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Developing a Competitiveness Model for South African National Parks

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Developing a Competitiveness Model for South African National Parks Developing a competitiveness model for South African National Parks WH Engelbrecht 20670826 Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Philosophiae Doctor in Tourism Management at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University Promoter: Prof Dr M Saayman Co-Promoter: Prof M Kruger May 2015 i This study is dedicated to my late grandfather and uncle, whose names I was blessed with, but who I never had the opportunity to meet. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank my Heavenly Father for giving me the ability, strength, motivation and perseverance to complete my Doctoral degree. He has guided me with love, compassion and mercy throughout my life and I have no doubt that He will continue to do so. To my father and mother, thank you for your love, support and words of wisdom through the past 26 years and for providing me with the opportunity to study. You are the world’s best parents and I could not have asked for better. Thank you for shaping me into the man that I am today and for having faith in me. To my sister, thanks for always being there, assisting me with my documents and supporting me throughout the years. You have made a lasting impact on my life. I would also like to thank her for translating the Abstract of the study into Afrikaans. To my best friends (Die Japers), Hendrik, Dewald, Willem, and Philip thanks for your unending support, encouragement and friendship during the past years and for understanding when I had to cancel our appointments. You truly are wonderful friends who have made a valuable contribution to my life. To all my other friends whose names are too many to mention, thank you for your support during the completion of my research. To my supervisors, Prof. Melville Saayman and Prof. Martinette Kruger, thank you for showing interest in my research as well as passing on your love and passion for research to me. Your guidance and support is much appreciated; I have learned a lot from you while working on this research project. Furthermore, you have also taught me valuable life lessons of which I am grateful, and that I will be able to use in my personal and academic life. You are the best supervisors I could have asked for due to constant motivation, passion, commitment, support and respect that you have for students and people in general. Thanks for all the time and effort that you have provided me with in order to complete this research project. ii Thank you to my colleagues at Unisa and the IIE for your support and motivation during the undertaking of my study especially Prof Chris Swanepoel; Dr Nellie Swart; Dr Adrinet Snyman; Dorothy Queiros; Elricke van Loggerenberg; Lesedi Nduna; Jenny Nel; Kiera Seymour; Peter Kriel; Dr Stellah Lubinga; Roberto Teixeira; Rebecca Shimmin; Erna Kruger-Pretorius and Fathima Razack. My thanks go out to the staff at South African National Parks, especially Mr Glen Phillips, for the financial assistance and support during the survey at the Kruger National Park. Thank you to all the respondents who completed the survey; without them there would have been no study and no possible change in the management of national parks. Thanks go out to Dr Lindie du Plessis for her guidance and assistance in managing the survey with me, as well as Morne Prinsloo, Jacques Bosch and Elroy Crews for distributing the questionnaires in the rest camps. Thanks to the North West University and National Research Foundation for their financial contribution towards the study. Thank you to Dr Suria Ellis for assisting with the statistical analysis of the data and giving advice in difficult times. Thanks go out to Mr Ian Cockbain for his financial support during my studies and for showing interest in my studies. Thank you Elmari Snoer for the language and technical editing of this thesis. Thank you Annatjie Rautenbach for assisting in the translation of the Abstract into Afrikaans. iii Developing a competitiveness model for the South African National Parks ABSTRACT The tourism industry is an extremely competitive industry which is mainly caused by the ever changing needs of tourists. However, despite the constant change in tourist behaviour, violent terrorist attacks on countries across the globe and the weakening of the world economies, the tourism industry showed significant growth over the last few decades. The fast growth rate of tourism has also lead to the tourist being more aware of ecotourism destinations and the key role these destinations play in conserving the natural and cultural environments in the midst of globalisation and urbanisation. The pressure on ecotourism destinations such as national parks is increasing as more and more natural land are being taken up for urban development. In the case of South African National Parks (SANParks), the decrease in government funding pressurizes the resources and national parks have to identify ways to generate their own income through tourism activities. SANParks manages 22 national parks across South Africa with the aim to conserve South Africa’s biodiversity, provide recreational activities for tourists and build long-term relationships with the local communities to enhance the communities’ quality of life. Hence, in order to remain competitive it is important to determine the parks' competitive advantages. Therefore the aim of this study was to develop a competitiveness model for SANParks by using the Kruger National Park as case study. The Kruger National Park is not only one of the largest and most recognised national parks in the world, but also boasts with a large variety of fauna and flora, variety of accommodation facilities such as bush lodges, chalets and camping facilities as well as various tourist activities. The literature review indicated that destinations differ from each other and therefore ecotourism destinations such as national parks would have a distinct set of competitive advantage factors. However, these factors can only be determined if the needs of tourists are anticipated and park specific products and services are developed to satisfy the needs of visitors to the park and ultimately lead to tourist loyalty. Once a competitive position has been established, a national park can obtain benefits such as an increase in tourist numbers and revenue delivery of high quality products and services at the park as well as trigger a higher quality of life for the local community. iv If managed accordingly, the park might experience sustainable growth as well as increased profit margins. The data for the study was collected by means of a questionnaire survey at four of the Kruger National Park's rest camps during the period 26 December 2013 and 4 January 2014 which is the festive season in South Africa. The rest camps that were included in this survey were Olifants (74 questionnaires); Skukuza (213 questionnaires); Lower Sabie (98 questionnaires) and Berg-&-Dal (51 questionnaires). A total of 436 completed questionnaires were administered and further analysed. Descriptive statistics were used to profile the respondents while two factor analyses were done on the competitive advantage factors and tourist motives for travelling to the Park. The factor analyses identified five competitive advantage factors of which Wildlife Experiences and Marketing and Branding were regarded as the most important factors. The other three competitive advantage factors were Accommodation and Retail, Visitor Management and Suprastructure and Amenities. Four motivational factors were identified namely Experience and Relaxation, Lifestyle, All-Inclusive Destination and Value. The identified factors were further used in an ANOVA analysis and the results showed that socio-demographic characteristics such as home language, province of residence, level of education and marital status have all significant differences based on the five competitive advantage factors as well as the four motivational factors The t-test analysis presented a few statistical significant differences between the independent variables or group of individuals. These differences were based on the respondents’ demographic and behaviour characteristics with regards to the competitive advantage and motivational factors. However, the strongest statistically significant differences were based on the behavioural characteristics of tourists travelling with children to the Park, Wild card holders, tourist reading magazines, previous visits to the Park and differences between tourists making use of chalets and camping facilities. A Structural Equation Model was applied to confirm the results that were obtained from the analyses. The SEM indicated that tourists’ motivations have a significant influence on the factors that tourists identified as competitive advantage factors for the Kruger National Park. v This research made three distinct new contributions. Firstly, competitive advantage factors were specifically identified for ecotourism based destinations such as national parks from a demand side. Also, the tourists motivation for travelling proved to hugely influence these competitive advantage factors. Secondly, a competitiveness model was developed specifically for national parks within South Africa. The proposed model could assist national parks across South Africa to obtain a competitive advantage among its competitors based on park specific factors. Lastly, the concept of competitiveness has not yet been applied within the ecotourism and nature-based tourism destinations context. This study described the concept of competitiveness with the focus
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