Developing a typology of sustainable protected area tourism products

ABSTRACT

Political, socio-economic and environmental changes are creating demands for protected areas (PAs) to fulfill a double mandate of both “protection” and “use”. An appropriate mix of tourism products in PAs could help fulfill those demands. The conceptual framework of the Product-based Typology for Nature-based Tourism (PTNT) was developed and tested to identify and monitor suitable tourism products and users. The typology was developed in a deductive approach and empirically tested for the first time in this study of Berchtesgaden National Park (Germany). Two methodological approaches are used: first, a demand-sided approach to the motives and activities of 1092 overnight visitors in a latent class analysis to identify six tourism product clusters. Second, several common sense supply-side-defined tourism products are identified and profiled. All products are described by the motivations and attitudes of their users towards the environment and to sustainable tourism. One product category of “structured ecotourism” is identified, which seems to have the highest potential to help PAs fulfill their double mandate. The results are used to discuss an adaptation of the PTNT for sustainable protected area tourism products. Greater market knowledge, and its skilled use, could help PA managements fulfill the double mandate of PAs.

发展可持续保护区旅游产品的类型

旅游产品的恰当组合有助于完成保护区保护和使用的双重任务。本文发展和测试自然旅游产品导向分类的概念框架以确定和监测适当的产品与用户。分类由归纳法发展并于德国国家公园以需求侧和供给侧两种方法首次实证检验。所有产品由用户对环境和可持续旅游的动机及态度描述。当中确定的结构性生态旅游类别似乎最有可能帮助保护区完成任务。结果用于讨论分类在保护区产品中的调整。更多市场知识及其熟练应用可帮助保护区管理层完成任务。

KEYWORDS:

• Nature-based tourism
• typology
• ecotourism, protected areas
• visitor segmentation

关键字:

• 自然旅游
• 类型学
• 生态旅游
• 保护区
• 游客划分

Acknowledgments

The authors like to thank the Berchtesgaden National Park authorities for supporting the visitor survey as well as students of the Würzburg University and the Department of Tourism of the Munich University of Applied Sciences for conducting interviews on-site. The authors also like to thank Susanne Becken for her valuable advice on earlier drafts of this paper, as well as the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project was partly funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety under the UFO-Plan [number 3512 87 0100].

Notes on contributors

Elias Butzmann

Elias Butzmann is a research assistant at the Department of Tourism of the Munich University of Applied Sciences and PhD student at Würzburg University, Germany. His main research interests include nature-based tourism, sustainable tourism and economic impacts of tourism.

Hubert Job

Dr Hubert Job is professor of Geography and holds the Chair for Geography and Regional Science, Würzburg University, Germany. His main area of scientific research is PAs, tourism and regional development. He is an elected member of the German Academy for Spatial Research and Planning and an appointed member of the German National Committee for the UNESCO programme on Man and the Biosphere.