Doctor of Philosophy / Zoological gardens, or zoos, keep and display wild animals, mainly for the purposes of education, conservation and biological research. However, it is evident that a significant component of zoos is the vast number of people who visit them, since without the support of visitors, zoos would not be financially viable and would cease to exist. This research investigates the behaviours of these visitors and develops an understanding of their awareness relating to what they see and do while they are in the zoo, along with their motivations for visiting. The study focuses on two major metropolitan zoos in Australia: Adelaide (in South Australia) and Taronga (in Sydney, New South Wales). A brief historical account contextualises changes, raising awareness of the significance of visitors to the livelihood of zoos. More and more zoos are integrating into their management routines different programmes that relate to the care and welfare of the animals. Despite recent growth in scientific attention, which has focused on human-animal relationships, little research has been conducted relating to the human visitor in the zoo. To date, decisions made by administrators have been based upon assumptions of the visitors’ understanding of the work of zoos rather than on actual quantitative findings. This empirical research is significant in that it uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to appraise factual data and information. The data from unobtrusive tracking observations at different exhibits, combined with the results of questionnaire surveys, are used to explore and assess the perceptions of visitors. In developing a demographic profile of the people who visit zoos, this work considers the motivations and the frequency of visitors. Various factors that influence the viewing patterns of visitors are explored to assess the popularity of exhibits, and the perceptions of visitors relating to animals and enclosures are investigated, to assess the diverse levels of satisfaction. Case studies explore the perceptions and understandings of visitors towards the use of enrichment items, the use of signs and labels, and a hypothetical approach to the feeding of carnivores in zoos. The results are important in that they contribute essential knowledge that describes the perceptions of a wide range of people who visit zoos, along with their expectations, since it is crucial for these institutions to maintain their popularity with the public.

Naturalistic exhibits have become popular among zoo designers as well as zoo visitors. However, one problem associated with naturalistic exhibits is that many times visitors cannot see the animals. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effect of this lack of visibility on visitor experience. Other goals of this study were 1) to theorize the relationship between visitor experience and exhibit design, 2) to present the implications of this study on current practices in zoo exhibit design, and 3) to provide a series of design recommendations which will enhance current design practices. The results of this study suggest that there is a significant relationship between animal visibility and visitor experience. Most importantly, the results indicate that animal visibility can significantly influence how visitors use the interpretive materials associated with the exhibits. These results are important because a primary zoo objective is visitor education through sign readership. The most valuable contributions made by this study are 1) the theory proposed in this thesis which provides designers a stronger theoretical foundation from which to begin the design of zoo exhibits, 2) the findings provide additional empirical data in identifying qualities of exhibits which stimulate visitors to read, and 3) the findings provide researchers additional evidence concerning what factors of an exhibit are most significant in influencing visitor attitudes. / Master of Landscape Architecture

The aim of this study is to illustrate and analyze the future visions of museums and what the future visitor of museums will be. This will be done through a discourse analysis supplemented with interviews with persons involved in the museum field. The questions at issue are how the future of museums is discussed, expressed, and described in the future visions of the for this study chosen museum actors. Furthermore this study will look into what role the visitor of museums is going to take in the future of museums. It will also study how museums should conduct themselves to the visitor of future museums. And finally, what do future museums seek to achieve in the future? Museums of today are reaching out towards their visitors and hence the museums have gone from being storage for cultural heritage to become active learning environments for the people. Museums seek to achieve a sustainable future in the social-, environmental-, and economical area. Diversity should also be developed within the activities of the museums, both when it comes to qualifications and to work for development in society as a whole. Knowledge of the Swedish society and its history are likely to play a great role in the future of museums seeing that museums can be looked upon as an institution of knowledge. In this respect the cooperation with universities and colleges are of great importance since it gives an increased credibility for the visitor both when it comes to knowledge and research, as well as democracy and diversity. In this time of change lies also the change in the role of the visitor. The future visitor of museums will no longer play the passive part of the listener and recipient of information. The future visitor will play a more active role in the process and product of the museums. This change is in part a result of the digital technology that today is a great part of people’s lives. Museums develop the individual visitor’s motivation and involvement in the community as a bridge between the past, the present and a future.

