Protected area policies and sustainable tourism: influences,relationships and co-evolution

This paper explores the adoption of sustainable tourism ideas in a Park Authority's policies over a period of two decades in a developed world, category V protected area. There is only limited research on influences encouraging the inclusion of sustainable tourism ideas in protected area policies, or on relationships between sustainable tourism policies and other policy priorities. The paper departs from an approach which considers sustainable tourism policies in isolation, because potentially they are reformulations or extensions of other previous policies, or else indirect outcomes of other policies. There is assessment of influences on the Park Authority's sustainable tourism policies, and of the co-evolution between sustainable tourism policies and other policies. Such influences as government funding reductions and rising concern for community well-being affected the Authority's adoption of sustainable tourism ideas. Incorporation of sustainable tourism ideas in policies occurred gradually. It involved re-labelling established policies as well as reframing and extending those policies. It was often an indirect outcome of policy developments not focused specifically on sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism-related policies co-evolved with, and through, policies for community well-being, actor participation, and sustainable development. The approach used here is relevant for research on policy co-evolution in other policy fields.     

Assessment on and Perception of Visitors' Environmental Impacts of Nature Tourism: A Case Study of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park,China

This paper examines trampling impacts on vegetation and soil as well as visitors' perception of these impacts in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China. Results indicate that visitor usage is proportionate to trampling impacts, with the two most used trails–Yellowstone Village Trail and Gold Whip Stream Trail–having the highest values in Soil Impact Index (SII) and highest rate of scarred trees. Vegetation and soil near 'Treasure Box for Celestial Books' are the most impacted with the Impact Vegetational Index (IVI) being 87.50% and SII being 2.27, respectively. This spot has the highest level of unacceptability. However, visitors' perceptions of the impacts on their hiking satisfaction are not always consistent with the actual physical deterioration. The unacceptability level for 'Gold Whip Crag' was much higher than 'The General Rock' despite the latter having higher IVI values than the former. It is argued that visitors' perceptions of recreation impacts could be influenced by the interaction of IVI, SII, and the size of the area impacted. Other factors such as visual sensitivity and social elements could also have an effect on visitors' judgements. Finally, this paper proposes management strategies for improving the park's visitor and environmental management.     

Accounting for Varying Setting Preferences Among Moose Hunters

Recreation planners and managers realize the importance of different tastes and preferences among recreationists. This fact is explicit in recreational planning efforts and in the theories developed to understand recreational behaviors. While market segmentation approaches steeped in behavioral theory provide a rich source of information to planners and managers, we argue that such exogenous market segmentation approaches alone are insufficient to understand the degree of variability in tastes and preferences among recreationists. In this paper we employ a random parameters logit model to account for both the extent and sources of heterogeneity in preferences among recreationists. We illustrate the random parameters logit choice model with an application to the stated choices for hunting sites by moose hunters from northwestern Ontario. The application shows that the random parameters logit represents a considerable improvement over multinomial logit models based on market segmentation approaches.     

The Ecotourium Concept and Tourism-Conservation Symbiosis

The credibility of contemporary ecotourism is threatened by the global dominance of a model that minimally fulfils the three core criteria – nature-based attractions, learning opportunities, ecological and sociocultural sustainability – that characterise this sector. A more rigorous ‘comprehensive’ model is better capable of fulfilling ecotourism’s potential to achieve sustainable outcomes, but only if this model embraces both the hard and soft dimensions of the sector. Based on the latter premise and informed by the principles of complexity, knowledge sharing and interdisciplinarity, we propose the development of an international network of protected areas ‘ecotouriums’ that is designed to stimulate positive socioeconomic change within local communities and maintain and improve the ecological health of protected areas. Cornerstone themes that enable the ecotourium concept are research and education, ecological health, community participation and development, and partnerships.     

