Visitors frequent users of PEI’s beaches: UPEI research
The Tourism Research Centre (TRC) at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) recently released research on the role that beaches play in motivating people to travel to a destination, and specifically, to PEI.
'The results show that visitors are making good use of the Island's beaches,' said Dr. Sean Hennessey, Faculty Director of the TRC. 'Although our beaches are generally not the primary reason visitors are drawn to PEI, they are certainly a secondary draw and definitely add to the overall satisfaction of visitors.'
The survey was distributed to an online survey group and was completed by 4,175 people, 3,327 of whom had previously been to PEI. Of those, about 92 per cent had visited one of the Island's beaches on a past visit.
'Survey respondents who visited PEI's beaches went an average of 4.38 times during their most recent trip to PEI and spent an average of just under two hours per visit,' Hennessey added. 'It is important to note that the average trip for these beach-going visitors was about seven nights, so they visited beaches about every second day on average.'
Of the six beaches visited by more than 20 per cent of participants, the top four were located within the PEI National Park. The other two (Red Point/Basin Head and Cabot Beach) were provincial parks.
'The results presented in the report reinforce the importance of the PEI National Park to the province. Park visitors appreciate the opportunity to connect with nature on the park's world-class beaches and benefit from the services and facilities provided by Parks Canada, such as surf guards, beach facilities, and interpretative programs and activities,' said Frances Gertsch, Parks Canada.
The report provides valuable information for federal, provincial and municipal groups responsible for beaches, including one of the most interesting findings regarding the willingness to pay entry fees for beach access - while only 30 per cent of respondents were willing to pay for access with few-to-no amenities, more than half (55 per cent) were willing to pay an entry fee when more amenities are offered.
Results also show that visitors have specific ideas about the amenities that should be available at a beach location. These include washrooms, environmental sustainability practices, boardwalks for walking with a water view, accommodations on/near the beach, showers and canteens. 'This sort of information provides the industry with information that will be useful in setting policies and programs in place so as to continue to increase beach visitation in the future,' said Dr. Hennessey.
Overall, 58 per cent of respondents felt that PEI beaches were on par with what they expected and 39 per cent agreed that the beaches were better than they expected. PEI beach visitors were asked to rate various beach attributes such as landscape, cleanliness, comfort afforded by the beach, safety, texture of the sand, and access to the beach, on a scale from one (very poor) to seven (excellent). Overall, respondents rated their PEI beach experience as very good (6.16 out of 7).
Respondents were also asked a series of questions around their future behavioural intentions which were rated on a scale from one (strongly disagree) to seven (strongly agree). The statements people most strongly agreed with were 'I would recommend PEI beaches to friends or relatives' (6.3) and 'On a future visit to PEI, I would visit a beach' (6.3). Visitors appeared to enjoy their time at PEI's beaches as 'My visit to a beach in PEI was a good way to spend my time' received an overall score of 5.7.
Data for this report was collected on behalf of Tourism PEI using the TRC's online research panel from March 3 to March 29, 2010. To read the full report, please visit www.trc.upei.ca. For more information about this or other TRC research, please contact trc@upei.ca or call (902) 566-6096.
