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.

Nature has been a key attraction factor for tourism in the Nordic countries for decades. The demand for nature-based tourism has steadily grown and is one of the most rapidly expanding sectors within tourism across Europe and elsewhere. This demand has created opportunities for nature-based tourism to develop as an economic diversification tool within regions rich in natural amenities. But nature-based tourism is not only about tourism businesses and tourists visiting nature. The natural environment as a basis for tourism involves many challenges related to local communities, public access, nature protection and the management of natural resources. This book covers a broad set of topics in contemporary nature-based tourism from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Areas discussed are innovation, fishing rights and supply of angling, recreation experience preferences, national park attractions, the cultural clash between established outdoor recreational use and new tourism activities, the Right of Public Access as opportunity and obstacle, preferences of tourism landscapes, controversies around wilderness development, management of hiking trails, eco-tourism certification, and financing of recreational infrastructure. This book was published as a special issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism.

This is the final report of the project "Visitor Monitoring Methods in the Nordic and Baltic Countries". The goal of the project was to develop visitor monitoring methodologies for Nordic and Baltic land management agencies, the work of which is related to visitor management in protected and recreational areas. The report provides an overview of the visitor monitoring methods and guidelines currently available, including state-of-the-art reports and case studies from the Nordic and Baltic countries. The report concludes that there are certain common variables related to monitoring outdoor recreation that are important to all the Nordic and Baltic countries and that could be standardized. Therefore, the project group continues its work in order to produce recommendations for a common visitor monitoring methodology in protected and recreational areas in the Nordic and Baltic Countries. These recommendations will be published in the form of a Nordic-Baltic manual on visitor monitoring practices.

Nature-based tourism (NBT) is a sector where entrepreneurial success is highly knowledge driven. This insightful book offers a comprehensive evaluation of NBT in a Nordic context, highlighting how long-established Nordic traditions of outdoor recreation practices can reveal lessons for the field more broadly. Chapters explore Nordic and international perspectives, local communities, market dynamics, firms, creativity, innovations and value-added experience products.

Forest related social values such as recreation values are growing in importance in North European countries. Our urbanized societies need social services from forests and other nature areas. One of the key ecosystem services is the recreation environment provided by forests. Possibilities to enhance commercial recreational use of forests has been recognized, particularly among private forest owners, who have new opportunities for new types of forest-related entrepreneurship. This report provides a review of social indicators in forestry, particularly concerning nature-based recreation and tourism in North European countries. The common interest among scientists and other experts was to discuss how to develop social indicators and to monitor changes to social benefits in forestry and forest use. In all countries, there is a challenge to develop monitoring systems to produce inventory data for statistics that are required in a way that provid es comparable social indicators. It is timely to enhance standardization and harmonization of social indicators for monitoring and management of sustainable forestry and forest use, and for sustainable nature-based recreation and tourism.

'Tourism Management' is a complete synthesis of tourism, from its beginnings, through to the major impacts it has on today's global community, the environment and economy.

It is now widely recognized that recreation is as important as work. This revealing book analyzes leisure and outdoor recreation in terms of both their management and their wider importance to society. Specifically, it: clarifies the link between leisure, recreation, tourism and resource management reviews contemporary outdoor recreation management and concepts critically examines approaches to outdoor recreation planning and management in diverse recreational settings considers the future of outdoor recreation and the potential influences of economic, social, political and technological developments. Wide-ranging and topical, it considers such issues as motivation and choice, provision for people with special needs, the impact of outdoor recreation on the environment, and outdoor recreation in both urban and rural contexts. This comprehensively revised second edition has many sections rewritten and expanded to reflect contemporary development in leisure and outdoor recreation management in countries such as Australia, Canada, the UK, the US and New Zealand. With an extensive bibliography of more than 500 references and including further reading sections and review questions, it is an essential student purchase and one of the most comprehensive and international accounts of outdoor recreation management available.

A unique, international resource for Leisure Studies: in one volume the history, organization and central debates in the field of Leisure Studies are defined, providing a one-stop-shop for students and an agenda for future debate and research academics.

Tourism is a major industry in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) as well as a growing field of academic study. For many cities and regions tourism is also increasingly recognised as being integral to economic, social and sustainable development. In addition, tourism also contributes to Nordic identity through destination promotion and tourism activities, including winter tourism and the tradition of access to common land, as well as specific forms of tourism, such as second homes. Nordic Tourism is the first comprehensive and accessible introduction to tourism in the region that links Nordic tourism research and concerns with key concepts in tourism studies. The book consists of eleven chapters dealing with issues ranging from, for example, marketing and policy to nature-based tourism, culture and the contribution of tourism to environmental change. The inclusion of case studies from leading Nordic researchers on specific destinations, attractions, resources, sectors and developments also provides a valuable learning tool for all students of tourism.