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BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS VOL.II – INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TOURISM & MANAGEMENT STUDIES – ALGARVE 2011
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS INFLUENCING TOURISTS’ EXPERIENCE TO
SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL PARKS
Liezel du Plessis
M.Com, Lecturer at the Department of Tourism, Tshwane University of Technology
duplessisl@tut.ac.za
Peet van der Merwe
PhD, Lecturer at the School for Business Management: Tourism Programme, North West University,
Potchefstroom campus
peet.vandermerwe@nwu.ac.za
Melville Saayman
PhD, Lecturer at the School for Business Management: Tourism Programme, North West University,
Potchefstroom campus
melville.saayman@nwu.ac.za
ABSTRACT
The conservation role of South African National Parks (SANParks) is primarily to protect South
Africa’s biodiversity which is ranked third in the world (Spenceley, 2005: 141; Retief, 2006: 104). Land
under conservation and managed of SANParks increases, whereas government funding decreases. To
compensate for the lack in enough government funding, SANParks are becoming correspondingly
more dependent on income generated through tourism to support conservation (Phillips, 2009). As a
result, SANParks management is being pressured to permit more tourists to enter national parks to
cover the shortcomings of government funding. However, the rising number of tourists to national
parks led to increased environmental impacts (Shafer & Inglis, 2000: 73). These environmental
impacts not only affect the sustainability of the natural environment but also impacts upon on the
experience of tourists to national parks (Hillery, Nancarrow, Griffen & Syme, 2001: 853; Chin, Moore,
Wallington & Dowling, 2000: 21).
Research done by Deng and Bender (2007: 183) and Alant and Bruwer (2004: 34) furthermore
established that visitation frequency of tourists to natural areas will influence their perception regarding
environmental impacts. Consequently, to sustain tourism to national parks it is imperative for the park
management to identify environmental impacts caused by tourism that will reflect negatively on the
experience of tourists to national parks (Bresler, 2007: 167).
KEYWORDS
Environmental Factors, Environmental Impacts, Tourist’s Experience, South African National Parks.
1. OBJECTIVES
This study had two main objectives. The first objective was to evaluate whether tourism impacts due
to tourists to South African National Parks affected their overall experience. Second to this, was to
establish whether the frequency of visitation has a role to played in what extent the tourists’
experienced environmental impacts in South African National Parks.
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BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS VOL.II – INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TOURISM & MANAGEMENT STUDIES – ALGARVE 2011
2. METHODOLOGY
The data was gathered through conducting a survey (quantitative). The survey was hosted on the
website of South African National Parks from June to August 2009. During this time period a total of
451 (n) relevant and completed questionnaires were received back. The questionnaire consisted of
three sections. Section A: determined respondents demographic details; section B, measured the
environmental impacts caused by tourism and section C determined the degree in which tourism
impacts on the environment influences tourist’s experience whilst visiting national parks. A five-
point Likert Scale was used as the measuring instrument to determine to what degree the
environmental impacts perceived by the respondents affected their experiences at South African
National Parks (1=very negative; 2=negative; 3=neutral; 4=positive and 5=very positive).
The data was captured on Microsoft Excel where after it was statistically analysed using the software
programme SPSS 16. An exploratory factor analysis was done in order to identify environmental
factors that affected tourist’s experiences. ANOVAs was furthermore conducted to test whether the
environmental impacts that influenced the experience of tourists was affected by the tourists visitation
frequency to South African National Parks.
3. MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS
The most important contributions of the study are the following:
It was the first time in South Africa that research was conducted regarding environmental impacts
of tourism and the effect they have on the experience of tourists visiting South African National
Parks;
Second to this, the relationship between frequency of visitation and the degree to which tourists’
experiences are affected by environmental impacts was also determined for the first time in South
Africa National Parks history.
Last but the least, can the results pertaining, environmental impacts of tourism in national parks,
assist SANParks to management and address these issues in order to ensure the sustainability of
South Africa National Parks.
4. CONCLUSION
This research disclosed that certain environmental factors (speeding of employees and violation of
rules/regulations) do influence the experience of tourists negatively. Management of South African
National Parks are therefore being put under pressure to manage these impacts to ensure a better
quality of environment that is not negatively affected by the impacts of tourism. If management do
not minimize the negative impacts of tourism on the environment, the number of tourists to
SANParks could decrease due to tourists having negative experiences. The results furthermore
indicate that there is a strong link between the frequency of visits to South Africa National Parks and
the degree to which tourists experience environmental impacts caused by tourism. Research has
proved that tourists to South African National Parks are loyal to SANParks (Saayman, Fouche &
Kruger, 2008: 68). Therefore, it is important to minimize environmental impacts caused by tourist to
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BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS VOL.II – INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TOURISM & MANAGEMENT STUDIES – ALGARVE 2011
ensure that the experiences of loyal tourists are optimal and that tourists who visit South Africa
national Parks frequently continue to do so.
REFERENCES
ALANT, K., & BRUWER, J. (2004), “Wine tourism behaviour in the context of a motivational framework for
wine regions and cellar doors’’, Journal of wine research, 15 (1), 27-37.
BRESLER, N. (2007), “Wildlife tourism: creating memorable and differentiated experiences”, Acta academia, 39
(3), 16-182.
CHIN, C. L. M., MOORE, S., WALLINGTON, T. J., & DOWLING, R. K. (2000), “Ecotourism in Bako
National Park, Borneo: visitor’s perspectives on environmental impacts and their management’’, Journal of
sustainable tourism, 8 (1), 20-35.
DENG, J., & BENDER, M. Y. (2007), “Visitors’ perception of tourism development in West Virginia’’, in
LeBlanc, C., and Vogt, C., (comps.) Proceedings of the 2007 North-eastern Recreation Research Symposium held on 15-17
April 2007, Bolton Landing, NY, United States, Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research
Station (General technical report, NRS-P-23.), 181-188.), http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/3829, accessed
30.04.2009.
HILLERY, M., NANCARROW, B., GRIFFIN, G., & SYME, G. (2001), “Tourist perception of environmental
impacts’’, Annals of Tourism Research, 28 (1), 853-867.
PHILLIPS, G. (2009), “Current status of South African National Parks’’, Paper presented at Third Annual
International Conference of Tourism Competence Network (ICNT), Potchefstroom, South Africa, on 22 October 2009.
RETIEF, F. (2006), “The quality and effectiveness of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) as a decision-
aiding tool for national park expansion: the greater Addo Elephant National Park case study’’, Koedoe, 49 (2),103-
122.
SHAFFER, C. S., & INGLIS, G. J. (2000), “Influence of social, biophysical, and managerial conditions on
tourism experience within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area’’, Environmental management, 26 (1), 73-87.
SPENCELEY, A. (2005), “Nature-based tourism and environmental sustainability in South Africa’’, Journal of
sustainable tourism, 13 (2), 136-170.
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