Monitoring options for visitor numbers in national parks and natural areas

Identifying the physical behaviours of visitors is an essential component of visitor impact management in protected areas. The fundamental baseline information required is visitor numbers, and particularly how these are distributed in time and space across the protected areas. However, obtaining such counts in a reliable and cost-effective manner has proven to be more difficult than commonly expected. Reasons for this difficulty are reviewed, the range of visitor monitoring options available to park managers are described, and the features that park managers want in their visitor counting tools are summarised. The management requirements for implementing and operating an effective monitoring system are also presented.