southern Alps. These are
pierced by just three entry routes, through which close to a million international
tourists enter and leave, narrowly outnumbering the often multiple visits of
domestic visitors. It is within these portals that most of the respondents are
intercepted and questionnaires given to willing participants. The study area, roads,
named passes and main attraction points are shown on the map.
The entire 23,000 km
2
of the Coast is dominated by visually spectacular terrain,
featuring mountain ramparts, glaciers that come close to sea level, coastal rock
formations, caves and wilderness forest. At its widest it measures 30 km East-West
on the coastal plain and its population numbers around 30,000. Traditionally tourism
was fed by a small international stream of glacier lovers and a much larger domestic
pool from the East Coast cities. Its catchment is now far wider, North Island
New Zealanders coming more regularly and international visitors topping 800,000
p.a. Before the survey it was generally accepted that the key driver of the growth of
international tourists was the circuit that began at the international airport in
Christchurch across to the Coast, down via the Glaciers to its Southern exit at Haast
and on to the national icons of Queenstown and the Southern Lakes. A final leg to
Christchurch completed the circuit. This was the archetypal tourist route, with a
typical party spending one to three nights on the Coast. However, as movements
