Abstract
Recreation planning and management is confronted with a growing series of challenges emanating from fundamental shifts in social values and preferences, large scale demographic changes, development of new technologies, economic restructuring and new perspectives on protected area governance and decision-making. These driving forces have led to increased complexity and uncertainty for protected area visitor and tourism management situations that can only be described as contentious and uncertain, with growing public scrutiny and demands for greater accountability. Combined with growing and diversifying demand for tourism, the stakes involved in protected area management have increased dramatically. This chapter argues that these forces have led to a situation where the intellectual capital needed for visitor management decisions has risen, the requirement for frameworks to help managers “work through” complicated decisions has escalated, and the need for understanding the consequences of decisions to recreation opportunities has grown. Against a backdrop of contentious decision-making and changing definitions of sustainable tourism, what frameworks are available for working through decisions and how suitable are they?
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Notes
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I hesitate to include carrying capacity as a framework because it meets none of the criteria identified earlier, but it has nevertheless dominated recreation management for decades.
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McCool, S.F. (2016). Tourism in Protected Areas: Frameworks for Working Through the Challenges in an Era of Change, Complexity and Uncertainty. In: McCool, S., Bosak, K. (eds) Reframing Sustainable Tourism. Environmental Challenges and Solutions, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7209-9_7
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