The goal of this project was to investigate how to promote trails and enhance the trail user experience in order to assist the Sibiu County Tourism Association and Mioritics Association in improving relationships and communication between visitors, trail managers, and local businesses. The team addressed this goal through four objectives: 

1.    To understand the trail user experience
2.    To identify how local businesses can address the needs of trail users
3.    To develop a reporting system for trail users
4.    To propose a system to track quantity and movement of trail users.

To achieve these objectives, the team established a set of remote tasks to complete with collaborators in Sibiu, Romania from March 24, 2021 to May 13, 2021. The team focused on the Sibiu region, specifically targeting hiking, biking, and cultural trails. These trails have varying levels of signage and infrastructure, but all require improved promotion and data collection (M. Dragomir, personal communication, February 18, 2021). The objectives aimed to improve the user experience on the Sibiu County trails by creating an infographic about trail users and by proposing both reporting and counting systems for the trails. To achieve the project goal, the team conducted interviews, surveys, and a content and observational study, researched data collection systems, and evaluated the findings to provide recommendations to the collaborators for improving the relationship between visitors, trail managers, and local businesses. Figure 3.1 illustrates the relationship between the goal, objective, tasks, and deliverables of this project.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3.1 Flow chart of the project goal, objectives, tasks, and deliverables

3.1 Understand the Trail User Experience 
The first objective was to determine the current trail user experience in Sibiu. The methods in this section collected data on common remarks trail users have about their experiences, enabling the team to analyze trends and improve the trail user experience. The team collected information from trail users, trail guides, and trail managers in order to achieve this objective. With the help of the Mioritics Association, the team administered surveys and conducted interviews with these groups to gain insights regarding their first-hand experience of the trails. In addition, the team conducted both a content and observational analysis by studying blog posts and videos that provided information about the trail user experience.

3.1.1 Survey Trail Users
Surveying trail users helped the team determine the demographics of tourists that use the trails and opinions they have regarding their visit to the trails and the surrounding communities. The team prepared a series of both open and closed ended questions that allow for both structured and detailed responses using Qualtrics. The WPI project team sent their questions to the collaborator Mihai Dragomir, who forwarded them to a student team at the University of Bucharest working on a communications project. The Romanian team translated the WPI team’s questions and combined them with their own survey into one Google form (see Appendix A). The Bucharest student team also ensured that each of the translated questions adapted to the Romanian culture and made the overall tone more lighthearted. The Mioritics Association distributed the survey on their Facebook page in Romanian since it primarily reaches local trail users. The topics covered in the survey included trail user demographics (A.1-4), their experiences using the trails (A.4-9, A.13-18), and their thoughts on using a mobile application to help improve their experience (A.10-12). However, the Bucharest student team removed important questions regarding interactions with local businesses from the survey. This information was critical for achieving objectives 1 and 2, therefore the team decided to send out a second survey with the original questions, this time in English, and aimed towards foreign trail users (see Appendix B).  The survey included the same topics as the first but in a more formal and professional tone (B.1-20). The new survey asked about visitor experience with local businesses in Sibiu (B.21-34). Additionally, the survey’s format allowed for some questions to trigger additional follow-up questions to extract more details about the respondent’s answers.

The Mioritics Association helped distribute the English survey targeting visitors outside of Romania through promotion on the Transylvanian Highlands Facebook page, paid Facebook advertisements, and distribution through tour guides to previous customers.

The team guaranteed confidentiality and anonymity of survey responses, since the final report does not contain any names of the participants. The Mioritics Association distributed the first (Romanian) survey on April 1, 2021, and the second (English) survey on April 8, 2021. The Romanian survey closed on April 15, 2021 and received 106 responses, and the English survey closed on April 23, 2021 and received 42 responses. Google Translate assisted in converting the responses of the first survey to English for analysis. 

3.1.2 Interview Trail Guides, Trail Managers, and Business Owners
Trail guides are individuals who tourists hire to help them navigate the Sibiu region. They have extensive knowledge about the region’s trail networks, and because of the nature of their job, they are intimately familiar with visitor expectations and concerns. On the other hand, trail managers are individuals associated with the NGOs that maintain the trail networks. They include rangers, executives, or maintenance workers. Interviewing trail managers and trail guides contrasts the perspectives both of those maintaining the trails and of perceived trail user experiences. For this reason, the team interviewed five trail guides and three trail managers (shown in Figure 3.2) with a list of core guiding questions (Appendix C), plus additional questions related to their specific occupation (Appendix D). Semi-structured interviews covered topics including the interviewee’s general thoughts about Sibiu as a hiking tourism destination, what a typical day on the trails involves, their thoughts on trail conditions, and discussions about local businesses if the conversations led us there. Additionally, since the team only received 42 responses on the English survey, they decided to interview three lodging businesses owners in Sibiu to gain a better idea of the types of people they serve and how they currently cater to trail users. Using the same core interview guide (Appendix C), the project team developed a set of additional questions to ask the business owners (Appendix E). These questions covered topics such as the demographics of their guests, ways in which the business caters to trail users, and how their business promotes itself to trail users.

