In Australia, low domestic visitor participation rates in Indigenous tourism have negative effects on its sustainable development. This lax demand remains under-examined in published research. This study uses an attribution-based theory, the folk-conceptual theory of behaviour explanation, to investigate how domestic visitors describe their intentional behaviour to participate, or not, in two Indigenous tourism activities (rockart sites and a cultural centre) situated within Victoria's Grampians National Park. Studies in tourism research using attribution theory remain limited; this appears to be the first using folk-conceptual theory. It adopts a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews and the photoelicitation method with 50 domestic visitors. Results indicate that visitors are more inclined to link "beliefs" than "desires" regarding their intention to participate in nature-based Indigenous tourism activities with connections with history, culture, and learning. However, despite Indigenous tourism being linked to a nature-based environment in the study area, "valuings", "enabling factors", and "causal history of reasons" affect participation levels. While these findings relate to previous research on motivations and barriers, participants' explanatory choices enable deeper insights into visitors' judgements that could then inform strategies to facilitate long-term sustainable Indigenous tourism growth. Understanding demand is central to Indigenous communities attaining benefits from sustainable tourism.

Tourism is promoted as a development tool for Indigenous communities in many countries around the world. Governments and non-governmental organisations have been developing and supporting this strategy with the aim of improving socioeconomic indicators amongst Indigenous populations. However, statistics show that domestic demand for Australian Indigenous tourism products, compared to four other types of mainstream tourism, is quite low. In order to explore why domestic visitors are less engaged in Indigenous tourism than other tourism types, this study adopts a mixed-methods case study to identify domestic visitors' motivations for, and barriers to, participating in Indigenous tourism activities. Semi-structured interviews using a photo-elicitation method were conducted with 52 domestic visitors at the Grampians National Park, Victoria, Australia. The findings suggest that there are differences in motivations for, and barriers to, participating in Indigenous tourism activities. Strategies suggested in this study include increasing the awareness of the different forms of Indigenous tourism activities through promotional material at different points, educating the visitor information centre staff in regard to the existing products offered, creating a seasonal restructure of the existing tourism products offered in the cultural centre, and leveraging the point of differentiation by highlighting the key elements of the local Indigenous culture.

In Australia, low domestic visitor participation rates in Indigenous tourism have negative effects on its sustainable development. This lax demand remains under-examined in published research. This study uses an attribution-based theory, the folk-conceptual theory of behaviour explanation, to investigate how domestic visitors describe their intentional behaviour to participate, or not, in two Indigenous tourism activities (rockart sites and a cultural centre) situated within Victoria's Grampians National Park. Studies in tourism research using attribution theory remain limited; this appears to be the first using folk-conceptual theory. It adopts a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews and the photoelicitation method with 50 domestic visitors. Results indicate that visitors are more inclined to link "beliefs" than "desires" regarding their intention to participate in nature-based Indigenous tourism activities with connections with history, culture, and learning. However, despite Indigenous tourism being linked to a nature-based environment in the study area, "valuings", "enabling factors", and "causal history of reasons" affect participation levels. While these findings relate to previous research on motivations and barriers, participants' explanatory choices enable deeper insights into visitors' judgements that could then inform strategies to facilitate long-term sustainable Indigenous tourism growth. Understanding demand is central to Indigenous communities attaining benefits from sustainable tourism.

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