A method for testing the effect of management interventions on the satisfaction and loyalty of national park visitors

Abstract

Providing visitors with satisfying experiences is integral to park management. Research has inferred the determinants of satisfaction and loyalty through theorizing, observational studies, and statistical correlations. This article advocates randomized experiments as a complementary method for testing the causal effect of selected management interventions that change service quality on satisfaction and loyalty. An experiment using ranger presence and enhanced toilets in a West Australian national park is used to illustrate the approach. The presence of rangers caused significantly improved satisfaction with rangers, related service quality attributes, and overall satisfaction, but not loyalty. Enhancing toilets had nonsignificant impacts. These results strongly suggest the need for further visitor-focused experimental research to complement the growing body of research in national parks investigating the complex relationship among service quality, satisfaction, and loyalty.

Keywords:

• causality
• experimental research
• national park visitors
• randomized experiment
• satisfaction
• service quality
• visitor loyalty

Acknowledgments

The authors thank staff at the Western Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) for their assistance conducting the intervention study in this paper. In particular, Amanda Smith, Social Science Coordinator & Social Research Unit Leader and staff at Yanchep including Alison, Mark, John, Pip and Julia. We would also like to thank those who helped with surveying including Shannon Hassell, Joanna Tonge, David Newsome and Jess Tacey.

Funding

This research was supported under the Australian Research Council's Linkage Projects funding scheme (project number LP100200014).