This exploratory study of tourism to the three heritage Australian mining towns of Charters Towers, Maldon and Burra, has aimed to measure the economic impact of such tourism on the host regions and to learn more about the motivations and behaviour of visitors to the towns.
by Michele Cegielski, Ben Janeczko, Trevor Mules and Josette Wells
The beach is generally recognised as the most important recreation amenity in the region for Gold Coast residents, as well as tourists. However, there is very little data to support the role that this amenity plays in the life of Gold Coast residents. This survey set out to collect data from Gold Coast residents regarding their beach use and the values they associate with the beach, and to develop estimates of the economic value of the beach to residents.
by Mike Raybould and Neil Lazarow
This report presents the results from a series of visitor surveys conducted in a set of seven national parks in north-eastern New South Wales. The set of parks included Boonoo Boonoo, Bald Rock, Gibraltar Range, Washpool, Yuraygir, Border Ranges and Nightcap National Parks.
by Tony Griffin and David Archer
This project explores a range of issues relating to the collection, analysis and evaluation of visitor satisfaction information with a view to creating operational benchmarks and decisions processes that can guide and address managerial action. The key outcome of this study is the alignment of visitor satisfaction against the organisational missions and objectives as the criteria for judging visitor satisfaction. This study also provides a methodology for developing service benchmarks and ‘dissatisfaction’ tolerance levels for various operational objectives the organisation may be pursuing.
by Shameem Ali
The aim of this report is to provide a systematic approach to using a set of core variables to collect data in a way that can be consistently applied across Australian protected areas.
by Susan A Moore, Gary Crilley, Simon Darcy, Tony Griffin, Ross Taplin, Joanna Tonge, Aggie Wegner and Amanda Smith
This is the first assessment of the value of national parks, marine parks and forests for tourism and recreation in Western Australia. A case study approach was adopted and two study regions were nominated because of their significance for tourism and recreation and their endowment of natural attractions within parks, forests and marine areas. This study estimated the direct yearly tourist expenditure in two regions known for their unique natural attractions – the Southern Forest Region and the Gascoyne Coast Region.
by Jack Carlsen and David Wood
This report provides the latest information about the characteristics and behaviours of visitors for the tourism industry, managers, and other research projects based in the Ningaloo Coastal Region. The Ningaloo Destination Modelling (NDM) project is a collaborative project between researchers from seven Australian universities and Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre that will deliver a scenario planning tool that assesses the social, environmental and economic impact of tourism planning strategies in order to assist tourism planning in a region that relies on its unique natural attractions.
by Tod Jones, Michael Hughes, David Wood, Anna Lewis and Philippa Chandler
The recognition that small to medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) are a vital part of the tourism sector emphasises the importance of ensuring that their communication, learning and information dissemination and acquisition practices are as efficient as possible. This is especially the case since SMTEs are often under-resourced and time poor. Currently, our understanding of these practices and their implications for improving information provision and utilisation in SMTEs is limited. This research starts to address this gap and further our understanding of the information, communication and training needs of this sector of the tourism industry.
by John Breen, Brian King and Elizabeth Walker
This report presents the composition of a generic park visitation survey instrument based on the core data variables that can be employed in multiple park level jurisdictions throughout Australia. Its focus is to identify the considerations for the future development of software-based solutions for data collection, aggregation, dissemination and reporting of park-based activity across the 14 protected area agencies.
by Simon Darcy, Tony Griffin, Gary Crilley and Stephen Schweinsberg
Tourists do not make travel decisions in a vacuum. The decision to spend money on tourism occurs in the context of the other potential uses of discretionary resources and their corresponding values or utilities. This study has therefore researched the conjoint decision of allocating and spending discretionary resources through the conduct of a choice experiment so that the trade-offs involved could be empirically assessed. The data provides an insight into how each type of discretionary expenditure is valued and how each type competes for a share of the discretionary expenditure ‘pie’. We discuss the results with an emphasis on the implications for tourism.
by Geoffrey I. Crouch, Timothy Devinney, Sara Dolnicar, Twan Huybers, Jordan Louviere and Harmen Oppewal
