Exploring visitors' desired benefits in Paklenica National Park, Croatia: Development, validation and management implications of measurement instrument

For protected area managers, understanding visitors' desired benefits are a key priority. However, because of financial restrictions and insufficient capacity, Park managers often are not capable of developing appropriate and reliable measurement instruments for tracking visitor's needs. The main purpose of this study was to develop a simple and cost-effective measurement instrument to monitor visitors' desired benefits in Paklenica National Park in Croatia. We used a literature-driven approach to test the relevancy of five hypothesized benefit dimensions, composed of 18 recreational experiences items on a general visitor sample (n=342). These dimensions were: Enjoy nature, Novelty and learning, Socializing, Escape and solitude, and Personal achievement. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) process proceeded through two distinct phases. In the first phase, we tested the data fit for two competing models: orthogonal and correlated. In the second phase, we assessed the reliability and convergent validity of the measurement instrument. The results revealed that the model with correlated benefit dimensions reproduced the data better than the orthogonal model. Inter-correlations between latent benefit dimensions were statistically significant and positive. Reliability and convergent validity indicated a reasonable consistency of the measurement instrument. Further research should focus on continuous improvement of the measurement instrument and its application, according to different management demands.Management implicationsThe measurement instrument developed represents a reliable and cost-effective tool that may aid Park managers in empirically evaluating at least a basic level of performance in visitor management. Moreover, this instrument may assist managers in economizing management strategies by focusing their efforts on the improvement of specific setting characteristics to facilitate the realization of visitor's desired benefits.