痛心！又一景点惨遭“破坏”？

Prof.Abhishek Bhati表示解决游客破坏行为需要来自于多方利益相关者的干预。

主要的利益相关者包括当地景点的管理人员和负责制定相关政策和秩序、负责通知和指导游客行为的地方政府官员。

他曾对新加坡和曼谷的利益相关者们对当地旅游景点破坏行为的看法进行了研究，探讨了主要利益相关者们对于景点管理在态度上的差异和相似之处。

并揭示当地社区(被调查旅游景点一公里半径内的居民和企业)在多大程度上愿意参与管理游客破坏行为。

研究采用社区调查和访谈的现场管理人员和政府官员作为其主要的数据收集方法。还提供了一种创新的数据分析方法。该研究结果表明新加坡和曼谷都存在着破坏景区公物的问题，但造成财产损失的根本原因是不同的。

新加坡居民认为，从长远角度来看，使用适当的管理手段和一贯的公共政策可以纠正游客一贯的破坏行为。

曼谷居民会将游客不断波动的破坏行为与当地政府的政策无效和缺乏对公共教育联系在一起。

这项结果突出表明，在政府条例和执法不够有力的地区，想要控制游客破坏行为必须让社区和利益相关方共同参与其中，如使当地政府加强管控。

反之，在新加坡这种政府效率很高的地区，想要阻止游客破坏行为需要促进更多的个人主义参与，比如强调当地居民/企业应当具有个人的社会责任。

通过上述研究Prof.Abhishek Bhati意识到，解决旅游破坏行为需要的不仅仅是更严格的法律和严格的措施。还必须考虑到社区和更广泛的社会的参与。

为了有效地控制破坏行为以及促进可持续发展，Prof.Abhishek Bhati提出了一个多维方法：预防、恢复、教育和参与即(Prevention, Restoration, Education, and Participation, PREP)框架。

PREP 框架中的“教育”和“参与”要素代表了人为因素在预防破坏行为中的重要性。另一方面，“预防”和“修复”意味着景点管理在景点物理设施的设计、维护和运营方面的重要性。

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Professor Abhishek Bhati, researcher of tourist behaviour management and Campus Dean of James Cook University in Singapore, outlines strategies and advice for tackling tourist vandalism.

Noticeable degradation can decrease the appeal of tourist attractions, which in turn affects tourist experience and satisfaction. Whether it’s fountains in Rome or the Great Wall of China, tourists have been caught vandalising local landmarks and attractions. These acts include being a nuisance and being significantly destructive and disruptive.

The problem is, how can we stop tourists from carrying out such distasteful behaviour?

Insights from an expert

Professor Abhishek Bhati has had a significant history of studying tourist vandalism, and he also worked on vandalism control for his PhD in 2014. His research in the field spans half a dozen papers, with even more research exploring topics such as tourist behaviour management, sustainable tourism and resilience planning in tourism.

Professor Bhati says, “Vandalism by tourist destroys the cultural and historical tourism features which deprives future generations from rich intercultural experiences. The host community loses elements leading to its identity and potential tourism revenue streams in absence of features lost to vandalism. A multi-stakeholder intervention is required to address vandalism by tourist.”

Learning how stakeholders tick

By studying stakeholders’ perceptions of vandalism at tourist attractions in Singapore and Bangkok, Professor Bhati explored the differences and similarities in the attitudes of key stakeholders — such as site managers and local government officials responsible for policies and procedures that inform and guide visitor behaviour — towards attraction management. This provided an opportunity to identify how much the community is willing to manage vandalism in tourism.

The results showed that vandalism is a problem in both Singapore and Bangkok, yet the underlying reasons for property damage are different. For instance, Singapore residents believe that using proper management instruments and consistent public policies could remedy their consistent vandalism levels in the long run. On the other hand, Bangkok residents link their fluctuating vandalism levels to ineffective policies and lack of public education.

This highlights the importance of engaging community and stakeholders as a way of controlling vandalism in communities where government regulations and enforcement are less than effective. At the same time, it suggests that enforcing community participation in societies like Singapore with pre-existing high levels of government efficiency might not be effective. Instead, the recommendation is to promote a more individualistic participation with an emphasis on individual social responsibility.

In fact, a separate study from Professor Bhati found that increased personal involvement from local residents leads to a decrease in the perception of severity of vandalism. In addition, as the local resident’s perception of site management and community involvement increases, their own personal involvement also increases.

Prevention, Restoration, Education, and Participation — A multi-dimensional approach that addresses tourist vandalism

Therefore, it is critical to understand that addressing tourist vandalism takes more than just stricter laws and stringent measures. In order to successfully tackle tourist vandalism, it is important to take into account participation from the community and broader society.

In order to effectively control vandalism and promote sustainable development, Professor Bhati proposes the Prevention, Restoration, Education, and Participation (PREP) framework.

Prevention. Implement strategies to prevent acts of vandalism altogether. These strategies include surveillance and restricting access through environmental design.

Restoration. Restore vandalised attractions by employing rapid repair and maintenance. When vandalism is present, it creates an environment where vandalism is perceived as normal, and thus encourage vandalism.

Education. Increase awareness of vandalism and its effects on sustainability in the tourism sector. Visitors and the local community should be the primary focus to establish an interest in the issue of vandalism and to discourage undesirable visitor behaviours.

Participation. Encourage a sense of ownership and engagement within the community. Participation in decision-making and operations are key factors in achieving higher levels of effectiveness of intervention strategies and building sustainable attraction management outcomes.

Tourist vandalism has become an increasingly urgent problem to solve — not only as travel picks back up, but because it poses a risk to sustainable development and environmental protection, when tourists damage public property or destroy aspects of the natural environment.

Despite various measure taken over the years, tourist vandalism remains a problem. Therefore, Professor Bhati’s PREP framework recommendation embraces a multi-dimensional approach that aims to successfully support the tourism industry in the fight against tourist vandalism.