Studying World Heritage Visitors: The Case of the Remote Riversleigh Fossil Site

World Heritage listing aims to provide protection for the planet's most precious natural and cultural sites. Listing can also increase awareness and visitation, particularly as presentation is a tenet of the World Heritage Convention. Visitor management, based on empirical research, is therefore required to ensure an appropriate balance between these, often conflicting, obligations of protection and presentation. Many World Heritage visitor studies have considered iconic, accessible, international tourism destinations that are facing issues of visitor congestion and threatened heritage values. To provide a balanced understanding of World Heritage tourism, further research is required, particularly focusing on various site types and different World Heritage visitors. To support this agenda, this research identified a lesser-known World Heritage Area with low visitation levels, developed a self-administered visitor questionnaire appropriate for the site, and studied the visitor characteristics, motivations, and experiences. Findings regarding visitors to the remote Riversleigh World Heritage Site in Australia indicate that these visitors differ from visitors to iconic World Heritage Areas, although motivational aspects are similar. The outcomes of the research have informed the visitor interpretive plan developed by the state government responsible for delivering on the Convention requirements for the Riversleigh World Heritage Site, and provide a visitor questionnaire that can be used, or further developed, for other sites.