Tourist Behaviors in Wetland Park: A Preliminary Study in Xixi National Wetland Park, Hangzhou, China

Public education as well as tourism and leisure are the two important functions of national wetland park, and tourist behaviors act as the guiding factor in the national wetland park construction and management. As the first national wetland park in China, Xixi National Wetland Park, located in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, will give constructive instructions to the construction and management of other wetland parks and ecotourism resorts. This paper analyzed the tourist behaviors in Xixi National Wetland Park. By the observation, in-depth interview and questionnaire, the results show that tourists in wetland parks are different from those in the other common destinations, and they are also different from those strict eco-tourists. In fact, the tourists in wetland park have unique characteristics, such as the intense perception to the functions of wetland ecosystem and the environment impact behaviors. Those tourists are preferred to natural landscapes in their motivations and expectations. Wetland landscapes are the main image to those tourists in the Xixi National Wetland Park. Tourist expectation, experience and satisfaction are all critical factors for the success of the planning and management in national wetland parks. Based on the results, some measures for the sustainable development of wetland parks, including to optimize wetland theme landscape and tourism products, to improve tourist facilities and services, to enhance quality of visitor experiences, and to implement total quality management based on tourist characteristics, are given to national wetland park ecotourism.