Comparative Analysis: Peak District and Khao Yai Tourist Destinations

This report provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of the Peak District National Park in the United Kingdom and Khao Yai National Park in Thailand as prominent tourist destinations. It begins by examining visitor profiles, income generation, and economic impacts of both parks, drawing on statistical data to identify tourism trends. The report then delves into the cultural, social, and physical features of each location, highlighting their unique characteristics and comparing them with other tourist destinations. Further, it explores the economic and political characteristics influencing the appeal of both parks and addresses issues affecting their popularity, including strategies for promoting responsible tourism to ensure sustainability. The report concludes with a synthesis of findings, offering insights into the factors that contribute to the success and challenges of these significant tourist destinations.

TOURIST DESTINATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Visitor profiles and income generation of Peak District and Khao Yai................................1
1.2 Analysis of statistics to realise tourist destination trends......................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Cultural, social and physical features of Peak District and Khao Yai..................................3
2.2 Comparison of Peak District's features with other tourist destinations.................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Economical and Political characteristics of Peak District and Khao Yai.............................5
3.2 Characteristics of Peak District that affects appeal to tourists..............................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................6
4.1 Issues affecting popularity of Peak District..........................................................................6
4.2 Peak District to focus on 'Responsible Tourism' to sustain its appeal..................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
.......................................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Tourist destinations, as the term itself suggests, is where tourists are interested to visit
and attracted to. They are a major source of foreign exchange for a nation's economy. The
tourism department of every nation takes care of their national heritage sites, historical
monuments, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in an attractive manner, so that the visitors or
tourists do not get disappointed. This report will be dealing with one of the major tourist
destinations in United Kingdom, The Peak District National Park. It is a destination where
tourists love to visit for its natural beauty, flora- fauna and activities that are provided to visitors
at the location. This report will also be including evaluation and comparison of the Britain based
national park with Khao Yai National Park in Thailand. It will be focusing on scope of major
tourist destinations in UK and other worldwide tourist attractions, and their cultural, social and
physical features. Characteristics of Peak District and Khao Yai that affects in creating tourist
impressions will also be highlighted in this report. The report will also be throwing light on the
issues that are affecting popularity of both the destinations.
TASK 1
1.1 Visitor profiles and income generation of Peak District and Khao Yai
The activities regarding economy in Peak District is vaster. Economy is most apparently
dependent on farming, management of land, manufacturing, accommodation and retail sectors.
Most of the businesses within the premises of the national park are directly or indirectly
benefited to economy due to their beautiful location and connection with landscape. The below
given data, inclusive of facts are figures that were found to be a result of Visitor Survey 2014 of
the Peak District National Park (Vedeld and et.al., 2012).
People from all age groups are seem visiting the Peak District and they were recognised to be a
broad representation of the British population. Almost half of the visitors were employed and 1%
of all the visitors gave statement that they were unemployed. 90% of the total visitors were
identified as White British as in 2014. 8 in every 10 visitors visited in day time. Half of all the
visitors were interested in visiting the national park because of beautiful scenery and because
they have been to the place prior. One third of recorded visitors stated that they have been
visiting as they reside locally and they could have easy access to go in the Peak District. Almost
83% of visitors used to reach the area by car (Xiang and Pan, 2011). 7% of all the visitors were
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first timers and rest have visited the place before. 98% of total visitors were positive about
having good time while at the national park. Between the years of 2009 and 2013, tourist impact
of overall economy was increased by 19%. in 2013, it was noted that the total economic impact
of the Peak District National Park and their areas of influence is £540 million (Usakli and
Baloglu, 2011).
As per Department of National Parks in Thailand, which is the responsible body for
management of Khao Yai National Park, states that they have rise to total number of 1.2 million
visitors in the financial year of 2016. The current data of income generated by KYNP has not yet
been disclosed by its management, but it can be definitely made sure that there have been a
significant rise in number of visitors at the national park. Numbers of visitors can give an
estimate regarding the annual income of the location. A general ticket for entry is 400 baht which
costs 9.107 British Pound.
