CHAPTER 8:

Managing Visitor
Impacts
ENVI 102: Ethics and Sustainable Tourism
  Explain why visitor have to be managed;
 Explain the concept of carrying capacity and why it is
needed in managing visitors;

Lesson  Enumerate and explain the various instruments for

managing visitor impacts;
Outcomes:  Explain various frameworks for analyzing tourism
impacts; and
 Identify ways by which visitor impacts on destination
my be minimized.
  To protect the tourists and the other around them to
derive the utmost satisfaction from their tourism
experience;
The  Discover facts that make them appreciate the
Importance attractions;
of Managing  Protect the property or area they are in, maintain the
quality of cleanliness at hotels
Visitors  Be able to save energy
 Prevent animals from losing their wild traits etc.
  “the maximum number of people that may visit a
tourist destination at the same time, without causing
Carrying destruction of the physical, economic, and socio-
cultural environment and an unacceptable decrease
Capacity in the quality of visitors’ satisfaction”
 (European Commission 2012)
  Environmental, physical and perceptual or
Types of psychological (Pearce 1989 in EC 2002)

Carrying  The differences are determined by the type

(characteristics/particularities) of the place, the
Capacity type(s) of tourism present, and the tourism
environment interface.
Institutional
Tools for  Natura 2000
Implementi  Habitat Directive
ng Tourism  The International Council of Museum

Carrying  The International Union for the Conservative of Nature

(IUN)
Capacity
(TCC)
  “process that involves predicting and evaluating the
likely impacts of a project (including cumulative
Environmen impacts) on the environment during construction,
commissioning, operation and abandonment. It also
tal Impact includes designing appropriate preventive, mitigating
Assessment and enhancement measures addressing these
consequences to protect the environment and the
community’s welfare.”
Recreation  ROS is simply the range of recreational activities that
Opportunity can be done in a recreation setting. Recreation
opportunity setting is defined as “the combination of
Spectrum physical, biological, social and managerial conditions
that give value to a place.
(ROS)
 1. Traffic control through pedestrianization;

Other 2. Parking pricing strategy that discourages parking in the city

center;
strategies 3. Collecting entrance fee at attractions;

that can be 4. Conserving old buildings by imposing strict design control on

commercial development;
used to 5. Charging environmental fees;

control 6. Reservation and booking systems to control the volume of visitors

to an attraction
tourism 7. Information dissemination on websites regarding congestion,
peaks, and traffic, etc. to help tourists to avoid visiting
impacts in overcrowded places;

city centers 8. Training local planners and managers in the use of various
techniques; and
are: 9. Marketing and communication strategy to pursue certain market
segments during periods when there is available carrying capacity.
 1. Facility design
2. Use of vegetation barriers
3. Site hardening
4. Closure of facilities

Site 5. Rationing and allocation, such as through

reservation, queuing, lotteries, eligibility
Manageme requirements, and pricing

nt 6. Regulating the number of people, locations for

visits, time of visits, activity, visitor behavior, or
Techniques equipment.
7. Deterrence and enforcement, through signs,
sanctions and personnel.
8. Visitor education to promote appropriate behavior,
encourage or discourage certain type of use, or
provide information regarding use condition
 1. Seasonal of temporal limits on use: limiting visiting times and
restricting car parking, accommodation facilities, or public transport;
2. Regulating group size and providing guided tours that allow more
control;
Manageme 3. Restricting visitor behavior: specifying routes to prevent visitors from
trampling vegetation or disturbing animals, and minimizing noise and
nt Options use of light at night when visiting turtle nesting beaches;

to 4. Zoning: closing certain areas to visitor, or reducing visits to

ecologically important areas;

Minimizing 5. Increasing entrance fees at peak periods or to popular areas;

6. Constructing facilities (boardwalks, overlooks, hides, pontoons) and
Visitor trails that allow visitors to enjoy without disturbing wildlife;

Impacts 7. Providing garbage bins to discourage littering;

8. Educating visitors through visitor guidelines, codes of conduct,
information boards, etc.; and
9. Increased guide training to increase visitor education and monitor
visitor behavior
 Criteria for Decision-Making
1. Does the strategy adequately address the root cause of the
impact?
2. How effective is it in resolving the impact?
3. Will it not create new problems?
4. Is it subtle or obtrusive in terms of visitors being aware that
Monitoring they are being managed?

Impacts 5. Is it direct or indirect in how it impacts or influences visitor

behavior?
6. Does it preserve the visitor’s freedom of choice?
7. How many visitors will be affected by it?
8. Does it affect an activity that is very important to some visitors?
9. Are visitors likely to resist it?
10. How much will it costs?
 The following are steps involved in this method
1. Determine the audiences for monitoring information
2. Determine the information needed based on project
objectives

Alternative 3. Design a monitoring strategy for each information

need.
Approaches 4. Develop one or more indicators for each
to information need.

Monitoring 5. Apply and modify the indicators needed.

Tourism 6. Determine methods of measuring indicators by

using four selection criteria: accuracy/reliability,
Impacts cost-effectiveness, feasibility, and appropriateness.
7. Develop an operational plan for applying the
methods by listing the tasks needed to be done,
identifying people who will be responsible for
carrying out those tasks, and monitoring the sites,
and a timeline for carrying out the plan.
 1. Regulatory and Planning Tools
2. Site Design and Sustainable Infrastructure
Development
Tourism and 3. Sustainable Transportation and Travel Patterns
Visitor 4. Law Enforcement
Manageme 5. Economic and Marketing Tools
nt Tools 6. Marketing and Communications
7. Use of Technologies
8. Education and Interpretation
 1. Use rationing
1. Reservation system
2. Lotteries
3. First-come, first-serve or queuing
4. Pricing
1. Regulato 5. merit
ry and 2. Rules and regulations
Planning 1.
2.
Group size limits
Assigned camp sites or travel itineraries
Tools 3. Area closures
4. Length of stay limitations
5. Restrictions or prohibitions on high-impact activities
and behaviors

3. zoning
2. Site 1. Adopt an ecosystem-based approach in tourism
Design and development planning

Sustainable 2. Manage impacts on biodiversity from hotel

development and attempt to achieve an overall
Tourism positive contribution
Infrastructur 3. Design with nature and adopt nature-based
solutions
e
4. Respect, involve, and support local communities
Developme 5. Build collaboration among stakeholder
nt
3.
Sustainable
Transportati  Improved public transit access, biking trails,
thoughtful signage, and park trolley systems.
on and  Example: Park and Cycle Program in Ottawa, Canada.

Travel
Patterns
4. Law 1. Soft enforcement includes facility design and
Enforcemen signage or the visibility of a security officer.

t 2. Hard enforcement includes issuance of citations,

fines, and arrests.
5. Economic
and  Differential pricing can be used to prevent negative
impacts at certain locations.
Marketing
Tools
6. Marketing  This can also be employed to promote the benefits of
going to a tourist site. For example, Parks Victoria
and agency collaborated with healthcare professions to
promote their Health Parks, Health People campaign,
Communicati where doctors prescribed a visit to a park to patients
ons to improve their health.
7. Use of  A major area of technology application facility is
design which increasingly incorporates eco-friendly
Technologie and sustainability concepts.

s  Technology is also used in managing visitor flow.

8.
Education  Interpretation was defined by Tilden (1957) as an
education activity that aims to reveal meaning and
and relationships through the use of firsthand experience
and illustrative media, rather than the communication
Interpretati of factual information.

on
Discussion  Why should visitors be managed at destinations? In
what ways do visitors impact destinations?
Question