A Practical Application of Statistical Gap Analysis in National Park Management in Costa Rica

If the tourism growth predicted materialized as tourism for Costa Rica protected areas would see major increases. A study conducted in Volcan Poas National Park and Volcan Turrialba National Park two of Costa Rica leading volcanic crater parks was undertaken to make available to national parks and protected areas managers, a procedure, that could be use: to measure using an adapted form of the expectations disconfirmation theory the satisfaction of visitors to Costa Rica national parks, and to evaluate if the results could be used for establishing the areas of the park infrastructure, services and recreational options that needed improvement and management decisions to enhance visitor's satisfaction. The sample included 1414 surveys The findings indicates that the procedure adapted base on the expectations-disconfirmation model was proven helpful in: a) getting the information to help “zero in”, the man-agement decisions in the short and medium term and for the development of the Tourist Management Plans that is to say being developed in the 2 sites, b) guiding park managers in the resource allocation process, under the conditions of scarcity that are so common in developing countries, c) facilitating regular monitoring of the conditions, with a simple and quick methodology that can be used for “day to day” decisions and more sophisticated statistical analysis d) identifying the areas in the management of protected areas that need further analysis and in that way is contributing to the development of the long term socio-economic research programs in national parks, e) the “real” importance of the information and education activities in national parks, combination of activities that seems to be critical to enhance “consumer satisfaction” among the visitors to national parks everywhere and particularly as a means of understanding whether visitors needs and expectations are met, whether they receive what they should and as a context for analysis of human use on the country national parks