1.2 Analysis of statistics to realise tourist destination trends
The statistics of visitors who have been visiting the Peak District National Park in last 16
years classified according to the months shows us that the visitors are more interested in visiting
the location in month of August rather than any other months. There were a total number of
55,750 visitors in the month of August in 2016, and the numbers have always crossed 50,000
and sometimes touched 60,000 in years ranging from 2001 to 2015. Month with the least visitors
is March and it has been low as 20,000 to the range of 30,000, but it has once touched 41,000 in
the year of 2005. This clearly makes it visible that visitors are aware of the season in which they
could enjoy the views and activities that are made available to them in best weather within their
compounds. The visitors are more interested in spending their time and engaging their money in
acquiring tourist services according to seasons in which they could best have the joy of certain
tourist destinations. The trends of tourist destinations have been distributed in terms of seasons,
or rather call it a range of months in which tourists could have their ultimate mind of having
access to best of tourist destinations and services they are provided with at the locations of tourist
attraction (Suggitt and et.al., 2011).
In case of Khao Yai National Park, geographical area and weather conditions may be
comfortable for visitors in months of November, December, January and February, which is
classified as winter season. This season is most appropriate for the visitors to enjoy their visit to
KYNP as it will make them available clear and sunny sky with a temperature below 22 degree
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Celsius during daytime and falls down near to 10 degree Celsius in night. Other seasons,
inclusive of rainy season from May to October and summer season from March to April will
prove much humid for the visitors as the temperature will be above 27 degree Celsius in day and
fall to 13 to 17 degree Celsius during night. The tourists are interested to visit Khao Yai National
Park and nearby locations in the winters more than any other seasons for the favourable climate
and weather conditions in that particular geographical area (Rotherham, 2013). Seasons
according to the economical and geographical climate are a subject to the trends in the tourism
sector.
TASK 2
2.1 Cultural, social and physical features of Peak District and Khao Yai
The Peak District National Park is globally popular for being iconic in natural beauty.
Culturally, they have been maintaining an evergreen relationship among people and natural
environment. The existence of this natural beauty being a national park is result of pure influence
of centuries of intervention of human and their management. Human activities in the past and
current era have been stretching to feel the elements of nature in this boundaries. Even though,
there have been development on base of technologies and spontaneous lifestyles, and with those
factors of development they have brought capabilities to enhance the environmental elements
and appearances of natural landscapes (Robinson, Heitmann and Dieke, 2011). This part of the
developing culture and society have been helping in creating a better physical presentation of the
location.
Peak District also consider conservation and enhancement of the location's natural beauty
as a part of wildlife and cultural heritage of the nation, and for same reason the geographical
boundaries are well protected from manipulation and exploitation or any sources that could bring
in any of them to the beautiful location. The soils are mandatory to be healthy as for replenishing
natural systems and wildlife. The fertility and stability of soils within their physically available
space are also ensured in a way that it would resist compaction and erosion up to a major level.
They maintain the soils in such a way that it could support in diverse vegetation and proper
amounts of organic matter as for proper storage of sufficient carbon. There are also rivers and
streams in the geographical boundaries of Peak District National Park and they are also well
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protected from various pollutants and other elements that could be harmful for the conservation
of components of nature (Pongkijvorasin and Chotiyaputta, 2013).
In case of Khao Yai National Park of Thailand, where there is existence of more than 800
species of fauna. It is spread over a geographical area of 615,500 hectares of totally protected
land where KYNP is attached to Thap Lan National Park, Pang Sida National Park, Ta Phraya
National Park and Dong Yai Wildlife Sanctuary. The biodiversity found in that geographical
area are given importance internationally and they conserves most of the globally threatened and
endangered animals, of all, mammal, bird and reptile species (Pan and et.al., 2011). Siamese
crocodile is one of those species that are critically endangered, but their conservation are done
here in Khao Yai. Similarly, for endangered species named Asian Elephant, Tiger , Banteng and
Leopard Cats are also present in the list of conserved species among other 19 vulnerable species
within KYNP.
2.2 Comparison of Peak District's features with other tourist destinations
The Peak District national park is one of the most popular national parks not just in
United Kingdom, but also world famous for special qualities they maintain in that particular
ecosystem and its management. Peculiar specialities of the Peak District are several and can't be
explained within a statement. Beauty of nature and natural heritage they have been maintaining
to portray the landscapes and its character is one of their specialities. The sensible form of being
in a remote area gives the visitors a definite feeling of wildness. The unique biodiversity and the
presence of multiple flora and fauna usually helps the visitors to realise the importance of
wildlife (Lange and Hehl-Lange, 2010).
