Nature-based Tourism Attraction Research Articles

Mobilising knowledge: an action design research case study of using technology to safeguard an endangered nature-based tourism attraction

This paper considers how an Action Design Research (ADR) research methodology can contribute to impactful research in sustainable tourism. ADR arguably combines the best of Action Research with Design Science, by solving an applied problem within its contextual setting (a feature of Action Research) and drawing wider lessons or universal principles from the solution (a feature of Design Science). It argues that approaches like ADR are required to address what is a fundamentally goal-oriented (through the very definition of sustainable tourism) area of research, and bridge the academic-practitioner divide. The paper presents an ADR case study on using technology to build the eco-literacy of tourists visiting Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. This natural attraction represents a highly complex ecosystem, in an educationally challenging (underwater) environment, surrounded by political and scientific controversy. The case study involves the creation of a virtual reality interpretive game (the artefact) to illustrate the four stages of ADR, namely, Problem Formulation; Build, Intervene, Evaluate; Reflect and Learn; Formalise Learning. The case study highlights the importance of ADR’s principles of “reciprocal shaping”, “mutually influencing roles” and “authentic and concurrent evaluation” to bridge the gap between practice and theory, and build impactful research that can support more sustainable tourism.

ASSESSMENT OF TOURISTS’ PERCEPTION AND SATISFACTION IN AGODI PARK AND GARDENS IBADAN AS A NATURE-BASED TOURISM ATTRACTION

This study hinges on the assessment of tourists perception and satisfaction in Agodi Park and Gardens Ibadan as a nature-based tourism attraction. The study was conducted to investigate and assess the level of tourist’s satisfaction with the attributes (facilities and services) at the Park. In order to achieve the aim of this study, a well-structured questionnaire was drafted in line with the research objectives. The findings of the study revealed that the most satisfying features at the Park was the natural environment and the swimming pool at 62.8% and 34.9% respectively. However, the most dissatisfying features were the Zoo (54.6%) and the inadequate recreational facilities (17.4). The results also shows that the quality of tourism services has a positive impact on the level of tourist satisfaction. These results are considered to be valuable to destination managers, tourism organizations and businesses in evaluating the level of their current services. Therefore, this study suggests that visitors’ satisfaction can be boosted by raising the standard of service quality throughout the destinations’ attractions, facilities and modes of accessibility. The Parks’ management should upgrade the zoological garden to meet up with International standard so as to increase tourists’ patronage and satisfaction.

Identifying Tourism Attractions’ Potentials of Protected Area: A Case Study in Bulue Village, Soppeng District, Indonesia

The purpose of this study was to identify the tourism attractions’ potentials of the landscape that had the major function as protected areas. Bulue Village was selected in this study as nearly 85% of the territory lies inside the protected areas. The comprehensive spatial analysis combined with descriptive analysis was utilized as approaches toward the study. The Scenic Beauty Estimation (SBE) was also carried out to obtain the potential of nature-based tourism attractions based on tourist’s perceptions. The results showed that there were nine spots of attractions that had a high value of SBE. Those attractions were identified as Lejja hot spring (SBE=81.33), Lejja view (SBE=129.33), camping ground (SBE=51.78), Datae hot spring (SBE=71.22), Menawoe waterfall (SBE=184.44), Lapaserengi waterfall (SBE=143.00), Batumurue waterfall (SBE=127.89), Waepuange waterfall (SBE=122.11), and Sarasa-tandre waterfall (SBE=147.44). Only Anoa sanctuary has a moderate value. Nevertheless, there some issues that need to be considered, in particular, to prevent further forest degradation by providing economic alternatives for the locals and improving the management of the site. These findings have shown the need for finding a specific strategy to develop ecotourism activities based on the characteristics of the landscape. Keywords: Bulue village, ecotourism in protected area, landscape-based ecotourism, scenic beauty estimation.

SITE SUITABILITY EVALUATION FOR ECOTOURISM DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY IN BULUE VILLAGE, SOPPENG DISTRICT, INDONESIA

This paper presents a case study of the landscape of Bulue Village in Soppeng District, Indonesia, showing that site suitability evaluation was an important step in the process of ecotourism development planning of protected area which accommodated the landscape characteristics. Spatial multicriteria decision analysis combined with descriptive analysis was utilized as a methodology in this study. The results of the analysis showed that the landscape had (1) highly suitable 1.33%; (2) moderately suitable 16.94%; (3) marginally suitable 73.21%, and (4) not suitable 8.51% for ecotourism. Moreover, there were livelihood-based and nature-based tourism attraction potential and tourism market opportunities. However, there were the resistance factors that need to be overcome, particularly in preventing furtherforest degradation, improving accessto tourism attractions, and empowering the community. This paper points out the importance of evaluating and mapping of landscape characteristics in the process of ecotourism development planning of Bulue Village to ensure sustainable use of landscape.

