Planting seeds of satisfaction
by Vincent Ciccarello
UniSA’s
School of Management has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with
Botanic Gardens Australia and New Zealand Inc (BGANZ) to develop
visitor service quality benchmarks for its 42 member organisations.
The School’s Centre for Tourism and Leisure Management will undertake the project to be based on surveys to determine the expectations of visitors to botanic gardens and whether or not they are met.
The results will give the management of botanic gardens valuable information about how to improve visitors’ experiences and where best to dedicate resources.
Chief investigator Dr Gary Crilley said the project will draw on the research methods used in the Benchmarking Visitor Service Quality at Six Capital City Botanic Gardens report published late last year.
A major finding of the report, based on data from surveys of 2000 visitors in six Australian capital cities, is that of four categories of service quality attributes, Engagement and Learning was the strongest predictor of visitor response in three key areas.
"Not only could a visitor’s overall satisfaction be predicted by the Engagement and Learning score, but also the level at which the desired benefits from the visit were attained, and the level at which the visitor would recommend the gardens to others," Dr Crilley said.
The Engagement and Learning attributes included opportunities to learn about plants; plant labelling; special plant collection displays; and the diversity of plants.
"While attributes in the other categories – aesthetics, hospitality services and staffing – also rated highly, the results suggest the plants really do matter to visitors to botanic gardens," Dr Crilley said, "and not just the opportunity to walk, relax or have a family outing."
Other findings in the report reveal the vast majority of visitors to botanic gardens attend without children; that 61 per cent of visitors are female; and that 70 per cent of all visitors were quite evenly represented across the 20 to 59 year age group.
Dr Crilley said the BGANZ project is already underway involving seven gardens, with surveys at two gardens in New Zealand scheduled for September.