Analysis and segmentation of visitors in a natural protected area. Marketing implications.

It is widely accepted that natural protected areas (NPAs) are important tourism destinations and prime settings for the development of sustain- able forms of tourism due to their very function and nature (Newsome et al., 2013; Wearing et al., 2016). Buckley (2012), Stoddard et al. (2012), Swarbrooke (1999) and Tyrrell et al. (2013) point out that sustainable tourism is a way to create value and shared benefits among parks’ stakeholders, primarily local communi- ties. However, Ferrari and Pratesi (2012) high- light that in addition to seeing positively tourism development, it is also important that residents have a favourable view of NPAs in order to expe- rience beneficial processes of place development. It can be argued that the attitude of the commu- nity is positive if the presence of a NPA brings significant net benefits, both in direct terms (e.g. increased revenues and growth in employment levels) and/or indirect terms (e.g. destination image enhancement, increasing notoriety, launch of an umbrella brand that promotes local productions, new contacts and experience in project management) (Keller, 2002; Aurier et al., 2005; Bell, 2008; Snyman, 2014). This is significant because the Italian context, the pres- ence of villages in the NPAs enables the parks to offer visitors a wide range of historical, cultural and gastronomic resources, potentially amplify- ing the benefits for the local communities, thus increasing tourism sustainability and a positive attitude towards parks (Unioncamere, 2014). Yet as Ferrari and Pratesi (2012) argue, there is still some hostility towards parks by some stake- holder groups within the community who per- ceive park restrictions and forms of control negatively. There is therefore a need to further understand the role NPAs and tourism play in place development within an Italian context. This chapter presents the case of the Sila National Park (SNP) located in southern Italy. Specifically, it discusses the results of a study that explored the vies of visitors and residents towards the current forms of tourism offered in the area, with an aim to understand the role sus- tainable tourism within the SNP plays in place promotion and place development (Bartelmus, 1986; Farrell, 1992; Clarke, 1997; Elkington, 1997, 1998, 2004; Boley and Uysal, 2013). In order to unpack the arguments in an orderly manner, the following section discusses the lit- erature supporting the study. This is followed by the presentation of the methodology designed to address the aim and objectives of the research. Finally, the chapter presents the analysis of the findings and forwards the conclusions and sug- gestion for further research.