Seeing Eye to Eye? The presentation and understanding of interpretation at a New Zealand heritage site

Abstract

Old St Paul’s is an iconic New Zealand heritage site managed by Heritage New Zealand.¹ It is a site that tells both national and local stories and draws a wide range of international and domestic visitors. Key recommendations made by the New Zealand Ministry of Tourism in their 2010 and 2015 strategies were that the country is no longer automatically perceived as ‘authentic’² by international visitors, and that heritage in New Zealand should be striving to deliver engaging, educational and rich cultural and social experiences. Using Old St. Paul’s as a case study, this research asks if New Zealand heritage sites are providing exhibitions, interpretation and stories that successfully communicate the site management’s presentation goals to visitors. This relationship is evaluated through the exhibitions and interpretation used by site management, and compared with visitor understanding and their experience of these. This research uses interviews and visitor surveys to gauge the management/visitor relationship at Old St. Paul’s. An in-depth interview with the site’s manager is analysed and presented comparatively against the results gained from conducting visitor surveys. This research provides an investigation into contemporary heritage practice in New Zealand and offers a pilot study for future development in the heritage sector. Furthermore, it is suggested that heritage sites could adopt similar summative practices to those used in the museum sector in order to monitor visitor satisfaction and the perception of quality.

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