Long term benefits of visitor monitoring : an Australian experience

Abstract - Parks Victoria manages Victoria's (Australia) national, state and urban parks. These parks make up approximately 17% of the state's area and annually receive 45.3 million visits. Parks Victoria has been dedicated to the development of scientifically sound methods for monitoring visitors and the community since 1994. The three main ongoing monitoring streams are: visit quantities, community perceptions of management and visitor experience (Visitor Satisfaction Monitor). Accumulated research data from the Visitor Satisfaction Monitor (VSM) has been used to profile and refine the organisation's understanding of its various park visitors. After 10 years that data has matured to produce a comprehensive visitor-product market segmentation. Over 11,000 interviews at 34 major parks (including 68 visitor sites) between 2000 and 2004 were used to group park visitors into seven segments. The segments are Nature Admirers, Urban Socials Trail Users, Passives and Other Users, Activity Centrics, Access Made Easy and Country Vacationers. Each park visitor segment, or group, had substantial differences from the other groups, while the individuals within each segment had much more in common; Nature Admirers visit in small groups for a short spectacular scenic experience whereas Urban Socials visit in large groups for half-day social interactions such as birthday parties and picnics. Further analyses have been conducted to identify individual sub-segments within each of the major segments. These sub-segments provide detailed information that can be used for the future development of parks and associated services. Subsequent analysis using Structural Equation Modelling provides evidence that the relationships between services and satisfaction are better understood when considering segments. Parks Victoria has been using segments in park management applications such as wild fire recovery plans, tourism strategy formulation, park management planning and visitor risk management. It has proved to be an efficient and effective systematic way of meeting visitor needs.

Marketing cultural attractions : understanding non-attendance and visitation barriers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to draw together the previous academic and industry research on non-attendance of cultural attractions, followed by qualitative in-depth interviews to identify commonalities or gaps in the previous research on barriers, constraints and inhibitors, as well as to propose linkages between these.

Design/methodology/approach – A multi-method approach is used – where barriers, constraints and inhibitors are identified by means of thematic content analysis of the literature. A set of probing questions is developed based on these themes and is then examined in in-depth interviews with individuals that had not visited cultural attractions in the past two years, in an attempt to triangulate data, as well as to identify connections between barriers.

Findings – From the literature, eight interconnected barriers to visitation are identified: physical access; personal access; cost; time and timing; product; personal interest and peer group; socialisation and understanding; and information. The in-depth interviews generally support these, although it is also identified that there are complex interrelationships between the issues.

Originality/value – This paper addresses the neglected question of why people do not attend cultural attractions by triangulating thematic findings from the content analysis of diverse literature with in-depth interview responses from one non-visitor segment. This results in an interconnected model of barriers that can be used to assist managers to develop strategies addressing low visitation rates within targeted segments.

Development of a whole agency approach to market segmentation in parks

Park agencies must plan to accommodate a diversity of visitors in order to satisfy visitor expectations and encourage future visitation. This study applies a market segmentation approach to develop a visitor typology that is effective across a broad spectrum of parks and applicable to a range of priorities, both strategic and operational, within park management agencies. Over a four-year period, data was sourced from over 11,000 interviews conducted at 33 diverse Australian national and metropolitan parks managed by the agency Parks Victoria. Factor analysis and cluster analysis was used to identify seven distinct visitor segments on the basis of numerous variables including, crucially, benefits sought. The applied and theoretical contributions of this study to the parks literature are discussed.

Visitor loyalty in sport tourism: an empirical investigation

This paper reports research regarding the relationship between consumer loyalty, satisfaction,and novelty seeking, including an analysis of these constructs as reflected in the published literature. A telephone survey was conducted of 500 city residents, focusing on their visitation of special events, including sporting events. It was found that satisfaction was somewhat positively related to interest in attending the same sporting event, and the intention to actually visit the sporting event again. However, novelty seeking was virtually unrelated to both interest in attending the same sporting event, and the intention to actually visit the sporting event, and unrelated to satisfaction. Novelty seeking in general, or in relation to special events particularly,performed similarly as a predictor. Further research is needed to clarify the role of other moderating variables, such as the feeling of involvement in sporting events, and to investigate segmentation aspects which might be operating in relation to specific sporting events and tourists.

