Asking Visitors to Help: Research to Guide Strategic Communication for Protected Area Management

Abstract

Central to the mission of most protected areas is managing visitor use in such a way that visitor experiences are enhanced while fragile environments are protected. Protected area management agencies annually devote significant financial and human resources to repairing biological and physical damage resulting from uninformed visitor behaviour. Resources do not exist in most agency budgets to provide adequate personnel to monitor and manage visitor behaviour directly, particularly in large or remote areas. To the extent managers are able to harness communication to persuade visitors to voluntarily behave properly in protected areas, significant benefits will accrue both to budgets and to resource protection. Over the long term, millions of dollars that would otherwise be devoted to mitigating visitor-induced impacts could be saved or redirected to other operational priorities such as improving access and visitor services.