KRISHNAN LACHIMINEN @ KAMAL ABDULLAH

Park video shows are a good means of informing visitors of the unique and interesting places and things to be found in parks. They also prepare them for the things they can expect to experience while there. After gaining sufficient information from watching the video, visitors may be able to plan their trip more efficiently, because it might be easier for them to decide just where they should go.

Most of our national parks have audiovisual rooms and the equipment to provide video shows for visitors, especially for those who spend the night at the parks. This has been going on for years regardless of what visitors think about these videos. Do they enjoy watching them? Are we showing them what they really prefer to watch? And is the showing time suitable?

In view of this, a visitor survey was designed to find out -

• what proportion of park visitors would like to have the opportunity to see video shows while at the park;
• what topics and length of videos they prefer;
• what times of day or night would be most suitable.

The survey was carried out at Lambir Hills National Park, which has large numbers of day visitors and which has no facilities for showing videos, in order to make recommendations on the need for video shows and ways of making them effective.

Data were collected using questionnaires, which were distributed to visitors at the ticketing booth (for day visitors) and at the registration counter at the park office (for overnight visitors). Most of the questionnaires were distributed at the ticketing booth because most of the visitors here are day-trippers. Questionnaires were given to every fifth visitor coming to the ticketing booth or the registration counter until a total of 100 had been distributed.

The questionnaire contained eight questions, most of which could be answered by just putting a tick (√).

Response rate
Of the 100 questionnaires distributed 99 were returned. This is a very good response rate, probably due to the questionnaire being short and simple. Thirteen of the respondents were foreign visitors.

Desire to see videos
Twelve (92%) of the foreign visitors and 44 (51%) of Malaysians said they would like the opportunity to watch videos while at the park.

Only seven of the Malaysians surveyed were first-time visitors to Lambir, but six of them said they would like to see videos. There was also greater desire to see videos among groups of friends and school groups compared with individuals or family groups.

Of the 43 respondents who ticked "NO" in response to this question, all except one nevertheless filled in the other questions about the preferred topic, time and length of video show. There was clearly misunderstanding here, and the number of positive responses should probably be higher.

Preferred time, length and topic for video shows
The stated preferences of the 56 who did want to see videos were analysed. Most (33%) would prefer to see videos between 10am and 12noon, with 21% opting for 5-7pm and 21% for 7-9pm. Shows of 30 minutes or less were preferred by 44% of respondents, 32% wanted hour-long shows and 7% more than an hour. The responses to the question about preferred topics were not very useful, as almost everyone rated all four topics as important or very important.

A majority of the respondents said they wanted to have an opportunity to watch videos while in the park. I would recommend that every park should have the facilities to conduct video shows for visitors. This will help enhance their knowledge about our parks.

I would also like to recommend follow-up research to be carried out in future to see if preferences have changed and also to monitor visitors’ opinions of videos shown.