Visitor management is a key tool in improving the recreational carrying capacity of the Nordic national parks, in light of the challenges presented by growing visitor numbers and new types of visitor behaviour. A more strategic and collaborative approach to visitor management can help protect and develop national parks and their local communities in both an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable way. This publication offers Nordic national park managers and national park authorities inspiration on how to improve their visitor management. It contains a collection of examples of what other national parks, within as well as outside of the Nordic countries, have done to improve their visitor management and suggests overall recommendations on how to create better visitor management within a Nordic framework. The publication is the result of a project supported by The Nordic Council of Ministers’ Terrestrial Ecosystem Group (TEG) and carried out in a partnership consisting of Thingvellir National Park in Iceland, Jotunheimen National Park in Norway and The Wadden Sea National Park in Denmark, with BARK Rådgivning as project manager.

Diploma Thesis from the year 2001 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: Good, Klagenfurt University (OPM (Organisations-, Personal- und Managemententwicklung)), language: English, abstract: 1 Introduction „In order to sustain our global environment and improve the quality of living in our human settlements, we commit ourselves to sustainable patterns of production, consumption, transportation and settlement development, pollution prevention, respect for the carrying capacity of eco-systems, and the preservation of opportunities for future generations“(1) (Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements, June 1996). National Parks in the United States and almost all over the world are being subjected to a paradigm shift in park conservation and management. In the early years of National Parks, conservation strategies and management actions were based on a belief that parks were static landscapes, isolated from human activities and adjacent lands, and that they were meant solely for the pleasure of visitors. Attempts to resolve system dysfunctions - wrought by erroneous views and the consequences of subsequent management policies, such as predator removal and fire suppression - were approached one species at a time. Today, this paradigm is slowly shifting to a knowledge-based understanding of ecosystems as es now recognize the need to include people as part of the system and to address causes, rather than symptoms, of system dysfunction by managing whole ecosystems, not just single species. However, National Park Management is not just limited to conservation strategies. National Park Management includes a widespread variety of management activities such as the most essential activities like park system planning, land protection, natural resource management (biological resource management, fire management, water resource management, air resource management, geologic resource management, soundscape and lightscape management), cultural resource management (e.g. archeological resources, cultural landscape, ethnographic resources, historic structures), wilderness preservation and management, interpretation and education, tourism/visitor management, and park facilities management. It is clear that in each park the emphasis of management activities should be adapted to the needs of the park, its problems and challenges. However, the next generation of park managers will need to be able to tolerate ambiguity, manage change, manage tourism patterns, set and communicate priorities, handle controversy, and understand political processes. [...]

Recently, the Nordic countries have experienced a rapid growth in numbers of visitors. At some popular nature attractions this has resulted in crowding, environmental damage, costly rescue operations and overload on public infrastructure. Implementation of economic policy instruments have hence been suggested to secure a more sustainable development. While the applicability of e.g. entrance fees is restricted by the public rights of access, economic instruments tend to represent short-sighted solutions. Sustainable development requires holistic policies, which take environmental, social and economic aspects into consideration in a long-term perspective. To achieve a more sustainable development of tourism, it is suggested that a limited use of economic instrument should take place in combination with adaptive management strategies and available legal and administrative instruments.