Managing People by Understanding People

Abstract

Despite general agreement by academics and researchers on the importance of developing greater knowledge of visitor profiles, satisfaction and other experiential variables, a similar consensus among parks agencies has typically been less forthcoming. This paper reports findings from a national review of current visitor monitoring practices among eight Australian national parks agencies. A similar review conducted in the mid-1990s (Victorian National Parks Service 1996) found that there were key deficiencies in a number of aspects relating to visitor data collection and management, most notably the frequency of visitor satisfaction data collection. While results from this updated review point to recent progress in the development and implementation of systematic, integrated visitor monitoring programs within parks agencies, examples of more selective approaches to data collection still remain.