Computer Simulation as a Tool for Planning and Management of Visitor Use in Protected Natural Areas

The United Nations Environment Programme’s Principles on Implementation of Sustainable Tourism suggest that implementing sustainable tourism must include monitoring visitor use of protected natural areas and directing it to areas where the environmental and social impacts of tourism are minimised. Thus, sustainable tourism management requires information about the spatial and temporal flow of visitor use in protected natural areas to help identify potential tourism-related threats to the natural and cultural resources of an area and the quality of visitors’ experiences. Recent research has identified at least four ways in which simulation modelling of visitor use can facilitate more informed planning and management of sustainable tourism in protected natural areas, including (1) describing existing visitor use flows; (2) monitoring the condition of ‘hard to measure’ indicator variables; (3) testing the effectiveness of alternative visitor use management practices; and (4) guiding the design of research on public attitudes. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, using findings from studies conducted in the Inyo National Forest and Isle Royale National Park, USA, each of these four potential contributions of computer simulation to sustainable tourism management and planning. The paper concludes with an assessment of the limitations of existing applications of computer simulation to nature-based tourism and recommendations for future research.     

Research priorities in park tourism

Park tourism is a large and important activity on which a substantial body of research work has been published. This paper reviews that work in the light of the issues now faced by parks and park tourism, and argues that there are significant research gaps that urgently need additional work. The paper outlines 10 such areas, including: visitor use monitoring; park tourism economic impact monitoring; park finance; professional competencies for tourism management; building public support; visitor satisfaction; licenses, permits, leases, and concessions for tourism; pricing policies; management capacity; and park tourism governance. The paper suggests that work in these areas is so important that the long term political and social relevance, effective management and sustainable future of many parks and protected areas depend on the results. It points to the park creation phase being over after about 150 years of growth, and the need to move more effectively into the long-term management phase. A number of key questions arise. The numerous parks must fulfill their conservation mandate and they must be financially secure. They almost certainly must forge links to tourism, yet not be dominated by tourism's demands, creating, therefore, a new and sustainable research-based relationship.     

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.     

Tourism,Marketing and Sustainable Development in the English National Parks: The Role of National Park Authorities

This paper examines the work of the English National Park Authorities (NPAs) in relation to aspects of the development of sustainable tourism. The NPAs have implicitly sought to achieve sustainable tourism development since the parks were first designated, striving to balance the needs of visitors and the environment within the context of living, working landscapes. Studies have revealed, however, that some NPAs are not fully championing sustainable tourism development. The paper examines the NPA's use of marketing and marketing perspectives in encouraging sustainable tourism, exploring attitudes, roles and activities. A diverse, piecemeal and sometimes underinformed approach is revealed. The paper concludes with ways forward for English NPAs and for other protected area management organisations.     

Trends in Park Tourism: Economics,Finance and Management

This paper discusses issues in tourism to protected areas/parks. Emphasis is given to the relationships between the globally growing numbers of parks, the rise in tourism to those parks and its economic impacts, and finance and management policies used within the parks. In-depth consideration is given to park pricing policies, park tourism competencies, the need for better visitation/visitor statistics, and new tourism management structures. The development of parastatal management structures with greater links between tourism competencies and conservation management techniques is seen to be central to the creation of both successful parks and sustainable tourism within those parks.     

Pay to Play in Parks: An Australian Policy Perspective on Visitor Fees in Public Protected Areas

Many public protected areas worldwide charge fees for entrance, overnight camping, and commercial tour permits. These visitor or user fees raise revenue and may also influence visitor behaviour. Many protected areas are forced to charge fees because government funding is inadequate for conservation and visitor management in the face of rapidly rising visitor numbers and demands. Acceptance and effects of fees, however, depend on the historical, political, legal, economic and social context. Two issues are particularly significant: (a) equity between various social groups; and (b) control and use of funds raised.     

