Abstract
The numerous visitors and shortages in funding and manpower of national parks in Taiwan present difficulties in the management of recreational uses, thereby resulting in issues regarding park sustainability. Using social media to describe and reconstruct travel experiences has become prevalent in recent years. Social media usage has also triggered the emergence of Internet surveillance. This study used social media to analyze the types of improper behavior among visitors at Yushan National Park in Taiwan, the message modes that visitors use to disseminate their improper behavior, and other Facebook (FB) users’ responses to posts that involve improper behavior. Content analysis was adopted to evaluate the posts of FB users who visited Yushan National Park and logged into FB from Taiwan. The findings revealed that a total of 62 (7.3%) out of 852 FB users had engaged in improper behavior, which mainly involved illegal (40.3%) and careless (30.6%) actions. The message modes adopted for posting of improper behavior were predominantly texts and photos (48.4%) and photos only (43.5%). In general, other FB users consistently responded to the posts on improper behavior with Likes and commented on the majority of the posts. However, few posts received purely unsupportive Comments and Shares. Managerial suggestions based on these findings were provided to Yushan National Park.
Highlights
National parks serve the functions of conservation and recreation and often become the favorite destinations for ecotourism
The search results showed that the posts of 852 qualified FB users, who visited Yushan National Park and logged into FB from Taiwan, were identified and collected from 2011 to 2017
The message modes adopted for posting improper behavior were generally text and photos (48.4%) and photos only (43.5%)
Summary
National parks serve the functions of conservation and recreation and often become the favorite destinations for ecotourism. In Taiwan, national parks are popular spots for the general public to engage in recreational activities, and park visitors keep increasing [1]. These parks are experiencing shortages in funding and manpower, which make the management of visitors challenging [2,3]. Manning [4] stated that poor management of nature reserves can lead to improper behaviors among tourists and, subsequently, damage the natural environment and ecology. These improper behaviors include illegal, careless, unskilled, uninformed, and unavoidable actions [4]. The presence of visitors and establishment of roads and recreational facilities interfere with the animal habitats, thereby resulting migration or disappearance of these animals [8]
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