Management of Conservation in Spaces of Recreational Use

Summary

The tourist area (TA) Lago Gutierrez is located in the reservation area of National Nahuel Huapi Park, Patagonia, Argentina. Its ecological landscape is composed of mountains with glacier lakes, cascades, and forests of Nothofagus. These attractions facilitate activities such as trekking, bathing, hiking, picnics, and camping among others.

This TA, has an intense tourist and recreational use, which creates disorder, and so measures have been taken by management in order to recuperate different sectors of varying degrees of ecological impacts. For example, the transfer of a camping site located in a stand of coihues trees (Nothofagus dombeyi).

The objectives proposed were to identify tourist and recreational impacts and the perceptions of visitors concerning these impacts, in order to propose management measures in Gutierrez TA.

Using the LAC (Limits of acceptable change, Stankey et al., 1985) methodology, theauthorstookintoaccount physical, biological, and social variables: coihue renewals, bare ground, the number of people, their activities, behavior, spontaneous paths, control, and information. They also carried out non-participative observations, and administered questionnaires and interviews to visitors and others.

The results show that the management measures applied to the TA are insufficient. Evidence of this is in the low recovery of the forest undergrowth and paths, widening of pathways, littering, damaged trees and other impacts.     

Public–private partnerships for nature-based tourist attractions: the failure of Seal Rocks

In 1998, the Seal Rocks Sea Life Centre opened on Phillip Island, Australia. It was a public–private partnership, with a privately funded tourist attraction built on a government-owned protected area. Almost immediately it was beset by problems and court action found in favour of the private developer, who was awarded $A37 million in damages, with ownership of the centre returning to the state. This article fills a gap in the literature examining public–private partnerships by considering this failed venture. It is a qualitative case study, analysing the 2003 appeal court judgement in the case and newspaper accounts from 1995 to 2004. Our findings highlight that deficiencies with the drafting of commercial contracts for public–private partnerships may limit the environmental and economic benefits that are being sought by governments through these arrangements. In this case, the application of a “best efforts” clause was critical, as it required that priority was given to the commercial success of the project over environmental and planning concerns. Furthermore, the development was a centralised decision made by the state government, affording very little input from local parks management and community stakeholders. Such a court finding has important ramifications for future developments of partnership agreements in nature-based tourism.     

Protected areas,conservation and tourism – financing the sustainable dream

Many commentators suggest that tourism could help fund the ever growing number of protected areas. The traditional reliance on government sources to support protected areas is increasingly untenable, in both the developed and developing world. This paper reviews the relationship between tourism and protected areas to assess opportunities for sustainable funding to assure effective stewardship. It explores a range of innovative and creative alternative funding mechanisms which could be consistent with a positive evolving relationship between tourism and protected areas. An outline classification of four protected area archetypes for management and funding purposes is suggested, based on a combination of visitation and biodiversity levels. To service the management of those four types, a series of non-government revenue streams are explored such as payments for ecosystem service (ES), environmental mortgages, intrinsic value funding, carbon abatement funding and research dividend funding. Issues discussed include: the willingness to pay on the part of potential visitors, the potential impact of fees on visitation, “quarantining” particularly valuable ecosystems from visitation and intrinsic value funding, the unpredictability of environmental mortgages and the potential stability of ES payments. Further research is required in data analysis and into the design of land tenure systems and regulatory mechanisms.     

Profiling the segments of visitors to Portuguese protected areas

This study identifies the diversity of domestic visitors to Portuguese protected areas (PPA) based on benefit segmentation. The segments of PPA visitors are also compared with other nature-based tourist segments using some empirical benefit segmentation literature. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire and multivariate statistics techniques (principal components, hierarchical and K-means cluster analyses) were applied. Five distinct segments of visitors were identified based on the motivation for their visit and further characterized by the perceived importance of activities, facilities and services, frequency of visit and socio-demographics. Three segments are nature-focused and two are focused on activities or events. Only one segment shows specific interests and motivations associated with ecotourism and similar characteristics to international ecotourists; moreover, the reasons for the visit in one segment are unrelated to any of the motivations of nature-based tourism. Some implications for management are also described.     