适应性管理视角的国外国家公园野生动物保护与游憩利用案例研究

野生动物旅游是国家公园践行公共性和福祉性功能的重要体现,对野生动物保护管理要允许野生动物资源的可持续利用,自然保护与可持续发展并重。适应性管理是国家公园管理的重要方法,可以缓解野生动物保护与游憩利用的矛盾。本研究引入国外适应性管理理论,从管理模式、利益相关者、监测评估、功能分区等方面对非洲克鲁格国家公园、美洲班夫国家公园和澳洲卡卡杜国家公园3个案例地深入分析,得出国家公园野生动物适应性管理的主要经验：（1）建立连接社会的可持续国家公园系统;（2）构建利益相关者协调机制,促进参与和共同管理;（3）建立动态监测评估体系,加强野生动物研究;（4）科学评估生态状况,实行公园动态分区管理。研究结果可为中国国家公园野生动物保护和游憩利用提供参考。     

Evolution of tourism in a flagship protected area of China

Nature-based tourism in protected areas, which is growing worldwide, offers much potential to enhance biodiversity conservation, poverty alleviation, and ultimately sustainable development. Understanding the evolution of protected areas as tourism destinations and the causes and consequences of changing supply and demand elements is an essential step toward sustainably managing tourism in these critical ecosystems. This research applied the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) model to illustrate and analyze the 30-year evolution of tourism in Wolong Nature Reserve. Being inscribed in UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage programmes, Wolong is a flagship protected area in China. We showed that the Reserve experienced exploration, involvement, and development stages of the TALC before tourism growth was completely halted by the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008. We systematically investigated the changes related to the evolution of tourism and identified various internal and external driving forces. We examined the dynamics of politics, economy, and tourism growth that might propel the Reserve through the life cycle and identified significant tourism governance structural changes through the stages. The results have implications for sustainable tourism development in China's protected areas and also contribute to a broader and general understanding of the complex relationships between protected areas, sustainable tourism, and community development.     

Why It's Good To Be Bad: The Role of Conflict in Contributing Towards Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas

This paper examines the historic and contemporary role of one Canadian environmental non-governmental organisation (ENGO) in the operationalisation of sustainable tourism. In particular, the extent to which the ENGO has contributed to coordinated, cooperative policy development and implementation within this policy domain is examined. While coordinated policy making is widely accepted as a basis for environmentally sustainable tourism development, organisations may contribute more towards this goal by choosing not to be included, or by being excluded from, this framework of coordination. This paper uses an interorganisational relations perspective to explore the position, influence and relationships of one ENGO active within Canada's national park tourism policy domain. Implications are drawn for the implementation of sustainable tourism within protected areas.     

Changing Conceptions of Protected Areas and Conservation: Linking Conservation,Ecological Integrity and Tourism Management

From their first creation, national parks and equivalent reserves were socially constructed in the New World as static, primordial, untouched representations of a pre-European contact environment characterised by the ‘balance of nature’ resting in a steady (climax) state. While these images still linger in the minds of the public, the recent utilisation of landscape ecology, conservation biology and social constructivism to study and re-conceptualise protected areas has demonstrated that parks are not the protected islands of virgin wilderness they were constructed to represent; rather than protecting these areas from disturbance, we now recognise that disturbance is a major component in ecological integrity. We suggest that the resultant shift from species- to process-based conservation (i.e. ecological integrity), from attempting to cocoon parks from outside influences to re-engaging parks with landscape-level processes, has critical ramifications for protected area and sustainable tourism management. Land managers need to adapt to a new paradigm that reflects and supports this philosophical change in conservation principles; this shift is also reflected in science itself, manifested by a move from normal to ‘post-normal’ science which embraces these new principles. This approach should link visitor expectations with dynamic, non-linear, self-organising natural processes in order to meet conservation objectives.     

The Guided Hike in Banff National Park: A Hermeneutical Performance

Sharpley identifies the need to help the public adopt a new paradigm of sustainable development through learning and understanding. The example of a guided hike in Banff National Park, Canada, that communicates to visitors ideas about sustainable development – and sustainable tourism – is examined in this paper to gain some sense of the world of the hike. The paper is based on a hermeneutical theatrical model derived from the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer, which includes play, festival, mimesis, gaze and beauty. Through the use of the model, the paper examines the present day performance of the hike, including the narratives of hikers and those involved in presenting the hike. The examination also includes relevant legislation, history and the setting. The result explores the nature and process of understanding a sustainable development paradigm on a guided hike in a natural protected area.     

