Foreign Visitors To Nuuksio National Park 2010

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the conceptions that foreign visitors have of Nuuksio National Park in terms of the park area and its service facilities, as well as to define the major differences between the park’s foreign and native visitors. This thesis was executed in co-operation with Metsähallitus, the owner and administrator of Nuuksio National Park, which is interested in receiving more in-depth information on foreign visitors and their visitor satisfaction. The results of this thesis will enable Metsähallitus and nature tourism entrepreneurs to provide services targeted at the foreign visitors.

Nuuksio National Park is situated in the province of Southern Finland, in the Uusimaa Region. Its exact location is in the town of Espoo and the municipalities of Kirkkonummi and Vihti with an area of 45 square kilometres. In 2009 Nuuksio was rated as the third most popular national park in Finland based on numbers of visitors. Eight percent of Nuuksio’s visitors are foreigners.

This thesis was implemented using a visitor survey method and it was confined to Nuuksio National Park. The visitor survey was conducted over a period of approximately one year, from spring 2009 until spring 2010. The population consisted of the foreign visitors to Nuuksio and the sampling of the foreign visitors reached on certain data acquisition days. The number of foreign visitors taking part in the survey was 59, whereas the number of native visitors was 513.

Of the foreign visitors responding to the questionnaire, 63% were males and 37% were females. The average age of foreign visitors was 32 years. Over half of the foreign visitors visited Nuuksio National Park during the daytime, whereas almost half also spent the night in the area. Most often both foreign and native visitors came to Nuuksio National Park in small groups of two to five people. However, foreign visitors hiked more often also in big groups and native visitors came to Nuuksio more often alone.

The most popular activity of both foreign and native visitors in Nuuksio National park was walking. Other popular activities of foreign visitors were nature observing, nature photography and picnicking. Foreign visitors were engaged more in several different activities during one visit than native visitors. Foreign visitors experienced fewer disturbances during their visit in Nuuksio National Park than the native visitors did.

The expectations of both foreign and native visitors were most satisfied by the natural environment. The factors felt to require most development were parking places, the road network, public latrines, rental and reservable huts and services provided by enterprises. Only 22% of the foreign and 21% of the native visitors had used the services provided by companies.