MODULE SUSTAINABLE TOURISM & HOSPITALITY ASSESSMENT & DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 8

Managing Visitor Impact

Introduction

Much of the impacts of tourist on destination are brought about by people through their
presence, activities, and behavior. Being able to control the volume, timing and
seasonality of tourist can affect the nature of tourism outcome

Lesson Outcomes

1. Explain why visitors have to be managed

2. Explain the concept of carrying capacity and why it of needed on managing
visitor impact
3. Enumerate and explain the various instrumental for managing visitor impact
4. Explain various frameworks for analysing tourism impact
5. Identify ways by which visitor impacts on destination may be minimized.
The Importance of managing visitor

There are a number of reasons why it is important to manage visitor action and activities
at parks, hotels restaurant, resort and other tourism-related establishments.

These are to project the tourists and the other around them for them to derive the
utmost satisfaction from their tourism experience

Carrying Capacity

A starting point visitor impact is to establish carrying capacity of a given place. There
are many definition of carrying capacity.

For the purpose of this discussion, we will adopt the UNWTO definition “the maximum
number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time, without causing
people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time, without causing destruction
of the physical, economics and economics and socio-cultural environment and an

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unacceptable decrease in the quality if visitor satisfaction (European Commission EU

2002).

There are three types of carrying capacity-Environmental, Physical and perceptual

or psychological (Pearce 1989 in EC 2002)

The differences are determined by the type of the place, the type(s) of tourism present
and the tourism environment interface.

The characteristic of the place provide the foundation for the development of tourism.
These refer to local resources, the vulnerability of local natural ecosystem, population
size, economics structure, culture and local heritage.

The types of tourism determine tourist behavior to some extent; it also affects the
relationship between the tourists and the local community.

The definition, assessment and implementation of tourism capacity should complement

the overall tourism.

Defining the TCC could start with an initial set of indicators, which could change with
time. TCC is tools for guiding policy formulation and implementation

Alternative concepts to TCC have been suggested, such as management-by-objective

(MBO), visitor impact management, limit of acceptable change and visitor experience
resources.

Institutional Tools for Implementation Tourism Carrying Capacity.

For Nature Protection

1. Natura 2002 covers 18% of the European Union (EU) land areas. It is a network
of nature preserves. The network encompasses lands that have threatened
landscapes and endangered species. Natura 2000 protects mixed forest in
Romania, heathland in Germany, bogs in Sweden, and desert-like vegetation in
Spain, among other landscapes and marine areas.

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2. Habitant directive in a EU directive adopted in 1992 in response to 1982 Berve

Convention on the conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitat or
Berne Convention.
3. The International Council of Museum (ICOM) Red List classifies endangered
categories of archaeological object and works of art in the most vulnerable
countries to prevent the sale or illegal export such object.
4. The International Union for the conservation of nature (IUCN) red list of threated
species, established in 1964, is an inventory of thousands of threated and
endangered species and subspecies. These classes are.
a. Extinct
b. Extinct in the wild
c. Critical endangered
d. Endangered
e. Endangered
f. Endanger
g. Vulnerable
h. Neat threatened
i. Least concern
j. Data deficient
k. Not evaluated
According to the Department of Environment Natural Resources, the Philippines in 2011
has the following critical endangered species of animals based on the IUCN criteria

 Population reduction of at least 50% over last 10 years or generation

 Extend of occurrences less than 5,000 square kilometres or occupancy to be
less than 500 square kilometre
 Population of less than 2,500 mature individual
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a tool for evaluation the potentials impact of
tourist in given area.

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Management Tools for Implementing Tourism Carrying Capacity

Zoning is applied mainly on protected

area. There could be four zone;

Zone A- refer to the most valuable and

vulnerable zone; entry is limited to
authorized scientific teams

1. Zone B- for highly sensitive zone;

escorted visit in small group are permitted
2. Zone C- is Zone of considerable
natural interest; some traditional tourism
could be permitted but car access in
limited
3. Zone d- for are with mild
development with mild and buffer; they are
compatible with tourism and visitor
facilities, car access, parking and
compatible activities
Recreation Opportunity

For zoning, Recreation Opportunity

Spectrum (ROS) (Clark & Stankey 1997)
can be used as a framework for analysis.
ROS is simply the rang of recreation
activities that can be done in a recreation
setting

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ROS, as Framework can be used to address these four major concern.

