 Low versus high intensity approaches to interpretive tourism planning: The case of the Cliffs of Moher, IrelandNoel Healy, Carena J. van Riper and Stephen W. Boyd Tourism Management, 2016, vol. 52, issue C, 574-583 Abstract: In recent decades, investments in tourism capital and the advancement of media technologies have transformed the construction and consumption of tourism destinations. Using the $45 million Cliffs of Moher (CoM) visitor center in the west of Ireland as a case study, this paper investigates a central debate in interpretive planning: how the intensity of multimedia applications and onsite facilities shapes visitor experiences in natural area destinations. Drawing from onsite surveys, semi-structured interviews and participant observations, as well as comparative evaluations of the former and current visitor centers, results indicated that low-intensity interpretation was preferred to high-intensity, technologically driven displays. This paper challenges the dominant producer-oriented development paradigm for visitor centers where the architectural design is often the focus of attention. Instead, the authors argue for greater emphasis to be placed on interpretation that incorporates the perspectives of visitors and residents throughout all phases of the planning process. Keywords: Interpretation; Visitor centers; Nature-based experiences; Visitor management (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:touman:v:52:y:2016:i:c:p:574-583 DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2015.08.009 Access Statistics for this article Tourism Management is currently edited by Chris Ryan More articles in Tourism Management from Elsevier |
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