The collaborators provided contact information of the trail guides, trail managers, and business owners willing to meet for an interview. Then, the team connected with the participants through email to schedule an interview. Interviews took place using the Zoom video conferencing platform and occurred at a time convenient for the interviewee. At the start of each interview, participants gave verbal consent to record the session and use the responses for this project’s research. One trail manager preferred to answer the questions through a translator. The manager received the interview questions via email and one of his bilingual colleagues translated them into Romanian. The colleague then translated the manager’s written responses from Romanian to English and sent those responses to the team via email. Table 3.1 provides details for the 11 interviews the team conducted while hiding interviewee names to preserve confidentiality. Because the team told each interviewee that they would not publicize their recordings and transcripts, the team excluded the transcripts from the report.

Table 3.1 Overview of the team’s interview schedule
 

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3.1.3 Content Analysis of Online Resources
While the team scheduled interviews and waited for survey results, they conducted a content analysis of online resources. Surveys are useful for gathering large amounts of data within a relatively short amount of time; however, they are most effective when the sample represents the total population. The team noticed the surveys (both English and Romanian) did not reach many foreign tourists. Therefore, there was a bias towards domestic trail users, making the sample unreflective of the total population of Sibiu trail users. They decided to supplement this survey data with a content analysis that provided the perspective of foreign tourists.

During the first week of the project, the team searched the web using search terms such as “Sibiu hiking review” and “Sibiu mountain biking” to identify blogs and videos which contain information about international trail users’ experiences using the trails (shown in Table 3.2 and Table 3.3). The team found nine online blogs and reviews that contained information regarding accommodation hospitality, ability to use the trails, and positive or negative experiences with shops and restaurants. Additionally, this search uncovered 13 videos from hikers, mountain bikers, and Enduro (cross country motorcycle) riders, showing footage of the trails including physical aspects such as obstacles, signage, and wildlife presence. Two team members took notes on each source with a focus on interactions with businesses, physical trail features, and any technology used for planning trips or trail guiding. The members coded their notes following the same procedure as the interview transcripts and then combined similar themes from both sources into a single document for further analysis.

Table 3.2 Blog posts about travel in Sibiu, Romania

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Table 3.3 Videos about travel in Sibiu, Romania

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.1.4 Analyze Information Collected from Interviews, Surveys, and Content Analysis
After executing the surveys, conducting the interviews, and taking notes on online content, the final step involved analysis that merged the data from these method streams. To begin, the team coded the interview transcripts and content analysis notes for common themes, using the same method for both. While reading through the transcripts and notes, the team highlighted important information with the designated color of the corresponding pre-made category. The team decided on the coding categories based on their recollection of general topics from the interviews and content analysis along with topics that they needed information on to achieve the four objectives.
The overarching topics are the main categories, which the team split into relevant subcategories to further organize the information. The team looked for subcategories and highlighted them while reviewing the collected information. As seen in Table 3.4, each main category contains 2-3 subcategories except for tourist experience, which the team just coded for that overall topic. 

Table 3.4 Coding categories and the designated highlight color for each
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The surveys provided quantitative data that allowed the team to perform a numerical analysis on the frequency of shared experiences, as well as qualitative data in the form of trail user anecdotes. Each survey question fell into one of the main categories in Table 3.4, allowing the responses to contribute to final analysis and conclusions. Afterwards, the team compiled all the analyzed information from the interviews, content analysis, and surveys into one Excel spreadsheet to draw conclusions on each of the main categories in Sibiu County.

3.2 Identify How Local Businesses Can Address the Needs of Trail Users
The second objective focused on identifying how local businesses can address the needs of trail users. A large issue in Sibiu’s ecotourism industry is the lack of communication between the local businesses and trail users. This causes a discrepancy between amenities businesses currently provide and the features trail users hope to find in Sibiu, leading to disappointed visitors and subpar sales (Mihai Dragomir, Personal Communication, February 9, 2021). By identifying the needs of trail users through surveys and interviews, the team was able to provide businesses with trail user information through an infographic, which provides information about trail users and different ways to meet their needs. This will allow them to inform themselves on how to cater more effectively towards hikers and bikers.