Consumer satisfaction and post-purchase intentions: an exploratory study of museum visitors

This paper examines the relationship between consumer satisfaction and subsequent intentions in the museum context, as well as the moderating influence of demographic characteristics such as gender, age and education in that relationship. The relationship between satisfaction and a range of service elements, overall satisfaction with the experience and intentions was investigated. Museum marketers can profit by examining the "value chain" of museum experience outlined in the model presented, especially the greater likelihood of consumers recommending the experience to others than making a repeat visit themselves, and by investigating segment differences beyond those reported here.

Understanding the leisure motives of visitors to tourist attractions

In a period when tourism is contracting, and in a destination with an extensive range of visitor attractions, the importance of local residents visitation is accentuated. The aim of this study was to explore whether there are differences across segments of the local resident market in terms of their motives for engaging in leisure activities within the context of tourist attractions. This study was set within the context of Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne has changed in recent years in terms of the range of attractions available to residents. A sample of 1005 local residents was used as the basis of this study. Cluster analysis was used to segment the sample, based on the intended frequency of visitation to a set of attractions. The motives for engaging in leisure were then explored for each of the segments using Unger and Kernan's (1983) Subjective Leisure Scale (SLS), which encompasses six motivational domains namely intrinsic satisfaction, perceived freedom, arousal, mastery, involvement and spontaneity, was applied in this study of leisure activities was used as the basis of identifying the motives for visiting the attractions.

Stakeholder involvement in the public planning process : the case of the proposed 12 apostles visitor centre

A range of stakeholders should inform planning processes if these processes are to be consistent with best practice principles. This paper examines the case of the 12 Apostles Visitor Centre, a tourism development which was proposed to be located in a National Park in Victoria, Australia. Limited opportunities were provided for meaningful stakeholder input during the planning phase. Despite the prevailing view amongst all major parties that some development of facilities would be appropriate, an absence of genuine consultation was experienced prompting a substantial redesign of the development concept as originally conceived (in 1996) and to project delays which postponed the commencement of the development into 2000 by which time a new State Government was in place.

Examining the behaviour of visitor arrivals to Australia from 28 different countries

Testing the integrational properties of visitor arrivals has important implications for policy, for if visitor arrivals are integrated of order one (nonstationary) then it implies that shocks to visitor arrivals are permanent. However, if visitor arrivals are found to be integrated or order zero (stationary) then this implies that shocks to visitor arrivals are temporary. In this paper we examine whether visitor arrivals to Australia are stationary or nonstationary, using the recently developed univariate and panel Lagrange multiplier tests, and the Im, Pesaran and Shin [Im, K.S., Pesaran, M.H., Shin, Y., 1997. Testing for Unit Roots in Heterogeneous Panels. Manuscript, Department of Applied Economics, University of Cambridge; Im, K.S., Pesaran, M.H., Shin, Y., 2003. Testing for Unit Roots in Heterogeneous Panels. Journal of Econometrics, 115, 53–74] panel t-test. Our exercise involves Australia’s 28 tourist source markets. Our main findings are: (1) that visitor arrivals to Australia from 28 tourist source markets are stationary, implying that any shock will have only a temporary effect and (2) the second structural break, which mainly coincides with the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Asian financial crisis, has slowed down the growth rate in visitor arrivals to Australia from 22 out of 28 (79%) of the tourism source markets.

