Perceptions of wilderness in the South Island of New Zealand: a multiple images approach Research Completed

Title

Perceptions of wilderness in the South Island of New Zealand: a multiple images approach

Lead Author

Kearsley, G., Kliskey, A. and Higham, E.

Organisation(s)

University of Otago, CAUTHE

Publication Year

1998

Publisher

Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research - CAUTHE Proceedings

Contacts

University of Otago, Tourism Department: Publications and contact information

The Journal at Wiley Library

www.cauthe.com.au

Abstract

The Fiordland and Queenstown regions of New Zealand’s South Island provide the focus for the country’s largest and most intensively used regional tourism complex, much of it focused upon the natural environments of the Southern Alps and the Alpine foreland. Earlier work has shown that a major motive for visiting the area is to visit the backcountry and encounter wilderness in some form. At the same time, growing visitor use and consequent perceptions of crowding is compromising wilderness values. Wilderness may be defined in ecological, legal/administrative or perceptual terms. For the purposes of tourism and visitor management, beliefs about the nature of wilderness and where it may be encountered are the most important, since they relate directly to choice, behaviour and satisfaction. Personal perceptions of wilderness have been aggregated in the past to provide GIS based maps of perceived wilderness for various classes of users in the north west of the South Island. This paper uses a similar approach to map the wilderness perceptions of various user groups, and the general public, for a substantial part of the much more complex Fiordland, Queenstown and Mount Aspiring regions and their associated tourism venues. The images derived are then compared and their implications for tourism management and infrastructure development are discussed.

Keywords:

Fiordland, Queenstown, regional tourism, backcountry, wilderness

How to access

In Proceedings of CAUTHE Tourism and Hospitality Annual Conference (1998)

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1190

Added

July 11, 2012