Jost Krippendorf

The paper examines the extent to which tourism in the Great Barrier Reef and Wet Tropics World Heritage Areas can be said to be sustainable. To do this it provides a definition of sustainable tourism for protected areas, in terms of ecological economics criteria. Tourism, and its management, in the two World Heritage Areas is described, and the outcomes are assessed against the definition of sustainable tourism. The available data is not sufficient to permit a definitive overall assessment. However, a favourable interim verdict appears justified against environmental criteria in the case of the Great Barrier Reef. There is in both cases a dearth of suitable data for proper assessment against economic criteria. The criteria proposed and the assessment exercise reported provide a contribution to developing ways to evaluate sustainable tourism.     

Sustainable development and stakeholder relations management: Exploring sustainability reporting in the hospitality industry from a SD-SRM approach

This paper explores the sustainability reporting of 170 hospitality companies from a SD-SRM approach. The purpose of the study is to ascertain the information that companies disclose in accordance with the sustainable development (SD) and the stakeholder relations management (SRM) theories and to identify the areas for improvement in the management and reporting practices of sustainability in the hospitality industry. The authors use the content analysis method to identify and describe the sustainability reporting of hotel chains and independently managed hotels in Spain. The findings show that the sustainability information reported by hospitality companies currently meets the basic principles of a SD-SRM approach. Nonetheless, the authors also identify areas for improvement, such as the orientation of the reporting to suppliers or the more equilibrated distribution of information among all corporate stakeholders. Based on these findings, the authors consider that the integration of information following the SD-SRM approach described in this paper could facilitate a better compliance of hospitality companies with the principles of the SD and SRM theories.     

mLearning as a softer visitor management approach for sustainable tourism

With increased visitation to protected natural areas over the last four decades, there is a need for implementation of effective visitor management strategies at these sites to mitigate visitor impacts. This study explores the application of mobile learning (mLearning) in environmental interpretation and visitor education within the context of conservation and sustainable tourism. Specifically, it proposes a conceptual framework for mLearning as a visitor management tool for sustainable tourism. Current developments and innovations in mobile broadband networks, smartphone technology, and mobile software applications present opportunities for the utilization of such mobile-driven applications in interpretive programs to encourage free-choice learning and mindful visitor experiences. If effectively implemented, such interpretive programs and mLearning applications can affect visitor perceptions, attitudes, and future intentions toward conservation and environmental protection.     

Sustainable forest management: heritage tourism,biodiversity, and upland communities in the Philippines

This paper discusses sustainable forest management in the context of forest-based tourism in the Philippines. Integrating heritage tourism in the implementation of forest management is paramount because the quality and sustainability of nature tourism depend on the ecological integrity of forests. The role of tourism in achieving the goals of sustainable forest management is crucial especially in countries such as the Philippines where the demands for forest resources for tourism and other purposes have been increasing. The tourism management strategies to achieve sustainable forest management in the Philippines include establishing recreational zones within protected forests; using different native fruit-bearing trees in reforestation to attract diverse wildlife, which is a drawcard in tourism; prohibiting illegal collections of threatened forest species for souvenirs; enhancing the tourism and conservation values of botanic gardens within forest reserves; providing supplementary livelihoods to upland dwellers via agroforestry projects; and respecting the culture and practices of indigenous upland people while supporting their economic and traditional subsistence.     

‘Therapy of the Green Leaf’: Public Responses to the Provision of Forest and Woodland Recreation in Twentieth Century Britain

This paper examines the largely unexplored formative years in the development of forest and woodland recreation in Britain during the twentieth century, with a particular focus from 1940 to 1970, when many of the institutional and infrastructural developments were made by both public and private sectors, laying the foundations for modern mass recreation. The paper is founded on archival research in public and private archival holdings. It makes a plea for greater recognition of the value of understanding the past, as contemporary policy makers plan for a sustainable future for British woods and forests. The paper reveals how the current balance required between the demands of people and nature is nothing new; it has a rich and complex history. The paper notes that after decades of public interest in forest and woodland recreation, public values and preferences are now being pushed to the fore in woodland management issues. How much public opinion will shape the sustainable future of our forests remains a controversial question.     

