Policies, methods and tools for visitor management proceedings of the second International Conference on Monitoring and Management of Visitor Flows in Recreational and Protected Areas, June 16 20, 2004, Rovaniemi, Finland

Abstract

The second International Conference on Monitoring and Management of Visitor Flows in recreational and protected areas (MMV 2) -conference provided a forum for research presentations and for exchange of information and experience of managerial policies, problems, practices and solutions regarding issues related to monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas. These proceedings cover ten research topics, which were chosen to reflect current on-going research work internationally in the field of visitor monitoring and management. Monitoring visitor flows and also other types of recreational inventories are discussed in 16 articles and four posters on visitor monitoring methods, experiences of national, regional and on-site visitor inventories and visitor flow modeling and data management. Nineteen papers and three posters are discussing visitor management research from several perspectives. Articles related to issues of visitor conflicts, implementation of visitor information in management processes, different aspects of sustainability and carrying capacity issues in recreational settings make the largest group of papers. The third major subject group of articles (16) deal with visitor management policy issues, and nature tourism policies in recreational and protected areas. The last topics include economic and social impacts of recreation and nature tourism in the surroundings communities, regions and countries.