International Trends in Park Tourism

In 2003, Paul Eagles presented a paper with this title to the World Parks Congress in Durban South Africa. He identified 17 macro trends, each listed below.  Please see his paper using the link below for elaboration and full discussion.

Trend 1: Growing demands for democratic forms of government translate into increased public participation and collaboration in park planning.

Trend 2: Increased accessibility of sophisticated technology and science means that visitors are knowledgeable about what opportunities exist and the consequences of management actions.

Trend 3: An aging population means that there will be significant demand shifts in what activities, settings and experiences visitors seek from parks areas.

Trend 4: As educational levels rise, demand for appreciative and learning opportunities associated with parks and protected areas will increase.

Trend 5: In the medium term, advances in the technology of travel and reductions in costs will result in increased demand for park and protected area opportunities distant from one's residence.

Trend 6:  Continued growing sensitivity to environmental, social, cultural and economic impacts of human activity lead to new and different roles of protected areas, often to multiuse sites similar to biosphere reserves.  Private ecolodges and nature reserves develop, funded by tourism.

Trend 7: Growing knowledge about visitors, parks and their interactions lead to more sophisticated and effective methods of managing park-based tourism.

Trend 8: The global increase in park area, number of parks and park visitation outstrips the capability of many park institutions.

Trend 9: Park management shifts gradually from government agency structures, with centralized financial control, to parastatal forms, with financially flexible and entrepreneurial forms of management.

Trend 10: Park management funding increasingly shfits from government grants to park tourism fees and charges.  This results in higher levels of visitor focus in management.

Trend 11: Park agencies develop increased sophistication in their understanding and management of park visitation and tourism.

Trend 12: Increasing globalization of information, business and government results in increasing international cooperation among park agencies, park visitors and non-governmental organizations.

Trend 13:  Foreign aid grants from MGOs will increasing fund biodiversity conservation and sustainable tourism development in developing nations.

Trend 14:  Increasing demands for resource exploitation, such as oil, gas, minerals, water and wood, place stronger pressure for the exportation of park resources

Trend 15:  A sustainable number of parks and their tourism will be destroyed by war, famine and civil unrest, expecially in Africa and Asia.

Trend 16:  International travel will increase until decreasing supplies of inexpensive light oil result in large increases in cost between 2010 and 2020.  As the energy costs increase, international travel will decline.  Substantial pressure will take place on many parks and protected areas.

Trend 17:  Global climate change will affect most parks and most park tourism.


Source: http://www.conservationfinance.org/Workshop_Conferences/WPC_documents/Apps_12_Eagles_v1.pdf