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Every year 1.7 million people visit the Saxon Switzerland National Park, resulting in a very high visitor density, especially in the western parts of the national park. This paper presents the results of a survey conducted in 2011 (n = 312), which investigated the perception of crowding, influencing factors and displacement effects. Overall, nearly one third of the visitors (31.3%) felt crowded, with a maximum of 74.4% at the Bastei rock, a popular spot within the park. Using a logistic regression, the number of perceived encounters, plus motives and expectations were found to be the key factors to influence the perception of crowding. Nearly half of the visitors (48.7%) already act or plan to act on crowding, choosing temporal and spatial displacement strategies in equal measure.

In Germany, as in many Western societies, demographic change will lead to a higher number of senior visitors to natural recreational areas and national parks. Given the high physiological requirements of many outdoor recreation activities, especially in mountain areas, it seems likely that demographic change will affect the spatial behaviour of national park visitors, which may pose a challenge to the management of these areas. With the help of GPS tracking and a standardized questionnaire (n=481), this study empirically investigates the spatial behaviour of demographic age brackets in Berchtesgaden National Park (NP) and the potential effects of demographic change on the use of the area. Cluster analysis revealed four activity types in the study area. More than half of the groups with visitors aged 60 and older belong to the activity type of Walker.Research eco.mont -Volume 9, special issue,

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