Visitor management practices and operational sustainability: Expedition cruising in the Kimberley, Australia

Pascal Scherrer, Amanda J. Smith and Ross K. Dowling

Tourism Management, 2011, vol. 32, issue 5, 1218-1222

Abstract: The expedition cruise industry along the remote 3000km Kimberley coast in Australia’s northwest draws on the area’s environmental and cultural assets for its tourism product and provides the main means of access for visitors. Cruises involve frequent on-shore excursions to attractions including rock pools, rock art and historic sites. This study used visitor observations and stakeholder interviews to examine potential impacts on environmental and cultural site assets, and visitor safety and experience. Visitor management practices varied strongly between operators, with vast room for improvement by some operations. Inconsistent visitor management practices contributed to a high level of avoidable risks in terms of visitor safety and negative cultural and environmental impacts. Findings from this study highlight the central role of tour guides and operational procedures for improving visitor management practices.

Keywords: Operational standard; Tour guide; Environmental; Cultural; Kimberley (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517710001974

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:touman:v:32:y:2011:i:5:p:1218-1222

DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2010.09.007

Access Statistics for this article

Tourism Management is currently edited by Chris Ryan

More articles in Tourism Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().