Visitors’ relations to recreational facilities and attractions in a large vulnerable mountain region in Norway: Unpacking the roles of tourists and locals

A growing number of research studies show increasing trends of visitation to vulnerable areas, which may have negative impacts on both the local ecosystem and people's nature experience. Most of the studies deal with visitor segmentation and that different group of visitors have different impacts on the environment. This study presents site-specific visitor data at entrance level (n = 28) to examine visitor's characteristics, volume, and potential environmental impact in a large mountain area (>8000 km²) that hosts the last populations of wild reindeer in Europe. To understand visitor behaviour and their impact on the reindeer we applied push-pull strategies for the visitors to the different entrances. Our results revealed that the entrances differed considerably regarding visitor characteristics and volume, and while some entrances are typical tourism places (pull strategies), others were dominated by locals and wilderness seekers (push strategies). Based on visitors' hike length and on-off trail behaviour, our results showed that the tourist entrances had a lower impact on the wild reindeer range than entrances predominantly used by locals or wilderness seekers. Tourist entrances were predominantly used by foreign and first-time visitors on day trips, who used designated facilities, and left a relatively small spatial footprint in the fringe of the study area. By contrast, local people and wilderness seekers often made multiple day trips and commonly used off-trail areas. Additionally, our study identified a very special case of mass tourism, to a spectacular cliff, that had emerged in the last decade due to the posting of photos on social media. In describing the diversity of entrances to a vulnerable area, we argue that there is a need for management strategies that treat each entrance as unique, and as requiring site-specific solutions that provide positive experiences for visitors while minimizing the impact on the natural environment.

Management implications

• •National park management is currently challenged by uncontrollable communications on social media

• •Numbers of visitors to iconic attractions can increase rapidly, and management actions often come long after such increases

• •A cycle of facilitation and increased visitor numbers at attractions often has major negative effects on visitor experiences

• •Management needs to treat each point of entrance as unique, with site-specific solutions

• •On-trail behaviour is susceptible to management through indirect measures

• •Off-trail behaviour challenges the use of indirect measures and direct measures are controversial due to common access rights