Understanding motivations, barriers, and benefits of interpretive program participation at Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Stern MJ, Hockett KS, Powell RB. 2009. Understanding motivations, barriers, and benefits of interpretive program participation at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. National Park Service
We conducted three surveys as part of an effort to understand attendance at live interpretive programs in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The first survey solicited the opinions of thirteen interpretive rangers. The second and third surveys solicited insights from park visitors. The first of these visitor surveys was an online survey of park visitors to the most commonly visited areas of the park, supplemented by mailback paper surveys for those without internet access. The second was an on-site survey of interpretive program attendees to ensure a reasonable sample of those who actually attended programs. Overall, we received completed surveys from 893 park visitors, 358 of whom attended an interpretive program on this visit....Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers high quality live interpretive programs that appear to positively influence visitors’ opinions of the park and the National Park Service, their willingness to support the Park, and their awareness of environmental issues and cultural heritage. Current programming does not seem to have met the current demand for these types of experiences. The study revealed a number of mechanisms for increasing attendance at existing programs.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Stern, Marc; Hockett, Karen; Powell, Robert
- Date of Issue
- 2009-12
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- GRSM
- Keywords
- GRSM-00883, interpretive programs, program attendance, Surveys, Visitors
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Human Use | Visitor and Recreation Use | Visitor Use