Editor: David Fennell (Brock University)
Reviews Editor David Weaver (University of South California, USA)
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Volume: 1 Number: 2 Page: 104–121
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Getting the Message Across: An Analysis of Messages Delivered by Tour Operators in Protected Areas
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E. Kate Armstrong and Betty Weiler
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Tour operators licensed to operate in protected areas are a potentially important vehicle for delivering messages to visitors about minimal impact behaviour, heritage values, conservation and protected
area management. The underlying premise is that the messages delivered by a guide/operator may influence how visitors think, feel and behave in the short term (onsite) and possibly in the long term once
they have returned home. This paper presents selected findings from a study funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism examining the messages delivered and received in a sample of
tour products offered in National Parks managed by Parks Victoria in Victoria, Australia, in the first half of 2001. Research methods included participant observation of tour products, a self-complete visitor
survey and in-depth interviews with tour operators. Using Parks Victoria's management objectives as a framework, the paper analyses the types and frequency of messages imparted by guides and received by
visitors.
© Multilingual Matters 2002
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