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Family Group Tourism Experiences at Auckland Zoo: Exploring Social and Conservation Outcomes.

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Thesis(1.99 MB)

Date

2023

Authors

Supervisor

Schänzel, Heike
O'Donnell, Donna

Item type

Thesis

Degree name

Master of International Tourism Management

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Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Auckland University of Technology

Abstract

Family tourism is the fastest growing form of leisure travel in global tourism, encapsulating a significant proportion of visitors to zoological parks. The definition of a ‘family group’ has changed dramatically over recent decades. This diversity and shifting nature of family groups must be considered in further tourism research. Motivations for visiting a zoo can differ significantly within a family group. Children often seek fun and active experiences involving interactions with animals and displays. According to several researchers, family groups visit a zoological park mainly for fun, recreational, and memorable ‘family bonding’ and learning experiences. The primary roles of the zoo are offering education, conservation, research, animal welfare, and entertainment. Visitors contribute a significant amount of the costs required to achieve these roles. Therefore, careful consideration must be given by zoo management to provide an entertaining leisure experience that incorporates their strategic objectives. This research project aims to provide insights into family group experiences at Auckland Zoo in New Zealand. The shared family group experiences are compared with the organisation’s strategic objectives. Much of the existing research provides a comprehensive understanding of family group motivations and zoo experiences from an adult perspective. This research, however, focused on experiences perceived by several members within each family group, including children. Children are important stakeholders in zoo tourism, and their perspectives and status must be recognised. Their experiences from a zoo visit will likely differ significantly from the adults within their family group. Allowing children ‘a voice’ in research grants them empowerment and citizenship rights, as supported by the United Nations Conventions of Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This is pertinent to this research as zoo policies, operations, and services directly affect children's experiences. As part of the UNCRC, children also have a right to be provided an experience and cultural environment where they feel safe and protected. This includes the need to make research ‘child-friendly’ and within their capabilities, to make a meaningful contribution to research where applicable. Children were engaged in the interviews by presenting them with play doh to create their favourite animals. This qualitative research thesis followed a subjective epistemology and interpretivism paradigm. The data in this thesis was collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with seven diverse family groups at the zoo, a total of 37 participants: 18 adults and 19 children. A ‘whole-family’ methodological approach allowed for a multidimensional data analysis. The data was analysed using thematic analysis and mapping with six main emerging themes and 18 sub-themes. The main themes from the thematic analysis were: infrastructure, fun day out, nature connectedness, personal discovery, family connections, and affordability. The findings are encouraging and offer some interesting insights into children’s perceptions of their zoo visit and the importance of their inclusion in the ‘whole family’ approach to tourism research. This thesis confirms that family groups' primary motivation to visit the zoo, is for a fun, leisurely day out. Conservation and education are deemed important roles of a zoo, however, although as some participants admitted, it was not their main reason for their visit. Children’s comments have provided fresh insight into family group experiences at Auckland Zoo. The younger children (under the age of 10) gave ‘unfiltered’ comments and opinions about their experiences, which is one of the benefits of including children in future research. Not many participants, particularly the adults, thought they had learned much from their visit. The conservation role of the zoo was well mentioned by adult and child participants. Several improvement suggestions for educational signs, displays, and more interactive interpretation were given when asking about their learning part of the zoo experience. Overall, the findings in this thesis highlight the conundrum zoo organisations face in negotiating the balance between meeting visitor expectations and providing engaging conservation education and acceptable levels of animal welfare.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10292/17211

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