Original scientific paper
Impact of visit on visitors’ perceptions of the environments of nature-based tourism sites
Josef Navrátil
orcid.org/0000-0002-4600-1012
; Faculty of Economics, Department of Trade and Tourism, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Kamil Pícha
orcid.org/0000-0002-1153-8055
; Faculty of Economics, Department of Trade and Tourism, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Josef Rajchard
; Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Biological Studies, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Jana Navrátilová
; Institute of Botany, Department of Functional Ecology, Třeboň, Czech Republic
Abstract
The goal of this paper is the assessment of the impact of personal experience on visitors' perceptions of the environments of selected tourist attractions. The cognitive paradigm of environmental perception research was chosen and the Mehrabian-Russell general measure of information rate was used. Students from the University of South Bohemia from three different study programmes (faculties) were used to represent three segments: eco-tourists, neutral and mass-tourists. The research was undertaken on three tourist sites with different types of occurrences of water in their landscapes – pond, river flood plain and peat bog. All three localities are situated within the UNESCO biosphere reserve and landscape protected area of "Třeboňsko" (Třeboň area), Czech Republic. Particular sites were selected with regard to the accessibility of these sites for visitors and to their importance for the concentration of visitors. The measurements took place three times – before visit, on-site and after visit. Explanatory factor analysis revealed three factors of perception – spaciousness, novelty and complexity. These factors differ among localities and each site had a different impact on the site perception of visitors. In the case of spaciousness, it was found that the visit had no impact on visitor perception. Visitation influenced the perception of novelty in the same way at two of the sites– both localities, after visitation, were perceived as being more novel. Visitation also influenced perception of complexity; this time, however, in different ways that were dependant on the uniqueness of each site.
Keywords
tourism; experience; perception; environment; Třeboň basin; Czech Republic
Hrčak ID:
68288
URI
Publication date:
23.5.2011.
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