Hubert Job

Toward a product-based typology for nature-based tourism: a conceptual framework

The traditional view of nature-based tourists as a relatively homogeneous group has been questioned, and several scholars have suggested various segmentation typologies. This paper discusses market and industry changes and notes key trends, as Fordist tourist products have been replaced by post-Fordist and neo-Fordist products, with both McDonaldization and McDisneyization developments. A range of visitor-based typologies are reviewed, and the conflict between capturing the diversity of todays nature-based tourists while offering management bodies simple tools to segment visitors, identify core groups and improve their marketing is noted. In an attempt to overcome this conflict, the paper presents a conceptual framework which focuses on nature-based tourism products instead of tourist types, therefore incorporating aspects of both the demand and supply sides of the nature-based tourism industry market. A two-dimensional matrix is suggested, linking four basic travel motivations (nature conservation, nature experience, sports/adventure and hedonistic) to four different types of tourist products (independent, à la carte, customized and standardized), giving a total typology of 16 different types. The matrix should help protected area managers to better understand tourist needs, suggest management measures and help to create more sustainable forms of tourism. Empirical testing is suggested as a next step.

Protected Areas in an era of global–local change

This review article advances debate and research on the global–local nexus that shapes, and increasingly determines, the existence of Protected Areas (PAs) and their function as areas of high conservation value as well as tourism destinations. The demands on PAs have grown from an initial focus on facilitating recreation experiences and species and habitat protection, to more inclusive and participatory approaches that seek to safeguard ecological services whilst also supporting regional and national livelihoods. We propose that the simultaneous analysis of global and local drivers of change will generate a deeper understanding of impact processes and response implications. To this end, a draft framework for better understanding the global–local nexus of PAs is developed and tested through a Delphi sketching approach to 20 experts in least developed, newly industrialised and developed countries. Key challenges, implications and opportunities for PA management and governance, and for tourism development at local and global levels (and their interactions), are discussed in follow-up papers to this review, including research priority areas, the measurement of tourism numbers, economic impact modelling, private PAs, the changing roles of zoning, the need for flexible, inclusive and accountable governance structures, and for better understanding of tourist behavioural change mechanisms.

Welche Nationalparke braucht Deutschland

ZusammenfassungNationalparke stellen die weltweit älteste und bekannteste Flächenschutzkategorie dar. Sie haben eine bipolare Aufgabenstellung. Im Vordergrund steht der für die Fachplanung Naturschutz relativ junge Prozessschutz. Für das eine lange Kulturlandschaftsgeschichte und vergleichsweise hohe Besiedlungsdichte aufweisende Mitteleuropa ist er wegen der Landnutzungskonkurrenzen und raumfunktionalen Konflikte schwierig umzusetzen. Daneben dienen Nationalparke dem Naturtourismus. Wie sonst soll die „Wildnis“-Idee den Menschen nahegebracht werden? Nationalparke stellen für periphere, strukturschwache ländliche Räume potenzielle Motoren einer endogenen Regionalentwicklung dar. Diese basiert vor allem auf dem wirtschaftlich komplex vernetzten Naherholungs- und Fremdenverkehr – in Zukunft mehr noch als heute. Denn der demographische Wandel wird dort zu erheblichen Bevölkerungsverlusten führen. Chancen eröffnen sich gerade in dünn besiedelten Regionen. Dort sollten Raumplanungsinstitutionen proaktiv mit dieser Thematik umgehen und somit helfen, langfristig regionale Identitäten neu zu schaffen. Um die derzeit bestehenden Lücken bei Moorlandschaften, Fließgewässern und Auen, Buchen- und Mischwaldgesellschaften sowie auf offener See hin zu einer repräsentativen Abdeckung der mitteleuropäischen Naturräume zu schließen, wird die Zahl von maximal 20 Nationalparke in Deutschland als Richtwert erachtet. Insbesondere größere zusammenhängende Waldgebiete und ehemalige Truppenübungsplätze stellen Potenzialräume für künftige Nationalparke dar. Sowohl aus naturschutzfachlicher Sicht als auch aus Perspektive des Besuchermanagements sollten bestehende und künftige Nationalparke unbedingt größer als 10.000 ha sein.AbstractNational parks are the oldest and most popular category of protected areas worldwide. They focus on two main issues: firstly the protection of nature, undisturbed natural processes and the conservation of biodiversity. Due to the long history of cultural landscapes and the comparably dense population of Central Europe multifold conflicts in land use evolve. Therefore this target is difficult to achieve. Secondly nature tourism is a goal of national parks – last not least to make the idea of wilderness tangible. Being situated in structural weak regions of the rural periphery, national parks can be seen as instruments for regional development. Outdoor recreation and tourism offer this possibility, especially in sparsely settled regions with further declining population figures. Spatial planning institutions should care for this development, thus creating new regional identities in lagging areas in the long run. 20 national parks are claimed to be sufficient for Germany. They are to fill the blank gaps on a representative map of Central Europe’s biomes, including moorlands, riverine forests, beech- and mixed deciduous forests as well as marine environments. Especially large interconnected woodlands and former military training areas offer possibilities for future declarations of national parks. In order to fulfill the requirements of nature protection and visitor management national parks should cover an area of at least 10,000 ha.

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.