Availability of pure natural elements, that is, clean air, land and water. Traceable factors
of thousands of years old human influence that have been present in the landscape. Visible
characters of distinct hamlets, towns and villages is another important factor found in Peak
District. Specific features of landscapes such as trees, woodlands, field barns, stone walls and
hedgerows are also some of the natural beauty in the national park. Presence of historical
buildings and their remains of parks and gardens of royal era. They also provide cottage and craft
industry products that are handcrafted within the boundaries of the national park. Peak District
National Park also provides cycling facilities and other outdoor recreational activities such as
mountain climbing as for physical and emotional well being of the visitors. Even though the
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wide spread national park is in a wonderful location of natural beauty, surroundings outside
those geographical boundaries also provides view of natural scenic flow beyond the walls.
Other national parks in different areas in different countries are also replenished with
many of those physical features of natural beauty and, diverse flora and fauna. Even though there
are some other major national wildlife reservoirs and national parks where the visitors can have a
view of wide range of vulnerable species, but the presence of historical buildings and their
remains are rarely found in any of them (Kozak and Baloglu, 2010). The presence of different
species of animals and birds are also dependent on geographical classifications within various
nations and their survival depends on climactic conditions and temperature of that particular
locations (Juutinen and et.al., 2011).
TASK 3
3.1 Economical and Political characteristics of Peak District and Khao Yai
The Peak District National Park used face potentially dramatic changes and challenges in
the past era, and still faces some of them. Once they used to be very much dependent on
traditional industries those were on path of decline. Some of those industries were agricultural,
mining, quarrying, textiles and engineering which were seem with less chances of opportunities
of employment. The fear of health scares are impacting to threaten economy of agriculture in the
traditional uplands were some of the economical harms they were afraid to face. The
fundamental changes that were made in the economy at global level where also a subject to
manifest leading to a major reduction in government and subsidies provided by European
agricultural bodies.
The alternatives they found to face these economical challenges is by creating solutions
to manage the upland landscapes and to sustain the communities within their geographical area
(Grenville, 2014). The latest technologies as apart of global innovation of politics and industries
of services are also a part of representation within the economy of the Peak District National
Park and within its geographical area, they had to perform against national targets. Tourism,
being one of the most important economic providers for Peak District, but still the performance
of relative tourist activities failed to satisfy their economy in comparison to other national parks
and other major areas of tourism. Within last 10 to 15 years, the Peak District national Park have
been successful in coming over those poor branded area within their boundaries and they have
5

also improved products that are made available with uniquely associated with special qualities of
that area.
On the other side, Khao Yai National Park, being the first national park established in
Thailand, were it is located almost 200 kilometres away from Bangkok in 1962. The political
handling and administration of that national park is done by the Department of National Park,
Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department. Presently, after an era of political development and
upgrades, Khao Yai, now is third largest national park in the country. This national park is
situated in the political boundaries of provinces of central and north-east Thailand. A seed for the
protected area in the present era was sown by the system in Thailand in form of the National
Park Act of 1961 establishing KYNP as the nation's first national park.
3.2 Characteristics of Peak District that affects appeal to tourists
There are certain factors of particular locations that affects the tourist attraction and
interests of tourists to get attracted towards them. The features that would affect appeal of the
tourists and their interests include the natural beauty they will be able to see in that area and the
availabilities of various adventure sports and recreational activities. Peak District National Park
provides facilities of countryside walks, scenic trails for cycling, some serious mountain
climbing opportunities, etc. and tourists who are in search of adventures could never resist such
chances of optimal enjoyment (Dey and Sarma, 2010). The tourists who are seeking to know
about history and architectural beauties will never miss locations like Haddon hall, Solomon's
Temple, Eyam Hall & Craft Centre and Lumsdale Valley which are situated within the
geographical boundaries of Peak District. Chestnut Centre Otter, Owl and Wildlife Park and
Peak Wildlife Park will be loved by the ones who are interested in animals, they could possibly
be amazed seeing the most vulnerable species now on Earth along with the ones which are
almost extinct too. Those beautiful sceneries of natural beauty and the widespread landscape are
a subject to major tourist attraction for the national park.
TASK 4
4.1 Issues affecting popularity of Peak District
There are various challenges faced by the Peak District National Park, even through they
are one of the most popular national parks in the world, but these issues are not letting them to be
popular among overall tourist destinations:
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 The management of Peak District is done in such way that they seen as a source of
economic development rather than aiming to give the visitors the realisation of enjoying
appropriate sustainable tourist destination. The spectacular landscapes and a variety of
other special qualities are there at the Peak District and they are the core assets of that
tourist destination (Dallimer and et.al., 2010). Issues are realised to be caused when there
is a need of balancing the engagement of people at a vaster lever with the location and
this must be made possible without any exploitation or damage to natural resources in the
area.
