Abstract:
Ecotourism is one of the essential and fast-growing sub-sectors of tourism globally. The COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying confinements have renewed the interest and importance of nature for the general well-being of people. This research focuses on the intangible benefits of visitors’ subjective experiences within selected national parks in South Africa and highlights the benefits of these experiences to management. Research conducted in these national parks mainly considered the general motivations of visitors and focused on market segmentation. The South African National Parks’ (SANParks) vision statement and aim are to be a world-class system of sustainable national parks reconnecting and inspiring society. This research proposes consecutive subjective experience stages with inter-relationships when people visit natural areas, ultimately leading to attachment. These could assist in SANParks’ vision. The study found that the preferred parks were Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP) and Kruger National Park (KNP). These parks also receive ample tourists and are successful. The less preferred parks selected were Golden Gate Highlands National Park (GGHNP), Mapungubwe National Park (MapNP), Marakele National Park (MarNP) and Mountain Zebra National Park (MZNP). There was a mandate from SANParks to elevate the tourism potential of the smaller parks.
The research design for this research was a mixed-method, multiple case study approach that consisted of three phases. The population consisted of adult visitors to the parks. Simple random sampling was used for questionnaires, and convenience and purposive sampling was used for the semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data analysis consisted of basic descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data were analysed using content analysis. The results were obtained from 1 895 questionnaires from phase one, 23 semi-structured interviews in phase two and 2 023 questionnaires from phase three.
Results showed that respondents had unique motivations to visit the respective parks, and these differed between the preferred (e.g. loyalty) and less preferred parks (e.g. accessibility and novelty-seeking). The attributes of each park were unique. Preferred park respondents focused on the iconic species and animal
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interactions, while the less preferred parks’ included aesthetics, unique species and other natural features. Cultural ecosystem services were deemed most important to the preferred park respondents overall. The existence value is the most important value to all respondents. KNP respondents had the highest level of place attachment, followed by KTP. All respondents indicated a strong connection to nature. Environmental problems overall were considered the most threatening to KNP respondents. The loss of wilderness was most threatening to KTP and GGHNP respondents, while wildlife poaching was most threatening to KNP, MapNP, MarNP and MZNP respondents. The most pressing future threats and current hindrances in all parks are increased commercialisation and tourism and the accompanying bad behaviour displayed (e.g. drinking, littering, speeding, noise, vandalisation, etc.).
This research adds value to the respective parks’ strategic adaptive management, and the results could be incorporated into their desired strategic direction for each park. The less preferred park managers should aim to improve the profiles of these parks by developing authentic activities that will attract and enhance visitors’ recreational experiences, improving their loyalty and attachment. Furthermore, pro-environment behaviours could be encouraged by social marketing campaigns, environmental education programs, and the creation of infographics to increase awareness of intangible benefits.
