Lessons learned from pilot-testing an experimental communication intervention: generation Y and park benefits

This paper reports a series of lessons learned from pilot testing an experimental intervention that aimed to shift Gen Y’s perceptions of the cultural and heritage benefits of parks. Designed in collaboration with the Office of Environment and Heritage in NSW and delivered via the OEH website, the intervention took respondents on a controlled virtual tour of two national parks, Ku-ring-gai Chase in the Sydney metropolitan area and Mutawintji in outback NSW, both rich in Australian culture and heritage. Overall, the intervention was viewed as successful in impacting respondents’ perceptions of the benefits of parks, and will be used in a subsequent on-line study on a broader sample of NSW respondents. The series of methodological decisions and associated consequences for the interpretation of findings presented in this paper are designed to help foster best practice experimental design in field-based tourism research.