Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Education

Major

Education

Date of Defense

11-2-2013

Graduate Advisor

Carole Heitman Murphy

Committee

Lloyd Richardson

James Wilson

John Henschke

Abstract

Environmental interpretation is a key tool for integrated management of tourism, with potential for greater use in managing visitor numbers, behavior and impacts, and enhancing experience. Evaluation is necessary to determine whether interpretation is achieving its goals. It is vital for park managers to know if their management is effective in order to determine what techniques can be used to address a particular problem. The study first introduces the background of Geoparks, and clarifies the definition of environmental interpretation. Next, the study identifies the context that a comprehensive evaluation framework for environmental interpretation in Geoparks is used in order to help Geopark managers to institute the continuous improvement of environmental interpretation. The detailed objectives include: 1.To build an evaluation indicator framework that can be used by Geoparks to evaluate environmental interpretation; 2.To use the evaluation indicator framework to study Yuntaishan World Geopark; 3. To use the data provided by Yuntaishan World Geopark to identify the perceptions of the visitors; 4. To use the data provided by Yuntaishan World Geopark to identify the perceptions of experts and peers.

OCLC Number

864759403

Included in

Education Commons

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