Exploring the use of public participation GIS in transportation planning for tourism at a Nordic destination

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to showcase how Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) can be used to assist in collecting data of relevance for planning at a tourism destination in general and, specifically how PPGIS data can assist in the early stages of transportation planning. In this paper, we report on a PPGIS study in Sälenfjällen, the largest ski tourism destination in Sweden. Our analysis uses data from 162 visitors sampled on-site using online and paper-based questionnaires containing survey questions and mapping tasks. We use the survey and mapped results from Sälenfjällen to discuss the opportunities and challenges of using PGGIS for this planning purpose. We conclude that, despite of various challenges like low response rates and sampling issues, PPGIS provides the possibility to collect rich information in terms of survey results and mapped values. This is important in understanding a transportation challenge at the early stages of planning, namely the initiation stage. Our study adds to a growing literature exploring the use of PPGIS in the field of tourism and recreation. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first to use this approach in a tourism-transport context in a Nordic destination.