Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
though lies the critical situation in which many parks and wilderness managers now find
themselves. National parks were originally established to provide both recreational
enjoyment and conservation (Hall 1992a). The founders of the park movement, though,
such as John Muir, could never have imagined the almost continuous growth in demand
for park access from tourists and recreationists seeking to escape the urban environment.
The situation now sees traffic jams occurring in some parks, congestion on walking
tracks, displacement of local users by tourists, increased pollution and other adverse
environmental impacts, and reduced visitor satisfaction (e.g. Hall and McArthur 1996,
1998; Higham 1997; Kearsley 1997). Within this context, therefore, park and wilderness
managers are now seeking both a better understanding of their visitors and how they may
be satisfied, and strategies to find a better match between visitor needs and the capacities
of the resource to be used, yet to retain the values that attract people in the first place
(Hall and McArthur 1998).
Historically, tourist profiles have been generated to assist in the planning and
management of visitor demand at a particular destination, attraction or site. Analysing
tourist demand has traditionally been based on one of two main approaches: a socio-
economic approach and a psychological or psychographic approach (see Chapter 2). The
socio-economic approach attempts to establish a correlation between a visitor's actions at
a particular destination and their social position (Lowyck et al. 1992). Mathieson and
Wall (1982) argue that visitor attitudes, perceptions and motivations at a destination are
influenced by socio-economic characteristics such as age, education, income, residence
and family situation. Representative of this form of research is Blarney's (1995) study of
international ecotourists to Australia, a country which has paid particular attention to
promoting its natural features to tourists in recent years (Hall 1995).
According to Blarney (1995), Japanese and other Asian tourists are the most common
inbound visitors to national parks on an absolute basis (21 and 19 per cent respectively of
all such visitors), although they have the lowest propensities to do so on a per visit basis.
Visitors from Switzerland have the highest propensity to visit natural areas (74 per cent)
followed by Germany, Canada, Scandinavia and other European countries (all above 65
per cent). In addition, the economic expenditure of nature-based tourists may be
substantial. Blarney (1995) reported that the average expenditure per trip for international
visitors undertaking bushwalks during their stay was Aus.$2824 in 1993, or 58 per cent
above the average expenditure of all inbound visitors (Aus.$1788).
Psychographic or psychological approaches classify people into groups according to
their lifestyles, including values, motivations and expectations (Blarney and Braithwaite
1997). Lifestyles are distinctions in people's behaviour which are identified and
categorised to distinguish different types of respondents. In a comparative study of
Canadian tourists, ecotourists were found to be more motivated by features such as
wilderness and parks than the rest of the Canadian population in choosing a destination
(Kretchmann and Eagles 1990; Eagles 1992).
Higham (1997) investigated a variety of wilderness motivations in an attempt to
identify qualities of back-country recreation that motivate tourists to visit tracks in the
New Zealand conservation estate. Eighteen wilderness motivation variables were drawn
from a review of the wilderness literature. The degree to which variables were supported
or refuted by sample units is illustrated in Table 7.7. Motivation variables are listed on
this table in order of mean response. Perhaps not surprisingly, natural beauty and
