Linking visitor motivation with attitude towards management restrictions on use in a national park

Abstract

The increasing demand for visiting wilderness areas often requires management actions that both conserve the natural resources and ensure a high quality visitor experience. Many of the alpine national parks in southern Norway hold the last remaining populations of wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) in Europe. Therefore management needs more effective tools to reduce or remove recreational impact on wild reindeer populations. Management actions should also consult research-based knowledge on visitors. Therefore, this study explores the link between visitor motivations and their attitudes towards management actions on track-related -The strategy of 'area restriction' is highly controversial for local communities, due to their long tradition with subsistence harvesting, grazing and traditional agriculture; therefore such a strategy will receive only low approval among the locals and leave the management with low legitimacy at the local level.-The strategy of 'management of the track system' will affect most non-local visitors, but these visitors are more flexible in adapting to a new trail system in the area, or may shift to another area.-Visitors with strong place attachment, as well as wilderness seekers who desire solitude are difficult to influence with physical management actions.-A management strategy that will limit the area of use and behaviour of off-track visitors should include information about ecosystem vulnerability.4

Linking visitors’ spatial preferences to sustainable visitor management in a Norwegian national park

“…Our data confirms that the visitors to a national park do not form a homogeneous group (Fredman & Heberlein 2005;Gundersen et al 2015;Haukeland et al 2010). The findings suggest that segments vary with regard to how easily they could be influenced by management efforts to use fringe or less vulnerable areas.…”

“…The reasons for visiting a certain NP can be as diverse as the visitors themselves. They include individual factors (e. g. personality, preferences, attitudes, lifestyle, socio-demography), environmental or managerial factors (e. g. facilities, restrictions), and social factors (e. g. level of crowding, solitude, types of activities, accommodation) (Fredman & Heberlein 2005;Haukeland et al 2010;Gundersen et al 2015). Important environmental factors attracting visitors to NPs are the outdoor recreation opportunities, landscape and scenery, natural resources such as wildlife, and unspoilt nature (Haukeland et al 2010;Raadik et al 2010;Vistad & Vorkinn 2012).…”

Using crowdsourced spatial data from Flickr vs. PPGIS for understanding nature's contribution to people in Southern Norway

“…Data from PPGIS captured a higher diversity of values compared to Flickr, with domestic visitors appreciating cultural, hunting and fishing, and gathering values more than international visitors, who mapped more values related to recreation, wilderness and clean water. The attachment of different groups of people to a place can be key to understand nature qualities that need to be managed, and to discern management actions to avoid conflicts among users (Fagerholm et al, 2019; Gundersen, Mehmetoglu, Vistad, & Andersen, 2015). The difference in mapped NCP can also be indicative of more deeply rooted cultural differences, as determined, for example, by the country one resides in Brown et al (2015).…”

Motivation and Perception of Tourists as Push and Pull Factors to Visit National Park

“…Motivation appears when a person wants to fulfill the needs [15]. Motivation commonly related to Push-pull factors that affects visitors' behavior.…”