Understanding the reasons why tourists visit the Kruger National Park during a recession

Marco Scholtz,Martinette Kruger,Melville Saayman

doi:10.4102/ac.v13i1.168

Abstract

The 2008 and 2009 recession increased pressure on travellers to cut costs on luxury items, such as going on holiday, and this has led to a global tourism decline of 8%. This, however, was not the case in the Kruger National Park (KNP) in South Africa where a sustained 1.6% accommodation unit occupancy growth was experienced. In order to sustain this growth, it is of the utmost importance to determine why people still visited the Park during this period. Thus the aim of the study was to determine why people still visited the KNP amidst the 2008 and 2009 economic recession. A total of 355 completed questionnaires were obtained at the Park during 15 December 2009 – 20 December 2009 (high season) after which various analyses (including factor analysis) were conducted. Six motives were identified and ‘escape’, ‘wildlife experience’ and ‘family benefits’ were rated most important. Push factors were more dominant to the extent that visitors regard taking a holiday to the Park as a necessity. It furthermore seems that visitors adapt their spending behaviour at the Park to still be able to afford the visit. This was the first time that research was conducted at a national park during a recession period and this information is important for South African National Parks, seeing as it provides a better understanding of visitors’ behaviour as well as feeling towards the Park (especially during recession), and leads to improved niche marketing and a competitive advantage. This research also provides a better understanding of visitors’ behaviour during economic downturns.

Highlights

Introduction and theoretical backgroundDuring periods of economic prosperity and downturns, the travel and tourism industry has historically behaved like a luxury good. Song and Lin (2010), and Papatheodorou, Rossellóo and Xiao (2010) explain that when an individual’s income rises, so does the need for luxury goods and services, seeing as they spend a smaller share of their income on essentials such as clothing and food
The economic recession had a negative effect on the tourism industry in South Africa, with domestic travel decreasing by 8% (South African Tourism [SAT] 2009)
The questionnaire used to survey the Kruger National Park in 2009 was based on the questionnaire used by Saayman and Saayman (2009), Kruger and Saayman (2010) and Van der Merwe and Saayman (2008) at respectively the KNP and Tsitsikamma National Park as well as in other studies done by Kim et al (2003), Galloway and Lopez (1999) and Uysal et al (1994), and was adapted with the recent recession in mind

Summary

Introduction

Introduction and theoretical backgroundDuring periods of economic prosperity and downturns, the travel and tourism industry has historically behaved like a luxury good. Song and Lin (2010), and Papatheodorou, Rossellóo and Xiao (2010) explain that when an individual’s income rises, so does the need for luxury goods and services, seeing as they spend a smaller share of their income on essentials such as clothing and food. Papatheodorou et al (2010) state that tourism involves discretionary income and according to Wilkerson (2003) and Bramwell and Lane (2003), it is for this reason that travel and tourism grow during times of economic expansion, but stagnate during economic recessions. Based on the latter, the 2008 and 2009 global financial crisis began in July 2007 and resulted in a slowdown of both developed and developing economies around the world (Fernando & Meedeniya 2009; Song & Lin 2010). The economic recession had a negative effect on the tourism industry in South Africa, with domestic travel decreasing by 8% (South African Tourism [SAT] 2009)

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