Investigating Tourists’ Motivation for Visiting National Park

The aim of this study is to investigate primary motivations for tourists visiting national parks by examining tourist market segments, motivations within different socio-demographic characteristics, and through the creation of respondent profiles on World Heritage information. The push and pull theory (Dann, 1977; Crompton, 1979) was operationalized in this research to address this question. Komodo National Park in Indonesia was chosen as the research site to investigate this topic. This research distributed questionnaires by interviewing tourists on-site. Out of 373 participants who were approached, 289 agreed to participate in the study. Results indicate that the primary push and pull motivational factors for tourist at Komodo National Park was to experience natural excitements and the authenticity of the natural destination. Other factors such as 'To impress and be seen by others' and 'I prefer to go to a zoo rather than a national park' were the lowest push and pull motivations respectively. This finding suggests that a destination's authenticity and its scenic landscape are potential drivers to attract tourists to travel to a national park. Furthermore, unique wildlife has influenced tourists' decision to choose a national park as their tourism destination. Demographics of tourists who visited Komodo National Park were mostly Asian, male, single, 20 to 29 years old, graduate degree and beyond, and having income of US$40,000 per year or less. This study found four market segments; the Want-it-All tourists, Pride/Knowledge Seekers, Social Seekers, and Excitement/Relaxation/Heritage Seekers. This study also examined the role of naming a national park as a World Heritage Site, and how it influences a tourists' motivations. Results showed that tourists were aware that Komodo National Park is a World Heritage Site (84.07%) but were not be able to acknowledge the World Heritage label.

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