Expectations versus experience - the Kruger National Park's interpretation services from a regional approach

Abstract

The Kruger National Park's management currently neglects the importance of interpretation and, thus, the expectations of interpretation services mostly exceed the actual experience thereof. The aim of this article was thus to determine the interpretation expectations of visitors to the park; to evaluate the experience with interpretation services of the park; to determine whether there is a gap between the expectations of and the experience with the interpretation services and to compare the northern and southern regions' expectations with experiences. Factor analyses revealed the expected and experienced interpretation services of the park as Primary and Secondary interpretation and Knowledgeable staff. t-tests indicated significant differences in two ways: (1) For the park as a whole, results indicate that only Secondary interpretation met respondents' expectations and that Primary interpretation and Knowledgeable staff were experienced fairly. (2) Between the two regions, however, practical significance (i.e. shared variance) between expected and experienced variables revealed that the only factor that did indeed differ between the northern and southern region is Secondary interpretation. These results suggest that the park should focus on the interpretation services from a regional perspective by developing an interpretation strategy that should be re-evaluated and amended periodically.