Escaping the Jungle

ABSTRACT

One of the most challenging, but also most interesting, features of tourism and hospitality as an area of study is that there is considerable variability in the backgrounds and training of those who are involved in its management. In some commercial sectors there is a lengthy tradition of the use of marketing as an integral component of management practice, while in public management organisations, marketing concepts are either unknown or mistrusted. This lack of application of marketing is particularly apparent in the management of tourism to protected areas such as National and State Parks and forests. An ongoing challenge in this sector is to conduct research into visitors and how they choose and enjoy their nature based leisure experiences. This article will report on a project to improve the study and management of visitors to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area in the North Eastern part of Australia. The study involved a travel lifestyle market segmentation of over 1200 visitors to the area based on travel interests, activities and desired rainforest based tourism experiences. The analysis identified four core types of rainforest visitor and these groups were compared and contrasted in terms of their service quality ratings and overall satisfaction. The article concludes with links to the management frameworks for this tourism destination and the value of different segmentation techniques     

A Protected Areas Ecotourism Competitive Cluster Approach to Catalyse Biodiversity Conservation and Economic Growth in Bulgaria

This paper focuses on how small ecotourism and related supply chain businesses in gateway communities can be linked to protected areas by organising them into competitive clusters focused on their comparative advantages and uniqueness. It examines pilot project work in Bulgaria in small communities near the Rila and Central Balkan National Park. It shows how Bulgaria might develop its ecotourism potential by replicating this approach. The Bulgarian experience holds potential for replication in other protected areas and gateway communities using collaborative tools based upon lessons learned from the model sites and from ecotourism cases around the world, including: (1) developing an inclusive stakeholder group; (2) fostering education within gateway communities near protected areas; (3) strengthening the legal and regulatory framework; (4) expanding small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurship opportunities; (5) expanding destination management capacity at the community level; (6) linking protected area sites to less visited areas; (7) implementing environmental management and certification programmes; (8) expanding financing for protected areas; (9) using the Internet for linking and branding the network; and (10) developing indicator or monitoring systems.     

Networking for sustainable tourism – towards a research agenda

This paper proposes a research agenda for networking for sustainable tourism research based on a collaborative workshop of international tourism academics and researchers and an extensive review of the relevant literature. Each year, Building Excellence in Sustainable Tourism – an Education Network (BEST EN) holds a Think Tank on a topical issue in sustainable tourism education. One aim of the Think Tank is to develop a relevant research agenda that draws on the collective knowledge of participants and acknowledges the interdependent economic, environmental and social objectives in sustainable tourism. Six main areas were identified as important for a research agenda on networking for sustainable tourism and its implementation: theory, methodology and conceptual issues; actors, culture and power; lifecycle, evolution and dynamics of networks; knowledge transfer; macro-perspectives and strategic action, vision, innovation and management of networks. This paper presents and discusses these research themes in the context of a literature review on networks and networking for sustainability in tourism. It is found that substantial progress has been made in the investigation of private sector networks at the destination levels; research on networks involving public sector stakeholders and networks across sectors and levels of governance, however, remains limited.     

Evaluating ecotourism: The case of North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Ecotourism can contribute to both conservation and development and involves, as a minimum, positive synergistic relationships between tourism, biodiversity and local people, facilitated by appropriate management. This paper applies a framework for the development and evaluation of ecotourism to three protected areas in North Sulawesi. Due to its spectacular endemic biodiversity, the potential for providing quality nature experiences in North Sulawesi is high and tourism development is occurring rapidly. Site-level evaluations of ecotourism in three protected areas were performed to illustrate the application and the utility of the framework as a tool for evaluation and to assess the status of tourism in North Sulawesi. It is revealed that current relationships between people, resources and tourism in North Sulawesi have yet to provide the mutual benefits necessary for successful ecotourism. The approach and framework used to arrive at these conclusions have wide applicability for assessing the achievements of ecotourism at specific sites and for directing appropriate management strategies for ecotourism in protected areas.