Visitor Management Issues in Parks - Essay Example

VISITOR MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN PARKS Name: Institution: Introduction Travelling and visiting of recreational places or sites has been on the rise over the last years. Various people visit places such as museums, national parks, game reserves and zoos for various reasons. Some of the reasons include; adventure and recreations. Management of the national parks is very important since it helps in ensuring sustainability of the parks. Visitor management enhances ecological sustainability in the parks, creates business opportunities and avails funds for management of the parks, and enables the visitors to get experience from the visit of the park. Visitor management in the parks can be done in various ways, for instance; By managing the park visitors directly through charging of the user fees, or by use of park agency managing destinations By managing visitors indirectly, that is, through a coordination between the park agency and the industry in charge of tourism. This coordination should enhance protection of the parks and, visitor enjoyment of the park visit and collection of the revenues by the relevant authorities. Visitor management in various parks in Australia and across the world revolves around various issues, which include, Impact management Recreation Opportunities Visitor Fee Management Tourism Management Visitor services Impact Management Those responsible for the management of the parks must ensure the ecological system is sustainable and parks are not overcrowded. This is because natural systems vary in relation to human activities they accommodate. Resources available for the management of the tourism are very scarce and therefore need appropriate management (Newsome et. al., 2012). The main challenge in this case is to control, manage the type, scale, intensity, duration and frequency of human activity in the parks. Visitor management should enhance sustainability of the ecological system. In order to ensure the sustainability of the ecological system, park managers should control the activities of the visitors in the parks in order to ensure cleanliness of the park environment (Beefon, 2006). Park managers or other relevant authorities should control the number of visitors in entering the parks at any given time, so to ensure only the numbers of visitors the park can accommodate are within the park. The impact of the visitors should be assessed by studying their behaviors. A recent research conducted in Australia by STCRC concentrated on impacts of activities such as rock climbing, hiking, skiing and mountain biking (McCool, 2008). Park managers should ensure the impact of these activities does not affect the park sustainability. Their effects on the environment should not interfere with the ecosystem. As visitors enjoy the park, facilities they should ensure they keep the environment clean (Carlse, &, Charles, 2007). This should be done by educating the visitors on the importance of keeping the environment clean. Enhancing cleanliness (Talwar, 2006; Laws, &, Chon, 2007; Higham, &, Luck, 2008) of the park environment can be through: Social mobilization – social mobilization entails bringing together members of the community to help in the process of cleaning and maintenance of the parks Resource Management – resources in the parks can be managed by having effective payment services that will help to limit the number of visitors in certain regions in the parks. Visitor Experience or Services People go to parks to enjoy the services available in the parks. The parks should provide a wide range of park services and product in order to expand the level of experience visitors derive from the parks (Wang, &, Piaman, 2011). In ensuring sustainability in the parks, visitor management should aim at ensuring enjoyment of the recreational facilities in the park in order to enable a visitor to a park leave a good experience. The main aim of most parks meant for tourists is to ensure visitor satisfaction (Woodside, &, Martin, 2008). Visitor management should ensure provision of the relevant facilities to enhance their satisfaction and in return gain their support. The support of visitors is very important for the management of the parks since without the existence of the visitor’s parks maintenance of the parks could prove to be a challenge Woodside, &, Martin, 2008). In addition, visitor management should enrich visitor experience with the memories of the past, which through the songs and arts that enable them accept and appreciate the natural. Visitor management also facilitates visitor experience by provision of security. It is the legal duty of the park managers to provide park visitors with necessary security while in the park (Wang, &, Piaman, 2011). Therefore, security of the visitors while in the parks is an issue that must be taken into consideration in order to encourage more visitors into the park. To enhance a visitor experience (Wang, &, Piaman, 2011), management should come up with an integrated framework that explains the importance of each service offered in the parks. The framework should entail: Methods of monitoring visitors in the parks in order to evaluate effect of the services on their experience Ways of priotizing various sites or zones and determination of indicators that monitor visitor experiences The indicators that have been identified in the past