CRC REEF RESEARCH CENTRE TECHNICAL REPORT No. 21

Visitor Experiences And Perceived Conditions On Day Trips To The Great Barrier Reef.

C. Scott Shafer,CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd, c/- James Cook University
Graeme J. Inglis,CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd, c/- James Cook University
Victoria Y. Johnson CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd, c/- James Cook University
Nadine A. Marshall, CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd, c/- James Cook University

FOREWORD

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is the world's largest marine protected area and is among the world's first marine protected areas. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's responsibility to ensure the environmental well-being of the world's largest coral reef system requires not only that human activities are managed for sustainability, but also that the Authority respond positively to changing patterns of human use.

When the Marine Park was started in 1978, most human activity was extractive - taking natural resources from the environment in the form of fishing or collecting with little consideration of sustainability. Now, 20 years later, fishing and collecting are managed with the objective of ecological sustainability, there has been an increasing trend towards human activities focussed on appreciation of the Great Barrier Reef environment in the form of tourism and recreational cruising and boating. This trend complements the World Heritage listing of the Great Barrier Reef, and has the potential to provide many avenues for productive, collaborative relationships between Marine Park management and interests.

Much effort has been devoted during the life of the Marine Park to understanding the ecological processes of the Great Barrier Reef and the effect of human activities on those processes. While our understanding is far from complete (and it is unlikely ever to be complete), over time we have learned generally to ask the right questions that lead to sufficient information to make management decisions. We have developed a basis for understanding ecological processes.

We are now embarking on a similar learning process in relation to human use and perceptions of the Great Barrier Reef, but with two important differences. The first is that while the Authority has a role in creating suitable conditions for a diversity of experiences and appreciation of the Marine Park, it is a role that must necessarily be shared. Indeed it may only be effective with the cooperation and active participation of other interests such as the public and the marine tourism industry. The second is that most decisions required in this process will necessarily be of the type this report refers to as "wicked" decisions, by which an outcome is not necessarily 'correct' in an abstract sense, but is nevertheless useful. It is desirable that Marine Park stakeholders and interests are participants in developing and implementing any management regime. It is essential that they are involved when the purpose of managing human use is only or primarily how it affects other human use.

This report is an important contribution to the processes of understanding the more subtle values people attribute to the Great Barrier Reef and of exploring systematically how that understanding can be better developed, practically implemented; and to providing a common basis for consideration of the issue by Marine Park stakeholders and managers. In particular, it demonstrates that there is a need to consider factors affecting human 'satisfaction' with their experience of the Great Barrier Reef. It highlights areas where the 'right' questions may now be systematically asked in order to develop cohesive policies and management systems based on ecological, social and economic issues.

Ian McPhail
Chair
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Large growth in tourism and associated infrastructure development within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park over the past 10 years has prompted calls for research into the carrying capacity of coral reefs for recreation and tourism. Past research has, however, shown clearly that attempts to determine a single numerical limit to the use of natural environments are misguided and inevitably subjective and that limiting use alone does not adequately protect the natural and aesthetic qualities of the resource. Contemporary planning frameworks such as the "Limits of Acceptable Change" (LAC) model rely instead on the use of indicators and standards of environmental quality to direct management of natural environments. These are determined on the basis of natural and aesthetic conditions desired for the quality of the resource by stake-holders and managers. Establishing such a framework requires an understanding of the range of opportunities sought by visitors and the conditions that influence perceptions of environmental quality. To date, few studies have attempted to identify specific conditions which could be used to develop standards for determining acceptable change in coral reef environments.

In this report, we describe the types of experiences had by day-trip visitors to the GBR and the conditions that influenced them. Our purpose was to examine the range of qualities (or "benefits") that visitors seek from a reef trip and how the attainment of these qualities is modified by the natural and social environments experienced on the trips and by characteristics of the respondents themselves. The study had seven principal objectives:

1. To determine the types of people who visit the GBR on day-trips and how they vary in the way they perceive the GBR.

2. To determine if and how activities (particularly snorkelling), in which visitors were involved, influenced their perceptions.

3. To determine what visitors value about reef sites.

4. To determine if visitors to natural marine areas receive similar levels of benefits and react to environmental conditions in ways similar to those reported for terrestrial environments.

5. To determine the conditions present during the reef experience that were most influential on visitors' experiences and thus useful in the selection of indicators in a LAC process.

6. To determine the range of experiences that exists which might contribute to a "spectrum" approach to managing tourist day-trips on the Great Barrier Reef.

