Communicating with two Million Tourists: A Formative Evaluation of an Interpretive Brochure

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of brochures in tourism, there is little published information on their effectiveness. This paper reports on a formative evaluation of a brochure designed to communicate messages about the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area to the estimated 2 million tourists who visit it each year. The study involved surveying 673 tourists about their knowledge of this unique natural environment. The use of the brochure was also examined under different distribution conditions. The results raised two issues of concern. First, the use of brochures as an interpretive tool may be problematic in settings where tourists are likely to experience brochures only as a form of promotion. Second, the main feature of the study brochure was a map, and it seemed that the map may have had too many levels of abstraction and hence created confusion. Despite these problems, most of those who read the brochure were positive in their evaluations.