scholarly journals Mass tourism in protected areas – underestimated threat? Polish National Parks case study

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1046-1060
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Widawski ◽  
Zdzisław Jary

Abstract The article considers the tourist traffic as possible to elements of inanimate nature in protected areas. The highest form of protection in Poland - national parks, has been taken into account. The main goal is to diagnose the situation based on the analysis of official documents elaborated by the national park authorities. One of the important elements is to diagnose the threat to nature and indicate ways to neutralize it. At the beginning, the geotouristic potential of these parks was presented, where this type of resources is considered important from the point of view of tourism. The tourist function of the most important attractions in Poland was indicated. In the top ten there are as many as 4 national parks, including Tatrzański which takes first place. The size of tourist traffic in all 23 parks was analyzed. As a result, it was shown that the most popular, where tourist flow is of mass character, include mountain parks with significant geotouristic potential. Next, the current protection plans for them were analyzed: Tatrzański, Karkonoski, Table Mountains and Pieniński, where the annual tourist flow varies between 0.5 million and almost 4 million visitors per year. Threats were assigned to 4 groups: existing internal threats, potential internal threats, existing external threats and potential external threats. In each of the types of threats special attention was paid to those related to inanimate nature. It also indicated the ways in which park managers want to influence the change of negative trends. The basic conclusion was indicated, which boils down to the postulate of a balanced approach to the protection of both types of nature: animate and inanimate. In the case of animate nature, threats and suggestions for improving the situation seem to be much better diagnosed than in the case of inanimate nature.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 358-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Widawski ◽  
Zdzisław Jary ◽  
Piotr Oleśniewicz ◽  
Piotr Owczarek ◽  
Julita Markiewicz-Patkowska ◽  
...  

AbstractThis article examines the tourist role of protected areas important for their unanimated nature potential. In Poland the highest form of legal protection is a national park. Babiogórski National Parks is one of 23 national parks in Poland. The aim of this article is to present its tourist attraction based on its geotourist potential considered by tourists who visit this park. At the beginning a brief history of protection of Babia Góra is presented. Based on stock-taking sightseeing method an analysis of the most important tourist attractiveness elements (like infrastructure or tourist values) is done. The focus on the values of unanimated nature is made grouping them into four main categories. As the result of research on infrastructure the most important accommodation units were indicated present at the surroundings of this National Park which is vital for its tourist capacity. For the correct functioning of tourist movement at the protected area the supporting infrastructure is important bearing a lot of functions. The function of channeling of the tourist movement as well as the didactic function are the most important for protection and correct use of geotourist values. Among the many elements of the supporting infrastructure the most important ones are tourist and didactic routes (their course and themes are presented). The most important part of the article is the presentation of the participants of the tourist movement opinions on the Babiogórski National Park tourist attractiveness. A survey was conducted and then analysed on 308 respondents in 2011. They were asked to judge both the quality of infrastructure as well as attraction of geotourist values together with their adaptation to reception by the tourist movement. The results analysis served as a base to appraise the state and perspectives for the geotourism development in Babiogórski National Park from the point of view of the receivers of tourist product i.e. the protected area.


Author(s):  
Hang Shu ◽  
Chunwang Xiao ◽  
Ting Ma ◽  
Weiguo Sang

Assessing the health of the ecosystem based on the landscape pattern of national parks can facilitate policy makers in formulating more targeted conservation policies to better manage national park ecosystems. To analyze the landscape patterns and characteristics of the national park, the ecosystem health evaluation index system of the national park was constructed using the vigor-organization-resilience (VOR) model to evaluate the health status. In this study, the Shennongjia National Park in China was selected as a case study area to be assessed using the index system. The results revealed that the patches of construction land and farmland are the largest in number and the most complex in shape, reflecting the obvious fragmentation of construction land and farmland patches. All patch types in this national park were evenly distributed. The results of the analysis showed that the comprehensive index of national park heath, according to the VOR model, is 0.74, indicating that the ecosystems in this study area were in a good state of health. Ecosystems in strictly protected areas of this park had the highest ecosystem health index levels, while the traditional utilization areas had the lowest. Ecosystem health levels were characterized by significant spatial agglomeration characteristics, with high-high aggregation distribution areas, mainly clustered in strictly protected areas, and low-low aggregation distribution, mainly clustered in traditional utilization areas and marginal areas. This study provided a set of ecosystem health assessment systems and their practical use in China’s newly established national parks.


Author(s):  
Ibrahim Asadov ◽  
◽  
Éva Erdélyi ◽  

Growing dissatisfaction with mass tourism, ecotourism had become a major tool for achieving conservation and sustainable development goals by many developing countries by the mid. 1980s. Today, it is a major source of income for many developing countries across the world with being less destructive in the usage of natural resources than alternative economic sectors such as agriculture and logging. This study is concentrated on investigating and researching ecotourism within the context of national parks, more precisely within Shahdag National Park (SNP) of Azerbaijan. This study aims to find the existing gaps, disadvantages and challenges in the ecotourism system of SNP, identify the opinion and level of education of people of Azerbaijan about ecotourism and sustainability in general. To identify these, data were collected, and both quantitative and qualitative methods were implemented. Primary research included a questionnaire survey and interview. As the main result, it can be concluded that Shahdag National Park of Azerbaijan has immense ecotourism potential but this potential is not utilized to its fullest capacity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Taczanowska ◽  
Luis-Millán González ◽  
Xavier García-Massó ◽  
Antoni Zięba ◽  
Christiane Brandenburg ◽  
...  