1. Allocation and planning recreational resources

2. Inventorying recreation resources
3. Estimating the consequences of management decision on recreational
opportunities
4. Matching experience desired by recreationist with available opportunities
ROS can help determined the types of recreation opportunities that should be provided.
Three related concepts are useful in making such decision

1. The relative availability of different opportunity

2. Their reproducibility of supply is determined and reversibility
3. Their spatial distribution
Dispersal can be implemented through product development or introducing new
attraction around the city. In Puerto Princesa, new tourism circuit new brrn promoted to
ease the pressure on the very popular Underground River.

On the other hand concentrating tourism development in certain areas has the
advantages of confining the negative impact only what Hall and Lew (2010) called as
the “sacrificial Place.”

Other strategies that can be used to control tourist impact in city center are:

1. Traffic control through pedestrianization

2. Parking pricing strategy that discourage parking in the city center
3. Collecting entrance fee at attraction
4. Conserving old building by imposing strict design control on commercial
development
5. Charging environment fee, such as the practice in Boracay

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Site Management Technique

Specific management tactic can be used to control tourists’ impact on sites. They are as
follow (NOAA n.d)

1. Facility Design
2. Use if vegetation barrier
3. Site hardening
4. Closure of facilities
5. Rationing and allocation, such as through, reservation, queuing, lotteries,
eligibilities requirements and pricing.
Management Options to Minimizing Visitor Impacts

There are several measures that can be used to reduce visitor impact such as:

1. Seasonal or temporal limit on use: limiting visiting times and restricting car
parking, accommodation facilities or public transport
2. Regulating group size and providing guided tours that allow for more control
3. Restricting visitor behaviour: specific routes to prevent visitors from trampling
vegetation or disturbing animals and minimizing noise and use of light at night
when visiting turtle nesting beaches.
4. Zoning: closing certain areas to visitors or reducing visit to ecologically important
area.
5. Increasing entrance free to visitor or reducing visit to ecologically
Monitoring Impacts

Managing an attraction require monitoring of visitor number, set indicator, visitor

behavior, etc.

The purpose of monitoring is to determine whether a problem is developing, or what

desired standard are being complied with.

Monitoring provides the basis for management interventions.

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Criteria for Decision Making

Tourism planner and manager should evaluate which tactic to use by asking the
following (NOAA n.d.)

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 problem
4. It is subtle or obstructive in terms of visitor being aware that they are being
managed?
5. It is direct or indirect in how it impact or influences visitor bahavior?
Limit acceptable change

The limit of acceptable change (LAC) is an alternative to tourism carrying capacity. LAC
is basically stakeholder-defined.

The LAC process involve the following steps (NOAA n.d)

1. Identify the concerns and issues for the area by discussing the site unique
values, attraction, opportunities threats and problem with stakeholder. This
process helps in creating ownership and commitment by the stakeholders.
2. Define and describe tourism opportunities by taking talking note of compatible or
conflicting activates with residential use and locating those activities to specific
sites or zones.
3. Select indicators that reflect the parameters that are of greatest relevance at a
given site in a given zone.
In selecting the indicator the following concerns must be addressed adequately:

A. Does the indicator tell us what we want to know?

B. Foes it relate directly to an important resources, social or economic condition
C. Can it be measured easily and inexpensively
D. Can it alert manager to a deteriorating condition before it reaches an
unacceptable level
E. Can it be measured w/o affecting the quality of the visitor experience

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F. Will it provide information it a time and cost-effective manner

G. Who is going to carry out the monitoring?
4. Establish baseline data by assessing current condition of the site for each
indicator
5. Establish standard for each indicator which should set some limits of acceptable
change,
6. Determine appropriate action when a standard has been breached.
7. Monitor condition and implement action to be closed entirely
Alternative approaches to Monitoring Tourism Impacts

There are two other approaches to monitoring tourism impact, the measure to
success method and the Threat Reduction Assessment

Measure of Success- applies the concept of adaptive management and integrates into
the project cycle

The following are step involved in this method:

1. Determine the audience for monitoring information

2. Determine the information needed based on project objective
3. Design a monitoring strategy for each information needed
4. Develop one or more indicator for each information needed
5. Apply and modify the indicator as needed
6. Determine method of measuring indicators by using four selection criteria:
criteria: accuracy/reliability, cost-effectiveness, feasibility and appropriateness
7. Develop an operation plan for applying the method by listing the task needed to
be done, identifying people which will be responsible for carrying out theses and
monitoring the site and timeline for carrying out the plan
Threat Reduction Assessment approach-identifies and monitor threat to assess the
degree to which project activities are reducing the threat and achieve success. The
process involves steps (NOAA n.d)”

1. Define the project spatially and spatially and temporally

2. Make a list all direct threat to the biodiversity at the project site at the start date

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3. Rank each threat based on three criteria :area, intensity and urgency
4. Add up score for each threat has been reduced by management activities
5. Determine the degree to which each threat has been reduced by management
activities
6. Calculate the raw score for each threat
7. Calculate the threat reduction index score. It is advisable to enjoin community
member in the assessment so they actively participate in future mitigation
activities
Determinants of Tourist Behavior

Besides previously discussed management intervention, Roura (n.d) notes that

tourist behavior is also influenced by whether tourism is land-based or ship-based and
by site-specific characteristics.

Citing tourism in Antarctica Roira (n.d.) observes that land-based tourist tend to engage
in walking around, sightseeing, talking photography, kayaking and overnight camping.

Community and Habitual Behavior

Hughes, Ham and Brown (2009) observed that highly experience travelers who
developed certain habits are not readily influenced by persuasive communication.

For this types travelers, a more complex approach will be needed entailing the
provision of incentive, disincentive, rewards, punishment, or even direct intervention like
patrolling and enforcing policy violation.

Community0based campaign of education could be considered.

Tourism and Visitor Management Tools

The international Union for the Conservation of Nature (2014) summarized the whole
gamut of visitor management tools into the following:

1. Regulatory and planning tools

2. Site design and sustainable infrastructure development
3. Sustainable transportation and travel and travel patterns

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4. Law enforcement
5. Economics and marketing tools
6. Marketing and communications
7. Use of technologies
8. Education and interpretation
Regulatory and planning Tools

This class the management tools include:

1. Use rationing
2. Rules and regulation
3. Zoning
Use rationing, as a last resort, may be needed at some location at certain times to
protect important park resources and the quality of visitor experience.

The main tactic for us rationing are:

1. Reservation system
2. Lotteries
3. First-come, first-served or queuing
4. Pricing
5. Merit
Common application of rules and regulation in tourism and outdoor recreation
include:

1. Group size limit

2. Assigned campsite or outdoor itineraries
3. Areas closures
4. Length of stay limitation
5. Restriction or prohibition on high activities and behaviour

Site Design and Sustainable Tourism Infrastructure development

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Where and how facilities and infrastructure are built affect a tourist site’s appeal.
Views, natural hazard tradition activities, transportation access for staff and tourist,
climate, slope access to natural and cultural to natural and cultural feature, energy and
housing are some for the critical factor that need to be considered in site planning.

The IUCN Biodiversity Principles fir sitting and design of hotels and resort are as
follow.

1. Adopt an ecosystem-based approach in tourism development planning

2. Manage impact on biodiversity from hotel development and attempt to
achieve an overall nature positive contribution
3. Design with nature and adopt nature-based solution
4. Respect, involve and support local communities
5. Build collaboration among stakeholder
Tourist infrastructures refer to interpretation centers, washroom facilities,
hotels, cabins and campground, restaurant, parking lots, trailhead etc.

Sustainable tourism infrastructure- is adapted to local ecosystem and local

culture.

The general guideline for sustainable tourist infrastructure includes but

not limited to:

1. Choose materials based on sources that minimize damage and exhibit

properties such as durability, recyclability, availability, and sustainability.
2. Incorporation design that is in keeping with the local cultural landscape
3. Take advantages of climate of climate conditions for cooling, energy and
other needs.
4. Use native plant species for landscaping and nature insect control
5. To reduce or eliminate visitation to a park or site experiencing negative
impacts, moratoriums on new developments or the removal of existing
infrastructure may be warranted.