7. To determine the extent to which "large" and "small" tourism operations accessing the GBR may be providing different types of experiences.

Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 1,922 day-trip visitors to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, between June 1995 and February 1996. Respondents were passengers on one of four tourism operations that visited reef sites in the Cairns or Central Sections of the Marine Park. Two of the operations were based at offshore pontoons and transported up to 450 passengers per day ("large" operations), whilst the remaining two carried fewer than 50 passengers daily ("small" operations). Questionnaires were provided in three languages (English, German and Japanese) and were administered on repeated trips with each operator throughout the 9 month period to encompass a range of seasonal and weather conditions. The questionnaire was designed to measure different attitudinal, behavioural and demographic characteristics. Visitors were asked to rate how much the trip provided them with different benefits as a part of their experiences (e.g., get some exercise, meet people, learn about a coral reef) and the influence that different physical, biological and social conditions had on their enjoyment of the trip. Demographic information was used to characterise the experience according to different types of visitors.

The survey received a good response rate (97%). Respondents came from 33 different countries, but were mostly from Australia (41%), Japan (14%), Britain (14%) and the USA (13%). A large proportion of visitors (45%) on the trips had not previously visited a coral reef and only 27 % had been to the Great Barrier Reef before. Of those who had, approximately 33 % had made their previous trip to the GBR within the preceding week.

Four main classes of benefits were identified from the responses: (1) experiencing nature, (2) relaxing and escaping from normal routines, (3) excitement with family and friends, and (4) being physically active. Experiencing nature generally rated as the most important benefit, whilst social interactions and experiencing solitude were only moderately important. Five general types of reef visitors were identified on the basis of these benefit classes: (1) people who predominantly escaped from their normal routine and experienced nature, (2) visitors who shared their experience of the natural environment with friends and family, (3) those who experienced nature without taking part in physical activities (e.g. snorkelling), (4) people who were very enthusiastic about all aspects of the trip, and (5) people who were generally not enthusiastic about any particular part of the trip. The five groupings were characterised by important demographic differences. For example, Japanese visitors were more likely to be members of groups (2) and (5). The "enthusiasts" group (4) was generally younger than other groups, more likely to have participated in snorkelling and contained a large proportion of female Australian visitors. Both the less-active (group 3) and unenthusiastic visitors (group 5) were more likely to be male and included a large proportion of people who did not snorkel.

Most of the questions on conditions experienced during the trip were rated as positive influences on the visitors' enjoyment. The most influential items related to natural features of the environment (aspects of the corals and fishes) and services offered by the staff, respectively. The more neutral, and in some cases negative, influences related to the number of people or human-made structures present at the site and to the physical weather and water conditions.

The influence of biophysical conditions on enjoyment was remarkably consistent across operations with only slight, site-specific variations. There were, however, important differences between the experiences offered by "small" and "large" operators. In general, small operators carried a larger proportion of younger passengers and return visitors to the GBRMP. Participation in snorkelling and diving was also generally greater on the small boats. Visitors on small operations were also more likely to rate the social conditions of the trip, including the number of other people, as a positive influence than were visitors to the pontoon sites. The relative proportions of "enthusiastic" (group 3) and "indifferent" (group 5) reef visitors also varied among small and large operations, with the former being most represented on small boats and the latter on trips to pontoons.

This study reveals a range of reef experiences within and among different types of day-visits to the GBRMP. Natural conditions at the visited sites were overridingly the most important influences on enjoyment of the trips, but visitors showed little discrimination among sites with substantially different coral assemblages and settings. There were, however, notable differences between large and small operations in the benefits visitors received from travelling to the reef and in their perceptions of a quality experience. These related mostly to the social conditions present during the trip. Thus, there is a need for a greater understanding by reef and industry managers of the range of opportunities and experiences that are sought by visitors to the GBRMP, so that planning can incorporate measures to both protect and provide for the existing diversity of opportunities. A comprehensive knowledge will only be possible following characterisation of the experiences sought on a broader range of trip types and geographic settings than that used in the present study.

THIS PUBLICATION IS CITED AS:
C. Scott Shafer, Graeme J. Inglis, Victoria Y. Johnson & Nadine A. Marshall (1998)
Visitor experiences and perceived conditions on day trips to the Great Barrier Reef.
Technical Report No. 21
Townsville; CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd, 76 pp.

ISBN 1 876054 75 1

A full copy of this report may be obtained from the author(s), and through the following libraries: