Outcomes and benefits for visitors and community
State of the Parks Fourth Edition
Parks Victoria aims to ensure quality visitor experiences across the parks network by providing various opportunities, connecting people with nature and enabling beneficial individual and community outcomes from parks. Parks Victoria regularly conducts visitor surveys to measure visitor and community satisfaction.
Park Victoria has implemented a Visitor Experience Framework for determining what visitor experiences to provide within parks and where to invest across the parks network. It provides a structured and objective approach to ensure that experiences offered are targeted to visitor needs and delivered in a safe and sustainable manner.
Indicators
Adequacy of visitor opportunities
Threats to quality visitor experiences
Extent visitor management objectives met
Park visitor satisfaction
Community satisfaction with park management
Community benefits of parks
Adequacy of visitor opportunities
Percentage of community rating the adequacy of recreation opportunities as very good or good
- Based on community surveys, 86% of the community rate the adequacy of visitor recreation opportunities as very good or good. This has remained relatively constant in the past two decades, with approval ratings consistently above 80 per cent.
Data source: Parks Victoria Community Perception Monitor 2018
Extent to which visitor needs are provided for
- Based on park manager assessments, the majority of relevant parks (more than 60%) provided adequate visitor opportunities across the variety of recreation experiences except for learning about nature or heritage, where 44% of relevant parks fully or substantially provided for visitor needs.
Data source: Parks Victoria State of the Parks assessments
Threats to visitor experiences
- Threats to visitor experiences range from external/climate-driven factors (e.g. extreme weather events) and visitor overcrowding to management-based issues (e.g. inadequate park servicing).
- Park managers reported that threats impacted on visitor experiences in 217 parks (72% of the 300 assessed parks).
- Inadequate maintenance of assets or facilities was reported as being of extreme or major consequence to visitor experience values in 16% of relevant parks while changes to access, inadequate assets or facilities and wildfire were reported as being of extreme or major consequence in approximately 10% of parks.
Severity of top 10 threats to visitor experience across parks network
Data source: Parks Victoria State of the Park assessments
Extent visitor management objectives met
- Across the range of visitor management programs, park managers reported that management objectives were fully or substantially met in 50 – 70% of all relevant parks for provision of visitor opportunities, parks servicing, visitor facilities and visitor safety while less than 45% of relevant parks fully or substantially met objectives for asset management, interpretation and education and the promotion of heath programs.
- The extent to which relevant parks met objectives for visitor opportunities, asset management, park servicing, visitor facilities and visitor safety has declined since 2013. Although the trend was stable for between 65% and 74% of relevant parks across these programs, significantly more parks reported that it had declined (between 20% and 27% of relevant parks) than improved (between 6% and 10%. The majority of this decrease is in parks moving from substantially meeting objectives in 2013, to only partially meeting objectives in 2018.
- The extent to which relevant parks met objectives for interpretation and education has remained stable since 2013
*Calculated from parks that were assessed in both 2013 and 2018 (Visitor opportunities, n = 255; Asset management, n = 222; Park servicing, n = 225; Visitor facilities, n = 225; Visitor safety, n = 208; Interpretation and education, n = 108). Promotion of health is a new question for the 2018 State of the Parks assessment.
Data source: Parks Victoria State of the Parks assessments
Park visitor satisfaction
- The majority of park visitors indicated they were fully or very satisfied with their park visit. Overall, their experience and satisfaction has improved since 2013.
Level of visitor satisfaction across the parks network - Visitors to Victorian parks are almost entirely satisfied, with less than 2 per cent of visitors reporting that they are not satisfied.
Data source: Parks Victoria Visitor Satisfaction Monitor 2017-18
Visitor Satisfaction Index 2010-2018
- Data from the Visitor Satisfaction Index reveals an increasing trend in visitor satisfaction levels across all park types between 2010 and 2018.
- The satisfaction of visitors to country parks has notably improved since 2014, rising from 82 per cent to 88 per cent.
Data source: Parks Victoria Visitor Satisfaction Monitor 2017-18
Visitor satisfaction – Country (non-metropolitan) parks
Data source: Parks Victoria Visitor Satisfaction Monitor 2017-18
Visitor satisfaction – Peri-urban parks
Data source: Parks Victoria Visitor Satisfaction Monitor 2017-18
Visitor satisfaction – Urban parks
Data source: Parks Victoria Visitor Satisfaction Monitor 2017-18
Community satisfaction with park management
Since surveys began in 1997, community satisfaction with park management (including both visitors and non-visitors) has remained relatively high.
Community satisfaction with management of national, state, regional parks and conservation reserves
- Between 2014 and 2018, community satisfaction with management of national, state, regional parks and conservation reserves significantly increased from 82 per cent to 90 per cent.
Data source: Parks Victoria Community Perception Monitor 2018
Community satisfaction with management of metropolitan parks
- After remaining relatively stable between 1996 and 2012, community satisfaction with the management of metropolitan parks declined in 2014 to 84 per cent and in 2018 remained about the same at 85 per cent.
Data source: Parks Victoria Community Perception Monitor 2018
Community satisfaction with management of bays and waterways and piers
- Community satisfaction with management of bays, waterways and piers has risen over the past two decades and is up to 80 per cent in 2018 compared to 73 per cent in 2014.
Data source: Parks Victoria Community Perception Monitor 2018
Community benefits of parks
Park visitors value the role parks play in maintaining the natural environment and many visitors look to parks for inspiration and enjoyment.
Perceived benefits of Victoria’s parks to the community
- Roughly one third of visitors rated preservation of the natural environment as the foremost benefit of Victoria’s parks to the community.
- Communion with nature (22 per cent), recreation/relaxation/leisure (13 per cent) and enjoyment (12 per cent) were also prominent perceived benefits.
Data source: Parks Victoria Community Perception Monitor 2018
Performance of Parks Victoria in providing benefits to the community
- The parks network is perceived as being ‘very good’ or ‘good’ at ‘offering places of enjoyment and inspiration’ and ‘providing opportunities for recreation and exercise’ by 89 and 86 per cent of people surveyed respectively.
- However, less than two thirds of people surveyed (61 per cent) perceived the parks network as being ‘good’ or ‘very good’ at ‘educating park visitors about the environment’.
Data source: Parks Victoria Community Perception Monitor 2018
Data confidence
Confidence in park manager assessments of extent to which visitor needs are provided for
Confidence in park manager assessments of severity of threatening processes to visitor experience
Data source: Parks Victoria State of the Parks assessments
Confidence in park manager assessments for visitor management program areas
Data source: Parks Victoria State of the Parks Assessments
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