Wie viel Natur darf sein? Schutzgebietskonzepte im Wandel der Zeit

Natur ist unberechenbar. Für den einen ist das eine Verheißung, für den anderen nahezu eine Bedrohung. Wie sehr Natur heute noch bzw. wieder Natur sein darf, ist eine raumwissenschaftlich spannende, äußerst umstrittene Frage. Sie wird in Deutschland derzeit am heftigsten in RheinlandPfalz und Baden-Württemberg, den beiden einzigen Flächenländern, die bislang noch keinen Nationalpark haben, kontrovers debattiert. Dort toben wahre Kulturkämpfe um den Sehnsuchtsort der Deutschen, ihren Wald. Im Nordschwarzwald, wo es um die intendierte Unterschutzstellung und damit verbundene Hiebsruhe von gerade einmal 0,7 % der Waldfläche im „Ländle“ geht, ist der Streit so verbittert, dass der Berufsstand der Mediatoren Hochkonjunktur hat. Gegen die tradierte Wahrnehmung der Einheimischen, gegen die Urangst, sich Gestaltungsspielräume nehmen zu lassen, und gegen befürchtete, mitunter zu Naturkatastrophen hochgespielte Entwicklungen wie die berüchtigten Borkenkäferkalamitäten, kommen Ökosystemleistungs-Argumente schwerlich an. Der Erhalt von Biodiversität, die Kohlendioxid-Speicherfunktion oder die Möglichkeiten der Regionalentwicklung durch den Naturtourismus geraten dabei ins Hintertreffen.

Protected Areas in a neoliberal world and the role of tourism in supporting conservation and sustainable development: an assessment of strategic planning, zoning, impact monitoring, and tourism management at natural World Heritage Sites

ABSTRACT Societies collapse when there is an increasing natural resource scarcity and growing stratification of society into rich and poor. The neoliberal world of targets, business plans and short term economic justification in which we live exacerbates these risks to society. It is imperative to find new ways of governing natural ecosystems that protect them from these risks and allows usage that helps close the development gap. Tourism in Protected Areas (PAs) is one important vehicle to achieve sustainable conservation and development outcomes. This paper highlights that the increasing focus on promoting human activity, especially tourism, in and around PAs is increasingly enshrined in the mandate and governance structures of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation natural World Heritage Sites and Biosphere Reserves. It reviews strategic planning, zoning, impact monitoring, and tourism management by analysing all 229 natural World Heritage Sites, revealing that both overall strategic planning and tourism planning in these sites need improvements, notably through more consistent monitoring systems. The paper concludes by exploring the benefits of embedding World Heritage Sites into Biosphere Reserves, with a particular focus on core zoning, regional product development, and improved monitoring standards, and suggests ways to disseminate good practice worldwide to all types of PAs.

Protected areas and population development in the Alps

Nearly a quarter of the Alpine area is covered by a dense network of large protected areas (LPAs) of the four categories national park (NP), biosphere reserve (BR), nature park and world natural heritage site (WNHS). From the time of early industrialization, the Alpine area has undergone a mixed and increasingly polarized demographic development between the poles of immigration and emigration. This article investigates the possible mutual impact of population development and the existence of LPAs. The research design includes a quantitative survey of all Alpine LPAs in terms of their population development and the structure of immigration in the first decade of the 21st century. This will be linked with qualitative expert interviews in four selected NPs. The overall results allow an interpretation of the statistical correlations between type of LPA and migration.

An interview with a protected area insider

Barbara Engels (BE): As the Secretariat of the World Heritage Convention, UNESCO ensures the day-today management of the Convention, the World Heritage Centre in Paris, organizes the annual sessions of the World Heritage Committee and its Bureau, provides advice to States Parties on the preparation of site nominations, organizes international assistance from the World Heritage Fund upon request, and coordinates both the reporting on the condition of sites and the emergency action undertaken when a site is threatened. The Centre also organizes technical seminars and workshops, updates the World Heritage List and database, develops teaching materials to raise awareness among young people of the need for heritage preservation, and keeps the public informed of World Heritage issues. At present, around 30 fixed term staff are posted to the World Heritage Centre. For BRs, some 10 fixed term staff are posted to UNESCO headquarters. Given the different procedures under both the WH Convention and the Man and Biosphere (MAB) programme, a comparison of staff and workload is not easily possible. However, the implementation of the Convention and the programme are not only handled within the UNESCO. On a national level the WHSs and BRs are supported by national ministries, protected area agencies, civil society organizations, National UNESCO Commissions, and National MAB Committees. Furthermore, UNESCO offices as well as International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) offices all around the world provide support to both WHSs and BRs. It is also to be noted that the World Heritage Convention has three international Advisory bodies: IUCN, ICOMOS (International Council of Monuments and Sites), and ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property). These organizations play an important role in the evaluation of nominations and the monitoring processes of the Convention.

Die Trierer Absolventenbefragung

Das Stichwort “Evaluation” spielt sowohl in der Diskussion um eine notwendige Hochschulreform im allgemeinen als auch in derjenigen um die Zukunft der Geographieausbildung im besonderen eine zunehmende Rolle. Spezielle Untersuchungen zur Übergangsphase vom Studium in den Beruf oder zu zentralen Erfolgsfaktoren bei den Stellenbesetzungen liegen bisher nur vereinzelt vor. Die Ergebnisse einer aktuellen Absolventenbefragung an der Universität Trier – eine der größten Ausbildungsstätten von Dipl.-Geographen in Deutschland – bringen ein wenig Licht in die Ungewissheit geographischer Berufsfelder und begründen einmal mehr die Notwendigkeit eines kontinuierlichen Monitorings in diesem Bereich.