Nature tourism trends in Australia with reference to the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area

Nature-based tourism has been viewed as a large and growing segment of the tourism market. Advocates of nature-based tourism argue its potential to generate income for biodiversity conservation and local economic benefit, while detractors fear a risk of “loving our parks to death”. Some recent studies have suggested that nature-based tourism may be declining on a per capita basis, especially in economically developed countries. Others have detected no such trend. Nature-based tourism is a key industry within Australia, based strongly on its unique scenery and biodiversity. We compared nature-based visitation and population growth during 1998–2012 for Australia overall and specifically for the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area which is adjacent to the country's largest conurbation of Greater Sydney. We found substantial declines in domestic per capita visitation, both nationally and regionally. Because visitation provides the “political capital” for parks to survive, strategies to encourage visitation should be a target for land managers. Since children foster environmentally responsible behaviour in adults, they should be part of the focus for developing diverse experiences that encourage park visitation.     

基于旅游发展价值取向转移的旅游规制创新刍议

从国家的视角探究旅游发展价值转移的历程与趋势发现,全球基本形成了双轨化的旅游价值取向:对于遗产类资源的旅游开发实行严格的政府管制,以资源保护和旅游可持续发展为根本目标;对于普通、非垄断性的旅游资源推行充分竞争的市场机制,以经济收益为根本取向.而且旅游业中政府作为的聚焦点逐渐从大众旅游目的地和一般景区的营利目标向遗产类景区的公益性服务转移.受国情影响,我国较长时间更多地关注旅游业的经济问题,选择性地忽视了西方国家更加关注的社会与生态问题,市场化的经营方式延伸到遗产类景区.黑龙江汤旺河国家公园试点计划的推出,标志着我国旅游业发展价值取向转移的开始和对世界国家公园运动的响应.值此之际,需要通过严格的政府规制来保证旅游开发与资源保护间的共促协调,以实现国家公园及相关保护区对全民共享国家遗产、维持遗产资源的永续性和培育国家精神的深远价值.     

Toward a product-based typology for nature-based tourism: a conceptual framework

The traditional view of nature-based tourists as a relatively homogeneous group has been questioned, and several scholars have suggested various segmentation typologies. This paper discusses market and industry changes and notes key trends, as Fordist tourist products have been replaced by post-Fordist and neo-Fordist products, with both McDonaldization and McDisneyization developments. A range of visitor-based typologies are reviewed, and the conflict between capturing the diversity of today's nature-based tourists while offering management bodies simple tools to segment visitors, identify core groups and improve their marketing is noted. In an attempt to overcome this conflict, the paper presents a conceptual framework which focuses on nature-based tourism products instead of tourist types, therefore incorporating aspects of both the demand and supply sides of the nature-based tourism industry market. A two-dimensional matrix is suggested, linking four basic travel motivations (nature conservation, nature experience, sports/adventure and hedonistic) to four different types of tourist products (independent, à la carte, customized and standardized), giving a total typology of 16 different types. The matrix should help protected area managers to better understand tourist needs, suggest management measures and help to create more sustainable forms of tourism. Empirical testing is suggested as a next step.     

Nature-based Tourism and Environmental Sustainability in South Africa

Assessments of environmental factors contributing to sustainable tourism are described in relation to four photographic wildlife tourism enterprises in South Africa. A series of qualitative and quantitative results are presented to demonstrate how nature-based tourism enterprises in protected areas address their environmental impacts. Field-based evaluations and interviews with local community members show how a new Sustainable Nature-based Tourism Assessment Toolkit (SUNTAT) was used to evaluate enterprise performance. Motivations underlying environmentally responsible activities undertaken by private- and public-sector enterprises are described, in addition to their limitations and constraints. Conclusions are made regarding the need for environmentally responsible activities to utilise commercially appropriate best practice, and to consider both the local level and neighbouring livelihood strategies.