Delene Weber

Contact with Nature: Recreation experience preferences in Australian parks

Abstract Parks play an important role in improving health and wellbeing. However, lack of understanding of visitor preferences in regards to their recreation experiences and how managers can facilitate desired benefits has limited the contribution of parks to society and impeded adoption of frameworks such as outcomes‐focused management. This paper describes a study of two urban and two regional parks that investigated the experience preferences of visitors and how their attainment was influenced by activity and setting preferences. The study approach was informed by theoretical perspectives from resource management, psychology, sociology, and management science. Results revealed a core group of preferences common to all four parks. These included enjoying nature, escaping personal/social pressures, escaping physical pressures, and enjoying the outdoor climate. While there were more similarities than differences between the desires of urban and regional park users, the findings provide valuable insights for managers of such areas in terms of what visitors want and their current level of satisfaction in attaining desired outcomes. The findings also have relevance in terms of market positioning and improving campaigns targeting health benefits.

A place-based approach to conservation management using public participation GIS (PPGIS)

The New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) is an early adopter of a place-based approach to implementing regional Conservation Management Strategies (CMS). As a new approach, there are few signposts for guidance. The present DOC process relies on a top-down, deductive approach using expert judgement by agency staff. In this study, we examine an alternative approach that uses inductive, public participation GIS (PPGIS) methods to delineate places of significant conservation value. We compare and evaluate the agencys deductive approach with places identified as significant using PPGIS. We discuss the results and present a proposed hierarchy of places framework for use in future place-based conservation management.

Predicting Visitor Satisfaction in Parks: Comparing the Value of Personal Benefit Attainment and Service Levels in Kakadu National Park, Australia

ABSTRACT Protected area managers are often interested in visitor satisfaction, a complex, multi-dimensional concept. This study of visitors to Kakadu National Park in Australia compares 2 approaches to predicting overall satisfaction and the intention to recommend the park. The first approach involves analyzing importance-performance measures on a range of visitor service quality items. The second approach involves measuring the desire and attainment of perceived benefits associated with a recreation experience. Results show that benefits attained by visitors are stronger predictors of an overall positive response to a park visit than visitor service quality ratings. Two types of benefits emerge from factor analysis—benefits derived from nature and benefits derived from relaxation—and these factors show varying degrees of correlation with overall response to the park depending on proximity of the respondents’ home to the park. The results suggest greater attention should be paid to the benefits people desire from their visits and increases our understanding of what benefits are dependent on the environment (biophysical, social, and managerial), the activity visitors participate in, or a combination of both. Such information can help park staff to create experiences likely to facilitate attainment of benefits that are important to visitors.

Development of a Whole Agency Approach to Market Segmentation in Parks

Abstract Park agencies must plan to accommodate a diversity of visitors in order to satisfy visitor expectations and encourage future visitation. This study applies a market segmentation approach to develop a visitor typology that is effective across a broad spectrum of parks and applicable to a range of priorities, both strategic and operational, within park management agencies. Over a four-year period, data was sourced from over 11,000 interviews conducted at 33 diverse Australian national and metropolitan parks managed by the agency Parks Victoria. Factor analysis and cluster analysis was used to identify seven distinct visitor segments on the basis of numerous variables including, crucially, benefits sought. The applied and theoretical contributions of this study to the parks literature are discussed.

Climate change, bushfire risk, and environmental values: examining a potential risk perception threshold in peri-urban south australia

ABSTRACT Striking a balance between the management of environmental risks and values is a challenge for decision-makers. If people perceive that environmental risks are increasing they may be willing to discount local values to manage those risks, so the identification of thresholds in risk perception in relation to specific behaviors could help to avoid policy failures. The complex relationships between perceptions of climate change and bushfire risks, environmental values and support for actions to mitigate local risks are presented for peri-urban regions in South Australia. The results of a household survey (N=988) suggest that a threshold of risk perception in relation to climate change and bushfire management has not been exceeded and people are broadly supportive of balanced management interventions. A minority of people still do not perceive that climate change is increasing bushfire risk, and are supportive of risk mitigation interventions even at the expense of local biodiversity. However, a larger group believe that climate change is a driver of bushfire risk, yet are still more likely to prioritize ecological values and are unwilling to discount those values for risk mitigation. Targeted communication could assist different groups to respond to gaps in knowledge and action to facilitate effective, differentiated interventions within forested landscapes on the margins of urban areas.