Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The growth of the ecotourism industry has resulted in increased demand for ecotourism and, consequently, the demand for one of the most renowned ecotourism destinations in South Africa, the Kruger National Park. Eco-tourists are highly educated and expect information-rich experiences which can be addressed with interpretation services. Previous studies indicated that the Kruger National Park‟s management neglects the importance of interpretation and, thus, the expectations of interpretation services exceeded the actual experience thereof. Additionally, the Kruger National Park is faced with a decline in public funding and consequently shifted their focus to ecotourism management to support successful conservation management of the park. Interpretation, however is not only considered to be an important educational tool that addresses visitors‟ expectations for educational services, but also contributes to national parks‟ conservation mandate since it influences visitors‟ behaviour to be more in line with respect for the environment, philanthropic support for conservation and general environmental behaviour. Clearly the Kruger National Park should address interpretation services with the aim of addressing visitor expectations but also to contribute to conservation management. The aim of this study is therefore to develop an interpretation framework for the Kruger National Park. To achieve this aim, this study made use of a self-administered questionnaire which was distributed in the southern and northern regions of the park during December 2011 and June 2012 respectively. Only one questionnaire per travelling group was distributed and resulted in 855 completed questionnaires for this study. Furthermore, the aim of the study was realised by means of several objectives. The first objective was to conduct a thorough literature analysis on the components, theories and goals related to interpretation within ecotourism related products. This was accomplished in Chapter 2 and provided a conceptual framework which was tested in the subsequent chapters to provide an interpretation framework for the Kruger National Park.
Author: Elricke Van Loggerenberg
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1002819180