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Handling congestion

The United State National Park Service (USNPS) (2014) recommending the
following categories of solution to congestion problems

1. Additional Capacity (AC)- focuses on creating more capacity in the system,

such as crating more parking space, adding additional travel lane, this
approach of one of the most costly, lengthy, and difficult solution.
2. Electronic System (ES)- often referred to as “intelligent” system or
intelligent transportation system that collect information and present
information to travellers, through dynamic message signs or other visitor
notification methods
3. Public transportation (PT)- often refer to as a “shuttle” or “bus” service; they
include putting people on a van, bus, tram or other higher-capacity vehicle to
get them to a destination(s).
4. Traffic Operation Improvements (TOI)-may include static signage that
improves “way finding” so that visitor find their destinations more quickly,
adding a turn lane to reduce traffic conflicts or reducing or increasing limit
roadways.
5. Visitor Demand Management (VDM)-influence the choice that visitor make
about how, when, whether, and which way they travel to their destination.
Law enforcement

Law enforcement can be categorized into soft and hard. Soft enforcement
include facility design and signage or the visibility of a security officer. Conveying rules
to the public and the reason for the existence of rules and the penalty for con-
compliance are part of soft enforcement tactic.

Soft enforcement is also known as indirect measure. Beside signage interpretive

messages can be used to positively influence visitor behavior (Marlon and Reid 2012).
Another type of indirect measure is codes of practice, policies, and collaborating with
outside agencies, which can influence development and construction; visitor use
numbers and restrict certain activities to maximize safety (Eagles et al. 2002).

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Economics and Marketing Tools

Differential pricing can be used to prevent negative impact at certain location. A

campground on a scenic river site might be more expensive than other located in sites
without good views.

Charging higher prices during peaks season may reduce crowding. Pricing must
also consider equity issues as disadvantages group or local stakeholders need to have
continued access to tourist site, such as national parks.

Marketing and Communication

Marketing and communication can also be employed to promote the benefits of

going to a tourist site.

People campaign, where doctor prescribed a visit to a park to patient to improve their
health.

Facility signage, website, newsletter, and brochures are some of the most
common communication tools directed to visitor or tourist.

Most hotels nowadays, put signs in the bathroom enjoying guest to reuse their
towers and bed line.

Use of Technologies

A major area of technologies application facility design which increasingly

incorporate eco-friendly and sustainability concepts.

Green building design concepts include the use of natural ventilation system,
window that allow additional circulation, and natural lighting

Use of the solar panel, energy-efficient light bulbs, heat pump that extracts heat
from the ocean to heat the center and hot water tank.

Satellite navigation and communication and technology, including a

GIS(Geographic Information System), RS( Remote System, GPS/CNSS (Global

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Positioning System/Compass Navigation Satellite System, RFID Radio Frequency

Identification, EB (Electronic Business/Commerce), VR (Virtual Reality) are also used in
parks and other tourism business operation.

Education and Interpretation

Education and Interpretation programmers facilitate the appreciation of nature

and unique culture help develop positive attitude toward conservation. They are also
valuable for addressing visitor impact.

Interpretation was defined by Tilden (1957) as an educational activity that aims to

reveal meaning and relationship through the use of firsthand experience and illustrative
media, rather than the communication of factual information.

In choosing visitor management tools, tourism planners and developers should follow
these guideline:

1. Understand what values you are planning to protect, prior to selecting a visitor
management tools.
2. Understand the operational context in which the visitor management tools would
be applied to determine if that tool would be appropriate
3. Establish a consistent planning framework for selecting visitor management tools
4. Develop and consistently use a mechanism for evaluating and justifying the use
of particular visor management tools
5. Continually search for new approach to visitor tools
6. Consider how the approach will impact equity, effectiveness and efficiency
7. Infrastructure development and site design must be guided by the physical and
cultural aspect of the local environment and tradition
8. Infrastructure development must incorporate sustainable building approach
9. Sustainable transportation should be encourage through policies
10. Enforcement of regulation and law should be commensurate with the level of
infraction committed by visitor and tourism operators and must balance safety
and rule compliance with visitor enjoyment

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11. Use fee pricing entry related economic tools to manage the type and timing of
visitation
12. Use in differential entry fee pricing to ensure access to disadvantages groups
and maximize revenue form visitor who can afford to pay higher fee
13. Achieve a strong understanding of your different constituent prior to marketing
strategies
14. Develop consistent, unique message for different constituent groups.

Chapter 8 pp 157-175, Tourism Impact and Tourism Sustainability-Cruz, 1st edition, Rex Store
published 2016
1https://youtu.be/pv5z68mFV2M

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