A visitor perspective of conservation management at a South African national park and world heritage site

Abstract

MNP is of international cultural and ecological importance as it has been inscribed as a world heritage site and a transfrontier conservation area (TFCA). Conservation is seen as the primary pillar of management for any national park in South Africa, however, the perceptions of visitors in terms of conservation at such sites is often overlooked. For this reason the primary goal of this paper is to determine whether there are any gaps in the effective management of conservation at MNP. The results presented in this paper form part of a larger integrated tourism research project which took place at MNP during 2013. This study incorporated various aspects related to effective tourism management at a national park and world heritage sites including hospitality, human resources, marketing and conservation, the latter aspect will be the core focus of this paper. This paper is structured in four main parts. The paper will commence with a literature overview of protected area management with a focus on the pillars of park management. The second part of the paper will detail the methodology utilised followed by the data and methodology. The paper will conclude with a discussion and conclusion.