Laying the foundations: The role of interpretation

Interpretation involves translating ideas and concepts into a format that attracts, interests and inspires visitors. Essentially, quality interpretation enhances people's understanding and enjoyment of the places they visit. The main benefits of providing interpretation for your visitors are:

1. Interpretation helps to meet the increasing demand for educational visitor experiences.
2. Interpretation provides interesting and memorable experiences that ensure visitor satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth advertising and repeat visitation.
3. Interpretation encourages visitors to care about the places they visit.
4. Interpretation helps minimise environmental and cultural damage by explaining the impacts of various behaviours and suggesting appropriate alternatives.
5. Interpretation can act as a substitute experience for



• places that are very fragile and/or difficult to visit (eg. caves, sacred temples), or
• topics that are impossible to experience directly (eg. disease, medieval history).