Mountain protected areas play a fundamental role in the conservation of natural environment and at the same time provide the population with social benefits such as offering space for leisure and recreation. Understanding motivations and behavior of protected area visitors is crucial to effectively manage vulnerable areas. Our objective was to identify the profiles of visitors to a heavily used tourist destination—Kasprowy Wierch within the Tatra National Park (Poland), using the self-organizing maps (SOM) analytical method. In order to explore the socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics of the visitors a total sample of 2488 respondents were interviewed on site. Self-organizing map analysis is based on cerebral processes for managing and storing information in order to classify subjects and/or find relationships among variables. As a result, four heterogeneous tourist profiles were identified. Interestingly, two of these groups (Cluster 1 and Cluster 3), which were found to be the most challenging groups for management purposes, visited the national park for reasons other than its natural attractions. Especially, one sub-segment of Cluster 3 was mainly motivated by the possibility to use a cable car, admiring views and stayed within close proximity of the upper cable car station. Less than a half of visitors to Kasprowy Wierch (42%) were seeking a nature experience during their trip (Cluster 2 and Cluster 4). The results bring a new point of view in the discussion on visitor management within Kasprowy Wierch region, in particular by overlapping presented visitor segmentation with trip types and/or purchased cable car tickets. Within international context, we highlight the SOM technique as a valuable tool in profiling of tourists and underline the problem of the existence of mass tourism destinations within protected areas.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa González ◽  
Concepción Román ◽  
Ángel Marrero

Few studies have examined visitor preferences with regard to public bike-sharing inside national parks. Here, we present a case study of the Teide National Park (TNP), the most visited national park in Spain. The TNP is a clear example of a natural site suffering the effects of mass tourism, largely due to the fact that 70% of visitors access the TNP by car. This puts the park’s sustainability under considerable pressure, may well affect visitor enjoyment, and highlights the need to implement alternative transportation systems. The main aim of this paper is to assess the attitudes of visitors to the TNP towards the implementation of a public bike-sharing system. To do so, we combine information on revealed and stated preferences and estimate ordered logit models to establish the determinants of the propensity to choose the bicycle to move around the park. Our findings suggest that the bicycle has potential as a means of transport in this setting. The results have implications for the design of mobility management measures aiming to increase visit quality and reduce the negative externalities associated with mobility patterns in national parks.


Author(s):  
Bianca Costa Azevedo de Paiva

Esta pesquisa tem como finalidade analisar quais os impactos ambientais causados pela visitação pública no Parque Nacional de Anavilhanas na percepção dos profissionais envolvidos. Visando o alcance dessa finalidade, foram elaborados os seguintes objetivos específicos: estudar as características das Unidades de Conservação, focando na categoria de Parques Nacionais; pesquisar a estrutura do Parque Nacional de Anavilhanas e seu uso público e relacionar o uso público do Parque Nacional de Anavilhanas com os impactos ambientais gerados, na percepção dos profissionais envolvidos. A método utilizado foi estudo de caso e quanto aos meios foram pesquisa de campo e pesquisa bibliográfica. Através da coleta de dado no local da pesquisa, foi possível apontar alguns impactos ambientais perceptíveis aos profissionais envolvidos com a visitação no Parque Nacional de Anavilhanas, tais como poluição em geral, mudança na rotina dos animais da localidade, degradação das trilhas, entre outros. Environmental impacts in Protected Areas: National Nark Anavilhanas in professionals vision involved with the visitation ABSTRACT This research aims at examining the environmental impacts of public visitation at the Anavilhanas National Park in the perception of the professionals involved. Aiming to reach this goal, the following specific objectives were established: to study the characteristics of protected areas, focusing on National Parks category; search the structure of the Anavilhanas National Park and its public use and relate the public use of the Anavilhanas National Park with the environmental impacts, the perception of the professionals involved. The method used was the case study and as the means were the search field and bibliographic research. By collecting data at the site of research, it was possible to identify some environmental impacts perceptible to professionals involved in the visitation in Anavilhanas National Park, such as pollution in general, change in routine from local animals, degradation of trails and others. KEYWORDS: Impacts; Visitation; Anavilhanas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. e01451
Author(s):  
Jason J. Scullion ◽  
Jacqueline Fahrenholz ◽  
Victor Huaytalla ◽  
Edgardo M. Rengifo ◽  
Elisabeth Lang

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 804-812 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. Beaudoin ◽  
R. H. King

The magnetite composition from three sets of samples of Mazama, St. Helens set Y, and Bridge River tephras from Jasper and Banff national parks are used to test whether discriminant function analysis can unambiguously distinguish these tephras. The multivariate method is found to be very sensitive to the change in reference samples. St. Helens set Y tephra is clearly distinguished. However, discrimination between Mazama and Bridge River tephras is less distinct. A set of unknown tephras from the Sunwapta Pass area was used to test the classification schemes. Unknown tephras are assigned to different tephra types depending on which reference tephra set is used in the discriminant function analysis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cormac Walsh

AbstractNational parks and other large protected areas play an increasingly important role in the context of global social and environmental challenges. Nevertheless, they continue to be rooted in local places and cannot be separated out from their socio-cultural and historical context. Protected areas furthermore are increasingly understood to constitute critical sites of struggle whereby the very meanings of nature, landscape, and nature-society relations are up for debate. This paper examines governance arrangements and discursive practices pertaining to the management of the Danish Wadden Sea National Park and reflects on the relationship between pluralist institutional structures and pluralist, relational understandings of nature and landscape.


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