Visitors’ informal conservation learning: a customer journey design perspective

Conservation education is an important goal for zoos and wildlife
parks. Using a customer journey design perspective, this study
investigates the effectiveness of single- versus multi-touchpoint
exhibits to create a visitor experience and stimulate visitors’ informal
conservation learning. The mediating-moderating model developed
includes the role of an app in self-guided tours and the
situational factor of parents explaining information to children. The
model is tested using data collected from visitors of Safaripark
Beekse Bergen, a wildlife park in the Netherlands. The results confirm
that, in contrast to the single-touchpoint exhibits,
multi-touchpoint exhibits significantly increase informal learning
through enhanced visitor experience. The park app also mediates
the learning process of the multi-touchpoint self-guided tours.
Single-touchpoint exhibits directly affect informal learning. Visitors’
explaining information to children is an important contingency of
the single-touchpoint [(interactive) panels]—conservation learning
relationship.