--

3 (1) 2013

Factors affecting botanic park visitation: A case of Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens


Author - Affiliation:
Nguyen Hoang Sinh - Ho Chi Minh City Open University , Vietnam
Corresponding author: Nguyen Hoang Sinh - kim.npt@ou.edu.vn

Abstract
Increasing number of people is becoming more active in park visitation and ecotourism. It is therefore important for park managers to understand future trends in visitor use of parks. This research paper is designed to understand the motivational factors or the psychological reasons why people visit parks in order to create the suitable marketing campaign to target them. As well as that, it discovers the facilities and attractions of parks that are most important to the visitors, so that the management of parts can disburse its resources in the best areas to achieve maximum output and return. Furthermore, the research aims to find the best communication channels for tourism destinations to reach its target audience so that its marketing expenditure can yield the maximum return. A survey with 228 participants who have visited Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens in the last 12 months was conducted. The research result will be critical for the adaptive management of parks and for building the capacity to manage changes and shifts in visitation patterns and park usage. Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens would take advantage of this trend and secure a substantial proportion of the new park visitors.

Keywords
push and pull’ factors; park visitation; botanic park; ecotourism

Full Text:
PDF

References

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (2004), Environmental Issues: People’s Views and Practices, cat. no. 4602.0, ABS, Canberra.


The Arizona Hospitality Research and Resource Center (2002), Economic Impact of State Parks. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.azcommerce.com/doclib/PROP/StateparksEIA%20exec%20summary.pdf


Bigne, J.E., Andreu, L. and Gnoth J. (2004), ‘The Theme Park Experience: An Analysis of Pleasure, Arousal and Satisfaction’, Tourism Management, vol. 26, no. n/a, pp. 833-844.


Burns, A. and Bush, R. (2003), Marketing Research, 4th ed, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.


The NSW Department of Environment and Conservation (2006), Living Parks: A Sustainable Visitation Strategy. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from http://nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/PDFs/Living_Parks.pdf


Galloway, G. (2002), ‘Psychographic Segment of Park Visitor Markets: Evidence for the Utility of Sensation Seeking’, Tourism Management, vol. 23, no. n/a, pp. 581-596.


Hearne, R.R. and Santos, C.A. (2005), ‘Tourists and Locals Preferences toward Ecotourism Development in the Maya Biosphere Research, Guatemala’, Environment, Development and Sustainability, vol. 7, no. 3, p. 303.


Wood, M.E. (1998), ‘Meeting the Global Challenge of Community Participation in Ecotourism: Case Studies and Lessons from Ecuador’, The Nature Conservancy, Working paper, no. 2, p. 10.


Kim, S.S., Lee, C.K. and Klenosky, D.B. (2003), ‘The Influence of Push and Pull Factors at Korean National Parks’, Tourism Management, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 169-180.


Kjeldal, S. (2002), ‘Back to Basics: The Sequencing of Inductive and Deductive. Research Methodologies in Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Research’, Forum: Qualitative Social Research, vol. 3, no. 3, p. 41.


Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens (n.d.), About us. Retrieved May 1, 2012, from http://www.saigonzoo.net/lang/en.



DOI: https://doi.org/10.46223/HCMCOUJS.econ.en.3.1.107.2013
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.