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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In just a relatively short period of time tourism has become one of
the dominant human activities in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. One
problem tourists face when they visit the reef is the dilemma of which
activities to participate in, and how long to spend on any one activity.
This research study investigates a proposed solution to this dilemma through
the development of activity schedules for tourists to follow on one day
commercial reef trips. Activity schedules can provide visitors with a
set plan to follow to guide them on how they could spend their day completing
the activities they desire within the time available.
This research was conducted with the assistance of Pure Pleasure Cruises,
a day reef cruise company operating from Townsville, Australia. Passengers
on Pure Pleasure were surveyed during two stages in the research project.
For the first stage of the research three separate activity schedules
were developed by clustering activity participation rates of visitors
to the reef into three significantly different groups. In the second stage
of the research tourists to the reef were given the opportunity to follow
an activity schedule that they felt may have best suited their needs.
Respondents were then given a questionnaire to complete with regards to
their satisfaction with the trip and various elements which were found
to be positively correlated to trip satisfaction such as time on the reef
and time to complete activities.
Results indicated that bad weather had a dominating negative effect
on trip satisfaction. This element was removed from the analysis so as
to permit an accurate comparison between the baseline and activity samples.
Further analysis demonstrated the positive effect of activity schedules
with increased visitor satisfaction levels across a range of variables.
(Thesis Summary by David Green, January 1997)
THIS PUBLICATION IS CITED AS:
Green, David. (1997)
The development and evaluation of activity schedules for tourists on
one-day commercial Reef trips
Technical Report No. 18
Townsville; CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd, 29 pp.
ISBN 1 876054 45 X
A full copy of this report may be obtained from the author(s),
and through the following libraries:
Agency libraries: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority,
Townsville; Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville; James
Cook University, Townsville; Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries
(Brisbane and regional offices); Queensland Department of Environment
and Heritage (Brisbane and regional offices); CSIRO Division of Marine
Research, Tasmania.
Public libraries: Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and South
Australia State libraries; National Library, ACT.
Parliamentary libraries: Queensland, New South Wales and South
Australia parliamentary libraries.
For a hard copy (or pdf file) of the report contact CRC Reef on info@crcreef.com.
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