Exploring creative tourism potential in protected areas : the Kruger National Park case

Abstract

Creative tourism strategies are often adopted by destinations as a result of its appeal to policy makers, without a serious assessment of tourists’ needs. Although there are significant cultural and heritage resources in and on the periphery of the Kruger National Park (KNP), these resources seem to be inadequately harnessed. The aim of the article is thus to explore the potential of creative tourism as a medium to harness cultural and heritage resources in the KNP by measuring the importance of local community (cultural tourism) elements to tourists when visiting the KNP. Convenience sampling is used to distribute questionnaires to tourists, and 201 responses are used in the data analysis. The results indicate that respondents have a neutral opinion regarding the importance of local community aspects, and recommendations are made to exploit the untapped potential for creative tourism. This study adds to the current debate on creative tourism by assessing its role in protected areas.