The development of Science Museums has a close relationship with the IMAX film system. Museums can use IMAX film system to provide visitors with the science education, recreation, social activities and other functions. In Taiwan, NMNS, NSTM, TCRC, TAM all have set up different types of IMAX film systems. Although the IMAX theatre plays an important role in the museum management, the museum has to invest a lot of money, manpower and other resources to keep it can operate properly and to maximize its functions. Under the trend of consumer-oriented, this study focuses on the operations of NSTM¡¦s IMAX® 3D Theater, to investigate its visitors' motivations and satisfactions. The main purpose of this study includes: 1. To understand IMAX® 3D Theater visitors¡¦ motivation and satisfactions. 2. To exam the differences among various backgrounds of IMAX® 3D Theater¡¦ motivations and satisfactions. 3. To explore the dependence between IMAX® 3D Theater visitors¡¦ motivations and satisfactions. 4. To provide operational suggestions to the museum. This study was conducted with Survey Research Method by using questionnaire to collect data. There are toyal 449 valid questionnaires. The results show that: the visitors¡¦ backgrounds, affect their motivations and satisfactions; motivations and satisfactions have positive correlation. IMAX Theater visitors¡¦ motivations emphasis on entertainment, but they do not get great satisfaction from the theater.Many visitors are willing to revisit the theater, however, they are not satisfied with the present experiences. Based on the survey, the study has raised several suggestions toward the operations of the theater, including the selection of films, pricing strategies, marketing strategies.

The Mogao Grottoes, also known as the Mogao Caves or the Thousand Buddhas Caves, is located at the southeast of Dunhuang, northwestern China. It is a very important cultural heritage site on the Silk Road and was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. Mogao Grottoes is a Buddhist shrine with 45,000 square meters of wall paintings and 3,000 sculptures within 492 cave temples from the 4th to 14th centuries; it is also known as the world’s largest existing cave temple with the richest content of Buddhist art. In 1900, the Library Cave was discovered, in which more than 50,000 well-preserved manuscripts, silk paintings, and other relics of important academic research value were. With its long history and profound culture, Mogao Grottoes became a hot tourist destination in China. A growing numbers of visitors, especially in recent years, bring great challenges for heritage preservation and tourism at Mogao. Dunhuang Academy developed a preservation and utilization project in order to cope with this conflict between preservation and tourism, ensure the heritage is well, and develop sustainable tourism. This paper analyzes the current visitor management methods and the risks from visitors and evaluates the proposals for cave carrying capacity, visitor capacity management, visitor flow management, and a visitor center, including the good points of each and the potential problems associated with the caves preservation, site security, and visitors’ experiences. Finally, the paper discusses the overall project and proposes a recommendation for visitor management and developing sustainable tourism at Mogao Grottoes. / text

The aim of this research was to provide a practical method for assessing visitor satisfaction at a local festival. It is crucial for festival management to monitor and evaluate visitor satisfaction in order to understand and identify the needs and perceptions of attendees, which in turn allows organizers to design and tailor the festival elements towards them, leading to higher visitor satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth advertising, and increased likelihood of repeat attendance (Lee, Lee and Choi, 2011; Lee & Beeler, 2009). The research objectives were to evaluate current levels of satisfaction of festival attendees, to determine what attributes are importance in determining satisfaction, and to analyze whether importance and performance of those attributes differs based on demographics and visit characteristics, with the aim of recommending policies to assist the festival in increasing overall visitor satisfaction. A questionnaire was distributed over four days, and three event locations resulting in the collection of 389 completed questionnaires. Respondents were asked to complete demographic and visit information as well as rate the importance and performance of eighteen festival attributes. ANOVA and independent t-tests were used in order to determine whether the importance and satisfaction of these attributes differed based on the demographics and visit characteristics. An Importance-performance analysis (IPA) was then used to assist event organizers in resource allocation while identifying critical performance attributes in order to improve visitor satisfaction. Findings reveal attributes associated with program content, convenience and food and beverage ranked higher in determining visitor satisfaction than the attributes associated with souvenir, transportation and information availability. Results also indicate statistically significant differences of the mean importance and mean performance scores of attributes based on gender, age, resident status, site and whether it was the respondents??? first time at the event. It was found that females place a higher importance on convenience attributes such as the cleanliness of restrooms, helpfulness of staff and feeling of safety, as compared to males. As well, repeat visitors placed a higher importance on program content attributes such as live entertainment, dance space and authentic culture, and also have a higher perception of performance for these attributes than first-time visitors. These findings result in direction for management in where to place future resources, as well as implications for promotional and advertising strategies.

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