In 2017, 14 councils from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Denmark used the Yardstick Parks User surveys platform to complete visitor satisfaction surveys for their parks. Overall, 252 parks were surveyed using a mixture of intercept and online self-completion surveys.

Overall satisfaction by country varied from 87% in Canada to a median of 98.4% in Australia. In New Zealand, overall satisfaction varied from 91% to 98%.

In New Zealand, 94 parks were surveyed in 2017. Visitors were asked about the importance of various parks features and their satisfaction with those features on a scale of 1 to 5. The five most important features of New Zealand parks as defined by users are cleanliness, personal security, gardens and trees, grass maintenance and shade. Playgrounds are the least important feature overall, although clearly the importance of playgrounds varies from park to park.

Overall, visitors to New Zealand parks rated satisfaction very similar to importance for most features, with very little gap in service level. The largest difference between importance and satisfaction was found in toilets, where the satisfaction rating was 0.7 lower (on a scale of 1 to 5) than importance. Satisfaction with playgrounds was on average half a point higher than importance. Results vary between parks and organisations.

Would you like to find out what visitors think of your parks? What they rate as important and what they don’t really care about? What they are satisfied with and what improvements you need to focus on? We can help you find the answers you need to better plan your operational and capital expenditure. Just contact us at https://www.yardstickglobal.org/