Linking natural resource management to tourist satisfaction: a study of Australia's Great Barrier Reef

Abstract

This paper challenges the accepted tenet that conservation creates attractive tourist experiences and high satisfaction rates, and explores the nature and value of partnerships between protected area managers and tourism operators. It develops a model to examine the linkages between natural resource management and nature-based tourism industry performance. The model uses input measures (such as the expertise and financial resources put into maintaining a healthy ecosystem), output measures (visitor perceptions of the environment and their experience of it) and outcome measures (satisfaction scores), to examine these linkages. Whilst the links between input, outputs and outcomes appear relatively weak, results suggest that operators can strengthen those links through high service quality, effective interpretation, in order to produce higher visitor satisfaction. The relationship between the natural environment itself and satisfaction was less clear, perhaps symptomatic of the “messiness” of protected area tourism systems where cause and effects are not always clear. The study suggests that perceptions of the natural environment and the nature-based tourist experience are best mediated through the tour operators’ input into creating and maintaining quality staff, to complement and demonstrate inputs by protected area managers, within the context of long-term partnerships between natural resource management and nature-based tourism.

将自然资源管理和旅游者满意程度联系起来：澳大利亚大堡礁的研究

文章挑战了保护资源可以创造有吸引力的旅游者经验和高满意程度这样的普遍早已接受的信条，并且探讨保护地区管理者和旅游经销商之间合作关系的本质和价值。文章发展了一个模型来检验自然资源管理和以自然为本的旅游产业表现之间的关联。该模型使用了投入衡量（例如放入来维持健康生态系统的专业和财务资源），还有输出衡量（参观者对环境的看法和他们的经验），另外还有结果衡量（满意评估），并检验这些衡量方法之间的关系。当投入，输出和结果衡量之间的关联显示相关弱的时候，研究结果建议旅游经销商能通过高服务质量，有效的诠释来加强这些关联，为了制造更高的参观者满意程度。自然环境和满意程度之间的关系总是不够清楚，可能是对保护地区旅游系统乱糟糟的原因和影响分析也总是不够清晰。研究建议对自然环境的看法和以自然为依托的旅游者经验是通过旅游经销商为创造和维持有质量的员工这样的措施来协调的。这样的协调能在自然资源管理和以自然为依托的旅游之间的长期合作关系中作补充并展示保护区经理的投入方法。

Keywords:

• protected area
• visitor experience
• partnerships
• sustainable tourism

关键词:

• 合作关系管理
• 保护区
• 可持续性旅游

Acknowledgements

The author of this paper wishes to acknowledge the role of the Australian federal government's Marine and Tropical Science Research Facility in funding this research and Bernard Lane for his many helpful comments on the earlier drafts of this manuscript.

Notes

1. The research described here falls under the MTSRF research program to identify sustainable use and management of marine resources of the GBR and specifically the analysis of tourism use and impact on the GBR for managing sustainable tourism. Visitor surveys are administered monthly over a four-year period to determine annual visitor usage patterns of the GBR and identify key trends and drivers of visitor patterns.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Coghlan

Dr Alexandra Coghlan is a Research Fellow at Griffith University's International Centre for Ecotourism Research. She has a B.Sc. (Honours) in Environmental and Marine Biology from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and a Ph.D. from James Cook University, Townsville, Australia. Her primary research interests are tourism partnerships, volunteer tourism, environmental education, transformative travel experiences and the many aspects of nature-based tourism.