As visitor demand has increasingly focused on the provision of tourism experiences rather than products, the importance of interpretation and education has risen. The interpretation of tourism attractions, products, stories and history is an important part of providing a positive visitor experience as well as an education tool. Interpretation and education can be achieved through a range of methods including informative brochures, guided or self-guided tours, interactive displays, signage, media displays, audio information or interpretive information boards.
Interactive interpretive programs and facilities provide an informative and enjoyable way for information to be communicated to visitors.
Research into the effective design and delivery of interpretation and education programs and facilities has shown that:
The Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre has a number of research reports into the effective dissemination of information and the design of interpretation. One of the landmark research tools developed by the STCRC is the ‘Interpretation Evaluation Tool Kit’ which assists in reviewing and evaluating face-to-face interpretive programs.
Being able to document the achievements of your interpretive program influences not only budgets and financial decisions, but it also provides benchmarks needed for monitoring and continually improving the interpretive services and products you offer. The Tool Kit contains 11 ...
This report outlines the development of a framework for a new interpretation research agenda relating to sustainable tourism. It proposes a classification system for evaluating research and includes selected case studies. Four main research areas – to mitigate visitor impacts, ...
This report provides the key findings from a series of surveys carried out in three national parks—Hasting Caves State Reserve in Tasmania, Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales and the Grampians-Gariwerd National Park in Western Victoria. The researchers collected ...
The principle aim of this study was to develop a set of themes for the interpretation, marketing and development of cultural heritage tourism products and services in Australia. Ultimately the framework will be used by a wide range of ...
This report presents the results of a detailed study of interpretation provided by nature-based tour operators operating on protected land in Victoria, Australia over the period 2000-2001.
This presentation provides an overview of Victorian waste statistics and reprocessing industries, and outlines the socio/economic impact of recycling natural along with a range of recovery systems and trends.
... Useful links Best Practice in Park Interpretation and Education, 1999 (includes evaluation section): http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/publications/best ...
http://www.tourismtasmania.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/35135/evaluation.pdf
... Lincoln University Canlerbury Outdoor Education in AotearoalNew Zealand ... R NO.9 Page 2. Outdoor Education in Aotearoa/New Zealand An Annotated Bibliography ...
http://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/dspace/bitstream/10182/1406/2/prt_op_9.pdf
... I am deeply impressed by their openness in sharing their experiences in outdoor education. ... differences are one of the major factors in the interpretation of ...
http://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/dspace/bitstream/10182/3918/1/lo_phd.pdf