The interplay between fish farming and nature based recreation-tourism in Southern Chile: A perception approach

Nature based tourism, ecotourism and other types of recreation are an intangible cultural marine ecosystem services. Due to its geographical conditions, Southern Chile has been worldwide-recognised site by its nature based tourism attraction. Fish farming has had since 1980’s a consistent development in the region with jumps and bumps, but still occupying a dominant role in the region’s economy. Previous reports about perceptions from entrepreneurs of the tourism sector claim that they are living a confrontational reality against aquaculture. The WTP modelling results suggest a general disposition of the tourists to pay some money to avoid further negative environmental impacts on the ecosystem services they enjoy and positively correlated with income. The wealthier is the tourist, the higher is the disposition to pay to avoid. Results from our survey indicate that the majority (67%) of tourists has a negative environmental perception of fish farming activities, while almost half (47%) of the tourists recognise the importance of aquaculture for the economy of coastal communities. Public policies and particularly spatial regional planning should consider the high level of negative interaction showed from this results in order to allow both activities to develop in equity of opportunities.

Personality attributes of botanic parks and their effects on visitor attitude and behavioural intentions

The current exploratory study conceptualizes botanic park personality and explores its effects on visitor attitude and behavioural intentions. To achieve this, a renowned botanic park in Western Australia was selected. Pen-and-paper and online surveys were self-administered to 481 local and international respondents in two main studies. Two botanic park personality attributes were identified, namely, ‘excitement’ and ‘competence’, which aligned with the destination personality literature. These attributes impacted on attitude as well as subsequent intentions to visit and recommend the botanic park for local and international respondents. Findings offer researchers a platform to advance further studies on botanic park personality that may be extended to other nature-based tourism attractions. The identified and distinctive botanic park personality attributes help to guide practitioners in shaping the positioning and differentiation strategy to attract visitors and enhance the park’s financial sustainability.

COLLABORATIVE SCHEMES FOR ANTICIPATING NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF THE TOURISTS’ VISIT

The purpose – The aim of this paper is to propose alternative schemes for anticipating possible negative impacts in nature-based tourism attractions. The area used as case study is called ‘Rammang-Rammang’, Maros regency of Indonesia. A new tourism attraction potentially reduces the quality of the environment and possibly impacts the socio-cultural life of the host people. Thus, it is necessary to investigate such impacts and recommend approaches or strategies that can tackle possible negative consequences of tourism activities. Design/methodology – This paper is based on a qualitative study conducted in 2015. Qualitative research is relevant in understanding the complexity of social life. Social research entails discovering the meanings that people assign to their reality. It is particularly appropriate in the case of developing destinations in areas not used to tourist visits, yet assumed to be eager to improve their well-being. Finding – The study reveals that the increasing numbers of visitors potentially degrade the quality of the environment. Although economic benefits are obtained by the host people, collaborative efforts by different stakeholders are required to tackle potential negative consequences. Originality of the research – Host people should be given knowledge to tackle negative impacts as well as skills for getting involved in tourism. This paper has developed two schemes for collaborative work among different stakeholders. This paper is expected to contribute to ideas and concepts about anticipation and mitigation of future negative impacts of the tourists’ visit when developing new nature-based tourism attractions.

Evaluating Environmental Service of Trisula Waterfall as Nature-based Tourism Attraction in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park

Tourism activity in Trisula waterfall (locally called Coban Trisula) is growing significantly. The environmental management is important to perform the sustainable use of waterfall as tourism attraction. The aim of the research is to identify the ecosystem services of Trisula waterfall. In this study, three indices were calculated, namely Environmental Services Index, Hemeroby Index, and Naturalness index. This study found that the use of lands and natural resources in Trisula waterfall was low compared the upper and lower area. Lower and upper area was used for intensive agriculture and daily needs by local community. Those activities were influencing the environmental services of Trisula waterfall. Management towards sustainable use of Coban Trisula area was required. It is also important and should be able to promote security and satisfaction aspects for tourist. Anthropogenic activities such as plantation activities should be controlled by a persuasive approach to minimize disruption to the ecosystem. There are needs for environmental management to ensure the sustainability use of waterfall resources and its surrounding area. Keywords : sustainable tourism, waterfall management, water conservation.

Sustainable tourism among Swedish tourism service providers - easy to say but difficult to implement

The research objective of this study was to investigate and analyse how Swedish tourism service providers present their work with sustainability. Data was collected from 48 randomly selected tourism service providers in Sweden, ranging from micro and small to medium-sized tourism service providers. The 48 different tourism service providers also offer different types of tourism services (e.g. tourist agency, stay, do and travel). The results show that the issues of sustainable tourism are present but that the scope is fairly small; focus is mainly on economic sustainability. There are some micro tourism service providers that are strongly focused on all three dimensions of sustainably, often offering some kind of nature-based tourism attraction. The medium-sized and small tourism service providers address the issues of environmental sustainability but in reality there is little action; sustainable tourism is more of a buzzword for the Swedish tourism service providers than concrete action.

Micro-mobility patterns and service blueprints as foundations for visitor management planning

This paper proposes the use of micro-mobility patterns and service blueprints in visitor management planning. It argues that such planning approaches can improve management outcomes as well as visitor experiences whilst adding efficiency to the relevant management processes. The paper is based on the findings of visitor research on visitor flows and perceptions of visitor management in a nature-based tourism attraction in Wellington, New Zealand. These findings are used to adapt a service blueprint for the overall attraction to separately reflect visitor experiences of international visitors and New Zealanders. The paper posits that it is thus possible to identify and subsequently address the visitor management requirements of different visitor groups. Implications are discussed at three levels; first, for the case study attraction; second, for tourism attractions more broadly; third, conceptual implications for visitor management research are considered. Specific findings include the differences in micro-mobilities found across different market sectors, the need to improve signposting to offer distance and time guidance, the importance of topography, the potential to spread usage pressures across sites and the future potential to use mobile GPS units to obtain more detailed information.

Composition and Diversity of Soil Arthropods of Rajegwesi Meru Betiri National Park

Meru Betiri National Park (MBNP) is one of the nature conservation area thathas the potential of flora, fauna, and ecosystems that could develop as a nature-based tourism attraction. The existence of certain indicator species was related to estimation of stress level and disturbance on ecosystem stability for making strategic decisions about the restoration in this area. One of the important indicator species at forest ecosystem were soil arthropods. Aim this research were analyzed composition and diversity of soil arthropods at Rajegwesi, MBNP areas. The methods in this research used pitfall trap, measurement of distribution structure and soil arthropods composition based on the Shannon - Wiener index, Morisita similarity index and Importance Value Index (IVI). The number of families and individuals of soil arthropods found in the coastal area of Rajegwesi consists of 10 order with 21 families (702 individual). The number of individuals of the order Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Collembola and Araneida was more widely found. Soil arthropods diversity index on each land use indicated that soil arthropod diversity in these areas were moderate. Soil arthropod community of orchards and forest had a similarity of species composition, whereas soil arthropod community of savanna had a similarity of species composition with paddy fields.

Identification and classification of nature-based tourism resources: Western Lake Van basin, Turkey

Today, nature-based tourism is one of the important export items of tourism industry in many countries such as Australia, Kenya, Nepal, and New Zealand. However, the nature-based tourism resources of Turkey cannot be promoted since they have not been identified and classified yet. The aim of this paper is to identify and assess the natural resources having tourism potential to be developed in the western part of Lake Van basin. The increasing environmental awareness among consumers has lead tourism managers and plannners to satisfy this type of tourists’ needs by searching new tourism resources. First step for the effective planning is to systematically determine the resources and assess the values of them. The assessment criteria in this paper are attraction levels, infrastructure, level of environmental degradation, and accessibility. The 23 natural resources in the research area were classified based on Priskin's control list approach by applying several experts’ opinions and making journey to the sites. The places of nature-based tourism attractions were determined with Global Positioning System and this information were evaluated in the Geographic Information System based program of Mapinfo and hundreds of pictures were taken from all perspectives in the research area. The findings of research revealed that the sites have middle and high levels of attraction and low level of infrastructure. In addition to that, the results show that accessibility is not a inhibitory factor for the tourists to reach the destination and the level of degradation is very low in the area. Therefore, a planned research approach is necessary to investigate the areas with high tourism development potential and relatively untouched.

Estimating the Regional Economic Impact of Tourism to National Parks: Two Case Studies from Germany

National parks are seen as major nature-based tourism attractions. This coincides with an international trend in environmental politics to increasingly highlight the regional economic effects of national parks. The often-lacking acceptance of reserves by the locals, who see them as hindering economic development, is the reason. Also in Germany, national parks have recently been integrated into tourism planning strategy. The economic benefits for local communities thus need to be assessed. Studies in this field, however, face major difficulties: Firstly, Germany's free access policy for its protected areas results in a lack of visitor data. Secondly, data on tourism expenditures are very rare and only provide general information that cannot be considered representative of national parks. This study presents the financial benefits derived from nature-based tourism in and around two German national parks on the basis of the value-added technique. The results clearly indicate that tourism can generate considerable benefits for the regional development in the structurally weak rural periphery. This information should increase the acceptance of national parks by both local communities and politicians. Consequently, German national parks need to further incorporate the concept of socio-economic monitoring.

Advertising Effects of Photos Used to Portray Nature-Based Tourism Attractions

Tourism attractions come in many forms and represent the core components of tourism destinations. Tourism attractions are often portrayed visually in adverts aiming to attract visitors. This article reports a study where a sample of potential international visitors to the tourism destination – “Fjord Norway” – evaluate photos of nature-based tourism attractions. Data was gathered and a set of scales were developed to capture the attractiveness of the nature-based tourism destination. Factor analysis revealed two underlying attractivness dimensions, which were termed “positive feelings” and “danger”. In subsequent analyses these attractivness dimensions respectively were found to be positively and negatively related to “intention to visit” the destination. Gender was found to moderate destination attractivness depending on which photos were evaluated. The findings are discussed and implications for tourism marketers are highlighted.