Interpretation needs and preferences of visitors to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Petrus Van Der Merwe,Elricke Botha,Melville Saayman

doi:10.4102/koedoe.v62i1.1613

Abstract

South African National Parks is one of South Africa’s main drawcards for ecotourists. One of these parks is the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP), which is also a World Heritage Site (WHS). Because tourism is key to national parks and WHSs, visitor management strategies such as interpretation are vital for these destinations to provide tourists with better experiences and knowledge. The aim of this research was therefore to determine the interpretation needs and preferences of visitors to KTP. The factor analyses revealed that tourists felt that park guidelines would add the most to a quality experience. Tourists preferred interpretation topics on nature and heritage and would like to receive in-depth information on these topics. Interpretation should also preferably be offered through audio and visual media. These findings impact the development of relevant interpretation services for the park, which will contribute towards visitors’ experiences. The research is original as it examined visitors’ interpretation needs and preferences on topics, the extent of information tourists would like to receive and the type of media through which information should be presented.Conservation implications: Designing relevant interpretation services based on tourists’ needs and preferences will contribute towards satisfactory experiences. In turn, this may lead to an increase in profits, which can support conservation practices. Effective interpretation messages can also foster additional support towards conservation efforts.

Highlights

The main objective of most national parks in the world, and in South Africa is to conserve the environment or biodiversity (South African Government 1976), but this has proven to be quite a difficult task to perform because of declining public funding (Eagles 2014)
The visitor manager further indicated that the requirement is to deliver well-planned and carefully designed interpretation services to help visitors understand what happens in national parks and educate them on conservation, culture and ecotourism
As this study aims to determine the interpretation needs and preferences of visitors to KTP, the objective is to provide answers to the following questions to develop relevant interpretation services: What are the interpretation services needed by tourists visiting the national park? What are the topics or types of information visitors are interested in? Do visitors prefer specific mediums through which the topics or information should be presented?

Summary

Introduction

The main objective of most national parks in the world, and in South Africa is to conserve the environment or biodiversity (South African Government 1976), but this has proven to be quite a difficult task to perform because of declining public funding (Eagles 2014). South African National Parks (SANParks; the managing body of South African national parks) is primarily a self-funding entity, as ecotourism activities generate 80% of the total income of national parks (SANParks 2018). Considering that there has been a decline in public funding and that ecotourism activities generate such a large percentage of SANParks’ income (80%), its focus concerning visitor management is to manage visitor experience through soft visitor management (e.g. influencing enjoyment, attitudes and values through displays, signage or the website, to name but a few) and hard visitor management (e.g. regulating human impact through physical facilities such as bird hides or boardwalks, to name but a few) (SANParks 2018). The visitor manager further indicated that the requirement is to deliver well-planned and carefully designed interpretation services to help visitors understand what happens in national parks and educate them on conservation, culture and ecotourism

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion