VISITORS' MOBILITY MANAGEMENT IN AND AROUND PROTECTED AREAS

Abstract

Tourism to National Parks (NPs) has increased in recent decades. The desire to spend time in nature and visitors' passion for nature make visitors undertake a journey to National Parks or other Protected Areas. The increasing number of visitors also generated additional challenges for the management of these natural areas. One of the important aspects being highlighted by the visitors and of major concern for the National Park managers is mobility management. When it comes to tourism, whether it is domestic or international tourism, managing mobility is highly essential. Mobility can be of various types: by road, rail, sea, and air. A different kind of mobility is active mobility, i.e., walking and cycling. Improving the mobility and visitors' experience within and towards NPs also has benefits for the economy at the local, regional, and national level. However, most National Parks do not have enough funding to improve the infrastructure, upgrade public transport, and accommodate all visitors' needs. Nevertheless, amendments in plans, policies, and implementation strategies can overcome mobility issues. For this purpose, the collection of relevant data regarding visitors' movements within and towards National Parks is required. The data analysis can determine possible amendments that could have an impact on improving the visitors' experience. Most National Parks do not have a specific mechanism in place to record visitors' movements and collect information about visitors' (mobility) behavior. The dissertation’s objective is to describe techniques, tools and strategies to manage visitors’ mobility in and around protected areas. In this respect, possible mobility solutions to manage mobility within and around National Parks are investigated. Moreover, in this research, the dashboard concept (a comprehensive platform bringing all the required key performance indicators together) is elaborated to help managers, stakeholders, and policymakers in this decision-making process. The dissertation contains six chapters, which are briefly introduced below. Chapter one gives a brief introduction on National Parks worldwide, organizing bodies, and current status, followed by the associated problems related to mobility within and towards National Parks. Increasing congestion on roads towards National Parks, non-availability of data collection mechanism within National Parks, and discouraging accessibility factors to National Parks are major problems. Additionally, a detailed literature review is presented in this chapter. The literature review is mainly divided into four parts. Firstly, how tracking technology can be used to monitor and record visitors' data. Currently, this tracking technology is incorporated in a smartphone by default. Opportunities in terms of facilitation of trajectories as well as in terms of data collection are discussed. Secondly, the role of transport network changes on improving the mobility on various roads connecting different parts of the park is discussed. Particular changes in the transport network can improve the traffic situation and can overcome the element of congestion. More specifically, we will quantify the impact of the following amendments in traffic management, i.e. the application of toll, restricting certain vehicles, and creating time windows for specific vehicles. Thirdly, various techniques are discussed to promote and enhance the usage of active modes. Fourthly, based on the literature review, various mobility management measures are presented. Research needs and research questions are also elaborated in this chapter, followed by an introduction to the various case studies explored in this research. Three National Parks were selected for detailed research, i.e. 1) Hoge Kempen National Park, Belgium 2) Ayubia National Park, Pakistan and 3) Peak District National Park, England. The overview section presents the study's introduction, reasons for selecting the National Park, objectives of the study, methodology selected, and contribution of the study to this dissertation's overall objective. At the end of this chapter, the concept of the dashboard is described. The aim of developing a dashboard is to bring together and visualize a considerable amount of relevant, regularly collected data that can give National Park managers and other stakeholders a better ground to make feasible mobility decisions. Chapter two presents the mobility situation within the park and determines the role of a digital tool to monitor mobility within the Park. The Hoge Kempen National Park (HKNP), Belgium, is selected as the test case study for this research. Several mobility problems are observed within this National Park. One of the significant issues is the non-availability of a data collection mechanism. The study presents a digital tool in the form of the 'HKNP App' that provides valuable information for both the visitors and the National Park managers. The study's objective is to identify a tool to collect visitors' movement data within the park. In this chapter, after a brief introduction, a comparison of various Apps developed for improving mobility within National Parks is made. The advantages of the HKNP App are highlighted. Various functionalities of the App are discussed in detail. The App assists users in route planning and gives access to information related to the park's characteristics. This digital tool will help the park managers to collect data on visitors within the National Park. Moreover, visitors and park management can communicate with each other through exchanging messages and suggestions. The visitors' opinion towards the HKNP App is determined via questionnaires and by real-time testing of the App. The pilot validation test performed with 20 participants and real-time tests from 68 park visitors revealed a high satisfaction level regarding the App's functionalities and its enhancement in terms of mobility experience within the National Park. The data collected from visitors using the HKNP App can be analyzed and used in decision-making