CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

People?s reasons for visiting national parks have been well researched. So too have their park activitiesand how diverse activities potentially affect visitors? park experiences (e.g. perceptions of overcrowding).Far less research has examined how park users? environmental values might affect their perceptions ofother users and the appropriateness of different activities ? a potential source of conflict. Relationshipsbetween personal environmental values and environmental and social perceptions are complex andinteractive in the context of park visitation. Visitors? encounters with other users can powerfully affecttheir experience and enjoyment of parks, in turn reflecting such factors as values-related expectationsand judgments in the context of national parks. Personal and social values may also play an importantrole in influencing whether different activities are perceived as ?out of place? in the context of nationalpark place meaning, yet the conceptualization of values within geographic literature on parks remainscomparatively weak.This paper utilizes a definition of values, derived from a concise review of the geography and social psychologyliteratures, to explain the results of survey research we undertook within national parks inQueensland, Australia. We use a ?values-behavior hierarchy? conceptual framework to consider howthe personal environmental values of a sample of park visitors (n = 404) potentially affected patternsof park visitation, user activities, and user conflicts. Findings suggest that visitors? environmental valuesshaped how they perceived other park users and the appropriateness of their activities. This has internationalimplications for geographic research and other disciplines and professions involved in nationalpark visitation, park use, and human impacts, on and of these powerful places.

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