include wildlife, vegetation, diversity of park services and products. Localization of monitoring programs to ensure prediction of visitor experience Monitoring strategies are of importance since the helps pack management teams in predicting what helps in enhancing visitor experiences while on the parks. Enhancing visitor experience helps in increasing the number of people who frequent the parks. Visitor Fee Management Collection of park fees is an issue that is a matter of concern in management of visitors in the packs (Ritchie, &, Compiranon, 2014). For effective collection of park fees, there should be a system that enhances adequacy of collection process (McCool, 2008). In terms of collection also, there should be a standard fee for visitors to pay when gaining entry into a given park. To enable park managers or planners to control and managers fees, various strategies could be used, for instance, management of park access and development, zoning schemes, use of user pays. (Newsone, et. al., 2012) Use of Pay Schemes All tourism agencies I Australia and other parts of the world are using a certain system of payment of park charges (Wang, &, Piaman, 2011). Due to increasing demand of park services in Australia, park agencies have come up with payment systems in order to be able to collect some fees from the visitors to the park (Newsone, et. al., 2012) . These fees could be used in management and maintenance of the parks. However (Ritchie, &, Compiranon, 2014), recent conducted in Australia and the rest of the parks across the world show that: A uniform system of pay cannot be used in countries with territories or different states due to variances in legal systems, political and social system. User pay methods should be conducted with transparency in order to enable the collection agencies meet the target and properly use the income generated from the collections. The relevant authorities should do feasibility study about any payment method being availed or any increase in the fees charged. This will help in avoiding resistance from the community and visitors to a park. The staff to manage the payment system should undergo training to ensure they are able to hand it without any inconveniences to the visitors to park. The fee structure should be simple to understand and simple to use. Users of the available pay systems do not clearly understand cost and the benefits of various user-pay systems. Managers do not keep their cost records especially costs related to the operating the user pay systems. Use of Zone Schemes Zoning schemes depends on the management objectives, for instance, Western Australia utilizes for different types of zones, including, recreation, wilderness, special conversation and natural environment (Ritchie, &, Compiranon, 2014). Zoning schemes helps in differentiating parks in various regions within a country. Special zone may not be open to the public since they comprise of high nature value of natural resources. Zones of recreation provide recreational facilities and other services up to a level that safety of visitors against the landscape and natural facilities be guaranteed (Ritchie, &, Compiranon, 2014). At the natural environment zones and wilderness zones, the level of services is lower compared to other zones. Tourism Management Tourism management entails managing and monitoring the impact of visitors on the park, ensuring maximization of visitor experience while on the park (Ritchie, &, Compiranon, 2014). To ensure effective tourism management, managers and other stakeholders should come up with a visitor plan, visitor plan, which control impact of visitor within the park, and enhance their experience through creation of recreation facilities in the park (Ritchie, &, Compiranon, 2014). A visitor plan helps in understanding visitors who frequent the park and their needs. Coming up with a good visitor plan requires clear understanding of the tourism trend. Park managers or planners should clearly study the past and current tourism trend in order to be able to draw a future trend (Ritchie, &, Compiranon, 2014). Planners can consider trends such as: Tourism trends that impact on tourism globally and at the national level. These should include the projected trends on the social, economic and political environments. Tourism trends within a specific area especially protected area. The planners or park managers should assess the trend in order to ascertain future trend. Impact of specific factors on the tourism trend, for instance community involvement, changes in the climate and governance. Various recent researches (Ritchie, &, Compiranon, 2014: Wang, &, Piaman, 2011) show the following: The number of visitors frequenting a park will increase in future Parks results into the participation of the public and due to these, the community within which the park is created will corporate with the park management. Society should be educated on the importance of the parks so they could offer more solutions to the management issues within the parks Rising number of older people in the developed countries will affect the trend and recreational facilities required by the visitors. Therefore, planning should accommodate all these new trends in the population structures. Development of information technology, which has enhanced the process which information exchanges hands. This is an indication that the current and future visitors will be better placed