processes. Heat maps presenting visitors data collected from the app are further explained in chapter five. Chapter three deals with the identification of measures to improve the mobility on various roads connecting to the National Park. The Ayubia National Park (ANP), Pakistan, is selected as the case study for this research. Initially, it is shown how mobility issues towards the Park can degrade the visitors' experience. In normal circumstances, the infrastructure is sufficient for the given traffic volume. However, tourists' seasonal inflow makes the traffic situation worse for visitors and locals. ANP faces congestion, on-street parking issues, and delays on its connecting roads, which affects the quality of the visit. The research focuses on the determination of various strategies to overcome these problems. The research methodology consists of three major parts: (1) analysis of visitors' preferences to the proposed measures (respondents were given various options and were asked to choose the most appropriate measure according to their personal experience); (2) the three most preferred measures were selected for detailed analysis (the impact of these measures on the transport network was computed); and (3) experts' opinions on the network changes were obtained through a questionnaire. This chapter presents the impact of many strategies (i.e., application of toll, restriction of vehicles, and time of day-based access restriction to heavy vehicles) on the transport network based on data collected from the concerned department. TransCad software is used for traffic assignment analysis. From the visitors' responses, data analyses, and experts' opinions, it is concluded that implementation of these measures would have a significant impact on the mobility towards the National Park, as the outcomes of these measures resulted in a reduction of the volume to capacity ratio on routes connecting to this National Park. In chapter four, the idea of an active mode of transport (in particular cycling) is investigated to facilitate mobility within and around the National Park. Peak District National Park (PDNP), England, is selected as the case study for this research. Apart from the tools and measures mentioned earlier, active modes of transport are considered the most economical and sustainable transport modes. This chapter presents the current situation of mobility within and around the PDNP. The number of cars for visiting this park has increased to a significant amount in recent decades. Still, certain parts of the park cannot be accessed neither by cars nor by public transport. Derbyshire had to cut down the public transport budget because of a lack of interest of visitors to use public transport. Mainly, visitors prefer to use their car, and a shuttle service is only provided to connect some parts of the park to hotels, only on a few occasions. The officials associated with PDNP are highly concerned about the future of mobility within and around the PDNP. This chapter presents the idea of promoting cycling. This research identifies the potential measures that can promote and enhance cycling within and around National Parks. The methodological approach applied in this chapter consists of three parts, 1) a literature review to identify measures successfully implemented in the past in different case studies, 2) development of a questionnaire based on these measures, for inquiry of experts involved in the planning process of the case study, Peak District National Park and 3) use of Kendall's W coefficient of concordance to determine the consensus among experts, about the rank and order of these potential measures. The Kendall's W shows a varying agreement among experts from moderate to strong for different categories of measures. The measures were categorized into four categories. The most preferred measures by the experts to promote the concept of cycling are: varying (high and low) entry fees based on the transport mode of the visitor, a mobility App as a route planner, and infrastructural development. Chapter five presents the concept of a dashboard to monitor and manage mobility. Compared to the multiple case studies being discussed in previous chapters, having specific problems and solutions, this chapter accumulates the problems in general and presents the solution in a broader respect. There is a definite need for a platform to collect, manage and analyze visitors' mobility data. Therefore, the concept of developing a dashboard to monitor and manage visitors' movements is presented in this chapter. The aim of developing a dashboard is to bring together and visualize key (and regularly collected) data that can give National Park managers and other stakeholders a better ground to make feasible mobility decisions. This chapter initially presents the mobility problems at a broader level, flaws in data collection mechanisms, and effects of non-availability of data on visitor management. This chapter also describes how dashboards have been used in the past and how they can facilitate visitor management. Next, required information (static, dynamic, and geographical information) to monitor visitors' movements is presented. A prototype of the mobility dashboard is also discussed in detail, with visual components (e.g., graphs, tables, geographical maps, and heat maps) using some conceptual data and data collected using the HKNP App. We conclude this chapter with comprehensive guidelines for National Park managers to monitor and manage the mobility within and around the parks by means of a dashboard. Chapter six presents a discussion, an overview of the results, concluding remarks, and future research recommendations. A brief discussion is presented to summarize the findings and utilization of measures in various National Parks. The answers to all the research questions are given in detail. Managerial implications highlight the importance of the research work and how it can be helpful for the managers of National Parks. Finally, a few research aspects related to mobility within and around parks are indicated, which need future attention.