Boost in Visitor Numbers Post COVID-19 Shutdown: Consequences for an Alpine National Park

Wipf, Sonja; Michel, Annina H.; Walder, Diego; Poelsma, Felix; Anderwald, Pia; Cruickshank, Sam S.; Jaroszynska, Francesca; Rossi, Christian; Backhaus, Norman

doi:10.1659/mrd.2022.00025

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 30 publications

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“…At first, visitation to parks around the world declined, largely due to the loss of international visitors, but later, domestic visitation increased and, in many cases, surpassed visitor levels from pre 2020 (Souza et al, 2021;Templeton et al, 2021;Wipf et al, 2023). The COVID-19 pandemic led many parks to impose safety processes to reduce the spread of the virus (McGinlay et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of COVID-19 on Visitor Intentions to Attend Personal Interpretation Programs in the Provincial Parks of Alberta, Canada

Hvenegaard,

Halpenny,

Blye

et al. 2023

Journal of Interpretation Research

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Research has examined COVID-19’s impacts on parks, but little research has studied the pandemic’s impact on in-person interpretation. Based on responses from 431 visitors to Alberta’s provincial parks before and during the pandemic, this paper investigates how the pandemic affected visitor intentions to attend personal interpretation programs. Intentions to attend programs decreased after the pandemic started, but were greater for respondents who had attended programs the previous season. Key reasons for not attending programs were not to become infected and not to infect others. Intentions to attend programs were greater for males than females, and greater for respondents with an increased education and a larger household income. Despite pandemic concerns, 53% of respondents said that programs should be offered, with highest support for amphitheater shows, followed by guided hikes, point duties, and family events. Park managers should clearly communicate the benefits and safety measures employed for interpretation programs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of COVID-19 on Visitor Intentions to Attend Personal Interpretation Programs in the Provincial Parks of Alberta, Canada

Hvenegaard,

Halpenny,

Blye

et al. 2023

Journal of Interpretation Research

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Remote sensing reveals the role of forage quality and quantity for summer habitat use in red deer

Rempfler,

Rossi,

Schweizer

et al. 2024

Mov Ecol

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Background The habitat use of wild ungulates is determined by forage availability, but also the avoidance of predation and human disturbance. They should apply foraging strategies that provide the most energy at the lowest cost. However, due to data limitations at the scale of movement trajectories, it is not clear to what extent even well-studied species such as red deer ( Cervus elaphus ) trade-off between forage quality and quantity, especially in heterogeneous alpine habitats characterized by short vegetation periods. Methods We used remote sensing data to derive spatially continuous forage quality and quantity information. To predict relative nitrogen (i.e. forage quality) and biomass (i.e. forage quantity), we related field data to predictor variables derived from Sentinel-2 satellite data. In particular, our approach employed random forest regression algorithms, integrating various remote sensing variables such as reflectance values, vegetation indices and optical traits derived from a radiative transfer model. We combined these forage characteristics with variables representing human activity, and applied integrated step selection functions to estimate sex-specific summer habitat selection of red deer in open habitats within and around the Swiss National Park , an alpine Strict Nature Reserve . Results The combination of vegetation indices and optical traits greatly improved predictive power in both the biomass (R 2 = 0.60, Root mean square error (RMSE) = 88.55 g/m 2 ) and relative nitrogen models (R 2 = 0.34, RMSE = 0.28%). Both female and male red deer selected more strongly for biomass (estimate = 0.672 ± 0.059 SE for normalised values for females, and 0.507 ± 0.061 for males) than relative nitrogen (estimate = 0.124 ± 0.062 for females, and 0.161 ± 0.061 for males, respectively). Females showed higher levels of use of the Swiss National Park. Conclusions Red deer in summer habitats select forage quantity over quality with little difference between sexes. Females respond more strongly to human activities and thus prefer the Swiss National Park. Our results demonstrate the capability of satellite data to estimate forage quality and quantity separately for movement ecology studies, going beyond the exclusive use of conventional vegetation indices. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40462-024-00521-6.

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Boost in Visitor Numbers Post COVID-19 Shutdown: Consequences for an Alpine National Park

Cited by 2 publications

References 30 publications

Effects of COVID-19 on Visitor Intentions to Attend Personal Interpretation Programs in the Provincial Parks of Alberta, Canada

Effects of COVID-19 on Visitor Intentions to Attend Personal Interpretation Programs in the Provincial Parks of Alberta, Canada

Remote sensing reveals the role of forage quality and quantity for summer habitat use in red deer

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