in terms of accessing information on the available parks and the available services. In addition, visitors will be able to have access to visitor management policies more easily. Information availability and accessibility affects the rate at which visitor’s frequent parks. In future management of parks will be left in the hands of private investors who will come up with a flexible financial system. This will lead to creation of more charges and tourism fees. It is also anticipated that this will to more focus on visitor management. Parks will be viewed by visitors and non-visitors as cultural icons Changes in the travel technology and harmonized travel cost results in demand of more parks especially those ones away from one’s place of residence. Therefore, this information on the future trends of visitor in regards to park visitation need proper evaluation before drawing a visitor plan. Tourism management plans can be in form of visitor service plan or may be about a certain recreational facility (Ritchie, &, Compiranon, 2014). Tourism management generally contains strategies, goals, policies, objectives or decisions to help in running a given category of parks. Research has suggested seven elements to consider while drawing a visitor plans. The elements include: Clear plan - A good plan should specify how and the period of implementation of a particular visitor management strategy. Implementation - A good plan should indicate procedures of implementation and all the stakeholders to participate in its implementation. The most important is the community since their support will facilitate implementation of a given strategy. Acceptability – a good plan should be socially acceptable in order to gain support for its implementation from the various external stakeholders. Learning – a good plan should facilitate learning process. It allow for free exchange of information among various stakeholders of the plan. Responsibility – when developing a plan, there should be shared ownership, to ensure all the stakeholders within a given plan have various responsibilities. Development of a visitor plan should accommodate the interest of the community within which the park is. Interests – a good visitor plan should contain all the views, values and interests Building of Relationships – A good visitor plan should aim at building a good relationship and gain the support of the community. Visitor communication Visitors attending parks or those who intend to attend a park must be provided with information regarding the parks (Font, &, Tribe, 2000). The information should explain in details services offered in the park, any fee charged on gaining entry into the park and any other relevant information (Talwar, 2006). According to Beefon (2006), information provided to visitors during the visit or prior to visit consists of websites, brochures, newsletters, signs, factsheets, guided tours, displays, marketing and materials for adjustment. Research done by STCRC shows that visitor communication should be enhanced in order to: To enable people view nature positively and ensure its conservation To reduce visitors influences the parks To ensure visitor satisfaction and enhance their experience Research by various authors has also shown that: Proper interpretation of the availed information can be of much importance especially in park management and conservation Management goals should include the interpretation and communication programs in their plans. Management to be effective research, monitoring and evaluation should be included in the management programs Due to changes in the tourism trends, visitor management should involve proper management in order for the tourism to accommodate the daily changes. Focus of park management revolves around park management and conservation (Newsone, et. al. 2012). To ensure these, the management system should rotate around proper marketing and management of the demand activities. Marketing strategies should be able to convey information to the targeted groups. Conclusion Visitor management is an important aspect in the parks, since it is through the visitors that the parks are able to collect some funds for its activities. Management of visitors comprises of various issues such as impact management, visitor communication, recreation opportunities, visitor fee management, tourism management, visitor services and park values. These issues affect visitor management in Australia and across the world. Analysis of the issues shows that park managers or planners should appropriately convey park information to the park visitors. Visitor management requires identification of visitor values and trying to march them with the park values. Park values should be able to accommodate visitor values in order to enable them fit into the park. Park values should help in creating opportunities to the visitors. Therefore, various strategies such as visitor planning, marketing, communication should be applied to facilitate visitor management within the parks. References Beeton, S. (2006). Community development through tourism. Collingwood, VIC: Land Links. Buckley, R., Pickering, C., & Weaver, D. B. (2003). Nature-based Tourism, Environment and Land Management. Ecotourism Book Series, Volume 1. Wallingford: CAB International. Carlsen, J., & Charters, S. (2007). Global wine tourism: Research, management and marketing. 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