 Peak District is identified for providing them a rural environment of high quality with
surroundings of huge English conurbations. There is a heavy possible potential for the
national park to extend to be one of the most distinctive and to emerge to be as one of
those rural economies of high quality that sustains environmentally and economically for
contribution to prepare a national park which could create benefits from the above said
qualities (Clark and Clarke, 2011).
 Another major challenge for PDNP is the lack of trans[port options and facilities within
the national park in order to meet their tourist purposes. There seems to no sufficient
fund made available to Peak District and its management as for sustainable transport
projects of infrastructure and the limited provision services of local public transport also
acts as a major hurdle as for the aspiration of sustainable tourism and growth of
economy.
4.2 Peak District to focus on 'Responsible Tourism' to sustain its appeal
There have been many discussions on special qualities, social, cultural, environmental
and other aspects regarding the Peak District National Park and also on the issues and challenges
they have been facing in maintaining their popularity among all other tourist destinations. First
of all, Peak District have to focus on coming over their drawbacks by solving their issues and
fulfilling those aspects that are missing to cause those challenges. As in above question, the
issues faced by the national park were identified and hereby finding the possible solutions for
those challenges. In next annual budget of Peak District National Park, there must be appropriate
fund initiated towards the development of sustainable transportation facilities within their
boundaries and government should facilitate the local transport system too. The waste
management system must be enhanced because the more visitors in destination will lead to a lot
7

of littering activities (Beritelli and Laesser, 2011). The carbon emission amount must be taken
care of, so as to sustain the natural beauty and not to pollute such geographical landscapes. There
is a need of bringing in better management as to bring balance between farming, production of
food, management of land and its conservation.
CONCLUSION
In this project, we have discussed on Peak District National Park of UK as tourist
destination and have compared its features with Thailand's Khao Yai National Park. This report
has dealt with visitor numbers and income generation of Peak District and has evaluated it with
that of Khao Yai. The statistics of Peak District were also studied in this project, as to realise the
recent trends and to estimate future trends in tourist destinations. The report has also focussed on
the social, cultural, physical, economic and political characteristics of the PDNP and evaluated
them to realise the affects they could possibly made on the appeal of tourists. The Peak District's
improvable factors and recommendations for emphasizing on 'Responsible Tourism' is also
included within a major part of this report.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Dallimer, M., and et.al., 2010. Agricultural land-use in the surrounding landscape affects
moorland bird diversity. Agriculture, ecosystems & environment. 139(4). pp.578-583.
Dey, B. and Sarma, M.K., 2010. Information source usage among motive-based segments of
travelers to newly emerging tourist destinations. Tourism management. 31(3). pp.341-
344.
Grenville, J., 2014. Managing the historic rural landscape. Routledge.
Juutinen, A., and et.al., 2011. Combining ecological and recreational aspects in national park
management: A choice experiment application. Ecological economics. 70(6). pp.1231-
1239.
Kozak, M. and Baloglu, S., 2010. Managing and marketing tourist destinations: Strategies to
gain a competitive edge. Routledge.
Lange, E. and Hehl-Lange, S., 2010. Making visions visible for long-term landscape
management. Futures. 42(7). pp.693-699.
Pan, B., and et.al., 2011. The dynamics of search engine marketing for tourist destinations.
Journal of Travel Research. 50(4). pp.365-377.
Pongkijvorasin, S. and Chotiyaputta, V., 2013. Climate change and tourism: Impacts and
responses. A case study of Khaoyai National Park. Tourism Management Perspectives.
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Robinson, P., Heitmann, S. and Dieke, P.U. eds., 2011. Research themes for tourism. CABI.
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on woodlands and grazed treescapes. Routledge.
Suggitt, A.J., and et.al., 2011. Habitat microclimates drive fine‐scale variation in extreme
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self-congruity theory. Tourism Management. 32(1). pp.114-127.
Vedeld, P., and et.al., 2012. Protected areas, poverty and conflicts: A livelihood case study of
Mikumi National Park, Tanzania. Forest Policy and Economics. 21. pp.20-31.
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Online
Things To Do in The Peak District. 2017. [Online]. Accesses Through:
<https://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/things-to-do>. [Accessed on: 7th June 2017].
Peak District National Park Management Plan. 2012. [Online]. Accesses Through:
<http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/microsites/npmp/about-the-plan/challenges>.
[Accessed on: 7th June 2017].
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NATIONAL PARK SPECIAL QUALITIES. 2012. [Online]. Accesses Through:
<http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/microsites/npmp/about-the-national-park/national-
park-special-qualilties>. [Accessed on: 7th June 2017].
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