Tessa Rouillard, Keagan Deponselle, Joana Carlos Bezerra
In addition to providing benefits to people, protected areas are valued in ways that go beyond the tangible. A sense of place, and the collection of values, feelings, and meanings associated with a place, can illuminate people-place relationships. Understanding how people relate to a place is essential in acquiring support for protected areas. This research investigates tourists’ and residents’ sense of place in Knysna, an open-access section of the Garden Route National Park, South Africa. Data was collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The sense of place was characterised using five variables: physical, cultural, social, dependent, and ideological. Although ‘physical’ was the dominant variable for both tourists and residents, the ‘ideological’ for residents and the ‘cultural’ for tourists came second, highlighting the importance of safe places and recreational activities, respectively. The physical environment influences sense of place, and the importance of protected areas to stakeholders offers an opportunity for management to engage with the public. © 2022 by the authors.
Fakultas Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Kampus Karangmalang, Yogyakarta, 55281, Indonesia; Community Engagement Division, Rhodes University, Prince Alfred Street, Grahamstown, 6139, South Africa
