Interpretive media that attract park visitors and enhance their experiences: A comparison of modern and traditional tools using GPS tracking and GIS technology

Highlights

• We evaluated modern and traditional media in park interpretation.

• Attracting, holding and distracting powers of media were quantified through GIS.

• Modern technical media were most efficient at facilitating discovery and learning.

• Traditional media were most conducive to socialising and a nature-based experience.

• GPS multimedia tours and signage performed better than audio tours and pamphlets.

Abstract

Advances in technology have expanded the range of media available for interpretation in parks however their effectiveness in nature-based settings has not been well established. This study compared the performance of modern technical media, namely a GPS-triggered multi-media tour and an MP3-player audio tour, with traditional media: text-rich versus image-rich pamphlets and signs. Performance was evaluated by a questionnaire-based survey along with GPS tracking of visitors who used the different media along a scenic walking track in an Australian national park. The GPS tracking proved to be an efficient and versatile tool to ascertain three performance measures for interpretive media, specifically, the attracting, holding and distracting powers of interpretive media. The latter is defined first in this study as their power to encourage people to visit attractions off the main path.

The GPS navigation tour performed well compared to traditional media in achieving an intermediate attracting power, the highest distracting power and the highest holding power. Compared to the audio tour, it was rated more highly for the overall experience with the medium and for facilitating fun. Further, visitors were more willing to provide word-of mouth recommendation for the GPS navigation tour. Both modern media achieved the highest satisfaction ratings for discovery and learning and were most efficient at facilitating factual learning.

Traditional media were more conducive to socialising and more relaxing and consistent with a nature-based experience. Signage outperformed pamphlets by achieving stronger attracting and holding powers, higher overall satisfaction with the medium and greater word-of-mouth recommendation. The minor differences between image-rich and text-rich media were that the former received a higher satisfaction score for facilitating a fun experience but it achieves a lower degree of factual learning.

Whilst our study demonstrated that modern technical media can be effective tools for park interpretation, traditional media continue to play an important role in nature-based experiences without the intrusion of technology.

Introduction

Effective interpretation is an important tool for park managers in attracting visitors and enhancing their experiences in national parks (Light, 1995, Moscardo et al., 2004, Tubb, 2003). Park interpretation aims to educate and increase visitor appreciation and awareness of the cultural and natural heritage aspects of a specific site (Hughes and Morrison-Saunders, 2002a, Hwang et al., 2005), and fosters place attachment and identification with a park (e.g., Ballantyne et al., 1998, Brody et al., 2002). Successful park interpretation draws visitors away from competing leisure attractions and encourages return visits to sites where people experienced high levels of satisfaction (e.g., Bramwell & Lane, 1993). The latter may result in tourists recommending the tour to others which is an important means to attract new visitors (Munro, Morrison-Saunders, & Hughes, 2008). Additionally interpretation is an appropriate tool for guiding visitors in space and time enabling them to select places or features within the park that may be particularly attractive or meaningful to them (Bramwell & Lane, 1993).

Given that there is a range of interpretive media available and that interpretation programs are costly to implement and maintain, it is imperative that research is undertaken to evaluate and identify the most effective media for a specific recreation setting (Light, 1995, Munro et al., 2008). Numerous studies have assessed interpretive media in indoor settings such as galleries, museums and visitor centres (e.g., Alt and Shaw, 1984, Moscardo and Pearce, 1986, Peart, 1984, Screven, 1976, Washburne and Wagar, 1972). In contrast, far fewer studies have evaluated interpretive media for outdoor settings such as national parks (e.g., Brody et al., 2002, Light, 1995, Ruchter et al., 2005). The results of studies from indoor settings are not always applicable outdoors where interpretive media need to be particularly effective at competing with a multitude of random sensory stimuli from the environment and visitors' need to pay attention as they travel along recreational tracks and explore sites (Hughes and Morrison-Saunders, 2002a, Rademaker, 2008). In addition to this, people's motivation to learn and therefore their incentive to engage with interpretive media may be greater in museums and other educational indoor settings (Light, 1995, Novey and Hall, 2007).

We focus on the evaluation of self-guided, traditional (pamphlets, signage) vs. modern (audio MP3 tours, GPS-triggered multi-media tour) media for a walking trail in a well-frequented national park in the Sydney metropolitan area. GPS-triggered multi-media tours can be delivered via smart-phone applications or on GPS navigation devices as points of interests (POIS). Both technologies have become very popular to retrieve location-based information whilst travelling and compared to others, radio-frequency identification systems (Ferrer, Dew, & Apte, 2010) for example, they are comparatively easy to provide as the user supplies the equipment rather than park management. This is a particular advantage for large park systems where many parks need to be serviced with appropriate interpretive information.

The central question in our paper is how modern technical media compare to traditional media as tools for park interpretation. We hypothesised that people prefer traditional media over modern media as the technicality of the latter may distract from the outdoor experience in the natural environment, which is a major motivation to visit national parks. However, modern media were expected to enhance short-term factual learning and to have a higher holding power as they likely increase visitor's attention span.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the different media types we used a questionnaire-based survey in combination with the GPS tracking of visitors, which is a comparatively new and insightful technique that generates high-precision data on visitor movements (Shoval and Isaacson, 2007, Wolf et al., 2012). To our knowledge this is the first study that compares the performance of interpretive media based on an in-depth evaluation of spatio-temporal visitor data. We provide insights into the effectiveness of GPS tracking and GIS for such an evaluation process and how well this approach complements more traditional techniques. Our study exemplifies how the implementation of GPS tracking and GIS technology is crucial to generate reliable and novel performance measures that assist park management in decision-making on the types of interpretive experiences that best meet their requirements.