3.2.1 Develop and Deliver an Infographic for Businesses
The team used results from the coded information and surveys to create an infographic about trail users and ways to attract them to local businesses. In this case, local businesses refer to places that offer lodging to trail users, since all business owner interviewees worked at lodging companies. The team decided that the infographic should contain information on trail user demographics, the reasons that trail users come to Sibiu, the motivation for promoting trails, and actions businesses can take to improve experience for trail users. After collecting this information, Marissa used a popular graphic design platform, Canva, to construct the infographic displaying the findings. The collaborators suggested the infographic should have a lighthearted tone, balance of text and pictures, and an explanation of why attracting trail users is beneficial. Following these guidelines made the infographic more visually appealing while still containing important information.

The team delivered the finished infographic in English to the collaborators, who then translated it to Romanian to make it accessible in both languages. The collaborators distributed the infographic to local lodging businesses via email. In addition, they plan to print and distribute a PDF of the infographic so businesses can display it in their offices for more frequent viewing. 

 

3.3 Develop a Reporting System for Trail Users
The third objective was to develop a reporting system that would allow trail users to inform trail managers of any addressing issues. Example issues include inadequate or damaged signage, incidents with shepherd dogs, or weather-related trail damage. 
The SEM system discussed in section 2.4.1 inspired this form. The SEM system allowed the NPS to gather large scale data on park management and visitors in order to address internal issues impacting visitor experience. The Sibiu County trails can implement similar methods to follow their success.

3.3.1 Designing an Online Reporting Form
Citing several example forms used for trails in other countries, the collaborators named certain “must-have” features but otherwise left the form’s design to the team. The collaborators specified two mandatory features for the reporting form: a photo submission and location/GPS coordinate tagging. To supplement these features, the team examined other reporting forms to investigate more useful functions. They also referenced interviews and survey results (English survey Q11-Q12) to determine the issues most commonly encountered along the trails. 
The collaborators’ original request was to host the new form on their website; however, since web design falls outside the scope of the project, the team instead decided to deliver technical requirements for a reporting form. The final technical requirements include a list of features, their functionality, and an example wireframe as a visual aid. As the Mioritics Association plans to hire professional developers to redo their website in the near future, the professionals could use these requirements to guide their work. However, the collaborators still need a functional reporting form for the upcoming summer season. As a result, the team created a Google Form that will provide feedback until the professionals integrate the custom form.

3.3.2 Researching European Hiking Apps
The plan to design a reporting system detailed in section 3.3.1 will result in a product that allows trail managers to address small incidents and problems as they appear. However, this system does not return any broader feedback that is valuable to improve overall visitor experiences. In the future, the collaborators want to promote the Sibiu County trails through one or more popular hiking apps, in order to spread awareness and knowledge of their existence and obtain visitor reviews. Hiking apps such as AllTrails and ViewRanger provide general information about trails for the user to plan their trip, but also permit trail users to leave ratings, reviews, and pictures for other potential visitors to see. Partnering with one of these apps to expand their trail database to include Sibiu County will give trail managers and future tourists access to visitor reviews. Because of the significant impacts of hiking apps on the trail user experience, the team researched popular European hiking apps and compiled a list of apps, along with a short summary about each app. The collaborators received the list to explore potential partnerships between the app company and the Sibiu trails.

3.4 Propose a System to Track the Quantity and Movement of Trail Users
The fourth objective was to provide a list of recommended counting systems that can track the number of people that use the Sibiu trails each day. The Sibiu County Tourism Association and Mioritics Association expressed interest in implementing a counting system in order to determine whether or not to limit the number of people on certain trails and to decide specific trails to promote more. 

 

3.4.1 Research and Recommend Other Counting Practices 
To determine the counting systems best suited for Sibiu’s trails, the team researched other types of counting technology beyond the two discussed in section 2.4.1. This included researching systems that would work in the Sibiu region, since the trails vary in terrain ranging from plains to mountains and have no electricity connection. The team compared characteristics of five different systems, such as the method of operation, expected lifetime, ability to detect the counted object, range, accuracy, physical dimensions, power supply, and cost. The information sent to the collaborators, visible in Appendix J, includes contact information for the companies that make each system.

3.5 Gantt Chart
Figure 3.2 depicts a Gantt chart detailing the tasks the team completed during D-term. In the task completion timeline, shown to the right of the task list, green highlights indicate the tasks worked on and completed each week. Each green cell contains a checkbox which allowed the team to record their progress and ensure they stayed on track throughout the term. As the team completed each task, they recorded and analyzed data and results to gain knowledge and work towards completing each objective. The next chapter provides in depth results of the methods.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3.2: Gantt Chart describing the anticipated timeline for each task