2017 ttra Annual International Conference

Ed Jager, Director of Visitor Experiences, Parks Canada

Visitation at Canada's National Parks and National Historic Sites began to decline shortly after the year 2000. The Agency realized that it needed to focus on meeting the expectations of visitors to reverse this trend. And we knew that understanding our visitors was key to understanding their needs. This presentation will illustrate how Parks Canada has taken huge steps forward using the Explorer Quotient to understand visitor types, integrating visitor data collection into its point of sale system and generating detailed visitor information on its parks and sites across the country. This work has been key to the reversal of the previously negative visitation trend over the past five years.  Helping Parks Canada better understand visitors, better meet their needs and encourage them to visit has contributed to Parks Canada locations welcoming more visitors than ever before in 2016-17. The presentation will also highlight the early successes of initiatives to engage Canadians in experiencing their national parks and historic sites in 2017 with free admission.

Mike Robinson, Ph.D., Professor of Cultural Heritage and Director, Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage, UK

Mike Robinson will discuss how ethnographic research remains fundamental in understanding the ways in which tourists engage with various aspects of cultural heritage under two observable and non-mutually exclusive conditions. First, at a time when the very concept of cultural heritage is being re-evaluated and re-semanticised, and second, when the consumption of heritage is increasingly a trans-cultural encounter. He will draw upon recent work and projects relating to the ways in which World Heritage Sites attempt to communicate to their audiences, how ethnographic work is changing attitudes to museum curation/interpretation, and how ethnographies are revealing ‘new’ heritages within super-diverse communities.

Jeff Dalley, Ph.D., Technical Advisor,  New Zealand Department of Conservation 

New Zealand’s tourism sector relies heavily on the iconic landscapes of New Zealand’s National Parks to drive international visitation. Within these parks, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) provides ‘Great Walks’, a portfolio of flagship hiking products marketed extensively to international visitors. Comprehensive on-going research of ‘Great Walk’ customers has revealed the attribute that they seek above all else is experiencing natural soundscapes and tranquility. However, rapid growth in demand for mechanized access into these same National Parks - especially the use of aircraft and powerboats - has the potential to compromise the quality of natural soundscapes and ground-based visitors’ tranquil experiences.

To address this soundscape management challenge, DOC is undertaking ground-breaking research to develop ‘tranquillity mapping’ for National Parks. Unlike existing approaches to soundscape management, DOC’s Tranquillity Mapping Tool uses both subjective and objective parameters to determine the tranquillity ‘rating’ of a place. Tranquillity mapping will enable DOC to manage the allocation of soundscapes across time and space to deliver desired levels of tranquility in Park settings. It will also enable DOC to add to the competitive advantage of New Zealand’s National Parks by allowing promises to be made to visitors about the quality and location of tranquil experiences.