A scalable and extensible segment-event-object-based sports video retrieval system

Sport video data is growing rapidly as a result of the maturing digital technologies that support digital video capture, faster data processing, and large storage. However, (1) semi-automatic content extraction and annotation, (2) scalable indexing model, and (3) effective retrieval and browsing, still pose the most challenging problems for maximizing the usage of large video databases. This article will present the findings from a comprehensive work that proposes a scalable and extensible sports video retrieval system with two major contributions in the area of sports video indexing and retrieval. The first contribution is a new sports video indexing model that utilizes semi-schema-based indexing scheme on top of an Object-Relationship approach. This indexing model is scalable and extensible as it enables gradual index construction which is supported by ongoing development of future content extraction algorithms. The second contribution is a set of novel queries which are based on XQuery to generate dynamic and user-oriented summaries and event structures. The proposed sports video retrieval system has been fully implemented and populated with soccer, tennis, swimming, and diving video. The system has been evaluated against 20 users to demonstrate and confirm its feasibility and benefits. The experimental sports genres were specifically selected to represent the four main categories of sports domain: period-, set-point-, time (race)-, and performance-based sports. Thus, the proposed system should be generic and robust for all types of sports.

Examining the behaviour of visitor arrivals to Australia from twenty different countries : an application of panel unit root tests

Testing for the behaviour of visitor arrivals has important implications for policy, for if visitor arrivals are stationary processes then it implies that shocks to visitor arrivals are transitory. However, if visitor arrivals are found to be characterised by a unit root then this implies that shocks to visitor arrivals are permanent. In this paper we provide the first evidence on the unit root hypothesis for visitor arrivals to Australia using a suite of recently developed panel unit root tests. Our main finding is that visitor arrivals to Australia from twenty tourist source markets and from the G7 markets are mean reverting. implying that any shocks will have only a transitory effect. However; visitor arrivals from eight Asian countries are characterised by a unit root. implying that shocks will have a permanent effect on this market.

Tourism and recreation in natural environments : an empirical analysis of visitor satisfaction

A trend in tourism patterns is the desire by tourists to spend more time enjoying unspoilt, natural environments. Leisure experiences in parks can provide many benefits which include promoting positive emotional, intellectual and social experiences which result in high levels of wellness in communities with long-term benefits. However, the resultant growing number of national park visitors has created a need for effective and efficient decision suppOli tools to assist park managers to administer resources, assess planning decisions, cater for an increased range of users, avoid user conflicts and minimise negative impacts on the environment. The aim of this paper is to determine the extent to which manageable variables predict park visitor satisfaction, and in so doing develop a better understanding of park visitors and their leisure experiences in parks. This study is based on a sample of 11,387 face to face interviews at 34 major parks in Victoria, Australia. The study uses cluster analysis, factor analysis and structural equation modelling to develop a segmentation approach to model and analyse visitor satisfaction. Seven well differentiated segments have been developed; constructs relating to park visitation have also been produced. The study highlights that different combinations of park facilities and resources are important in determining the satisfaction of park visitors from different segments.

Segment reporting and corporate takeovers : user needs

The nature of a corporate takeover often leads to the contraction in the number of companies operating in a given industry classification, along with the contraction in the amount of formal financial statements produced by the companies in that industry. Since 1985 Australian diversified companies are required to break their operations down into industry and geographical segments, so it would be expected that companies which diversify their operations through a corporate takeover would be forerunners in the adoption of this relatively new accounting standard on segment reporting. While previous studies have both declared the benefits of segment reporting to report users, and exposed some preconceived problems of its application in practice, there has not been any work on the 'usefulness1 of segment reporting as a form of reporting that will compensate shareholder users for the information loss suffered during a corporate takeover. This study endeavours to determine this, by questioning shareholders of companies that have been involved in takeovers in a period subsequent to the application date of the segment reporting standard, and obtaining their views on the usefulness of the post-takeover segment reports produced by their companies. A link is discovered to exist between shareholder dissatisfaction with segment reporting and the non-practice of creating a new segment in the post-takeover annual report for the target acquired. The underlying assumption that the practice of new segment creation after a takeover is influenced by the type of takeover undertaken is supported by the study. Regardless of whether or not a company is diversified before the takeover, the findings show that a corporate acquirer in a takeover is less likely to create a new industry or geographical segment for the target acquired if they are involved in horizontal or vertical takeovers than if they are involved in diversified takeovers. In these situations, segment reporting is found to not compensate shareholders for the loss of information incurred by them in these types of takeovers.