Visitor Management Issues Facing National Parks - Essay Example

Report on Visitor Management Issues Facing National Parks Name of Student: Institutional Affiliation: Instructor’s Name: Date Table of Contents Report on Visitor Management Issues Facing National Parks 1 1. Introduction 3 2. Executive summery 3 3. Brief Background on the national parks 4 4. (I) The main visitor management issues in national parks 5 a) Crumbling infrastructure 5 b) Climate change 6 c) Ecological management problems 6 d) Insecurity 7 e) Visitor experience 8 4. (II) management solutions to the issues 8 a) Development of infrastructure in the national parks 8 b) Conservation of climate 9 c) Provision of security within the national parks by the government 10 d) Adoption of modern management practices within the national parks 10 5. Recommendations 10 6. Conclusion 11 7. References 13 Report on Visitor Management issues Facing National Parks 1. Introduction The main aim of this report is to identify five visitor management issues in the national parks and provide recommendations and plans on how to solve such issues (Wagner, 2005). National parks as indicated by the past research have a lot of challenges when it comes to visitor management. Crumbling infrastructure in the national parks is one of the issues affecting the visitor management process. Insecurity is the other major challenge facing the national parks globally (Nelson et al, 2007). The other issue facing visitor management in the national parks is the visitor experience whereby each and every visitor has the style that would wish to enjoy where they tour. Climate change within the national parks due to human activities is the other key management challenge in the national parks. The report also aims that recommending on the way all these major issues are supposed to be solved to meet the expectations of the national parks. 2. Executive summery This assessment indicates that there are several visitor management challenges facing national parks in most countries. One of the main challenges facing visitor management in national parks is the federal budget cuts by the governments. This has affected the scientific research thus making the management of the national parks difficult. Poor or limited scientific research on the national parks affects visitor management in that the visitors normally visits parks with many species of wild animals that is reached through scientific research (Lamb et al, 2006). Human wildlife conflict is the other noted challenge facing visitor management in that some wild animals have been reported in some parks to attack visitors thus; the management teams are forced to provide more security to the visitors hence, very costly. Transmissible diseases like bird flew have also leaded to visitor management challenge (Wilson, 2014). Loss of species is the other visitor management challenge in that some visitor’s misses to see some species that they expected to see on visiting the parks thus discouraging them making them to raise a lot of questions to the management team. The jam in national parks during festive seasons can be managed through automation by the management. Automation will enable the management team to register the number of visitors that arrive and those who plan to visit the parks giving them appropriate time that they can visit the sites. This can be done through computerization (Edwards & Prosser, 1999). For the case of transmittable diseases, the management team must guide the visitors online to avoid human wild animal’s conflict and the protective measures on how to enter the national parks. 3. Brief Background on the national parks Being a natural attraction, the national parks have been there since time immemorial. It is in the national parks that wildlife is found. In most countries, the national parks are protected by the law and they act as a source of income to the government through money collected from tourists (Manning, 2009). 4. (I) The main visitor management issues in national parks a) Crumbling infrastructure Most of the national parks are situated in the forested areas of the lands that could be mountainous and with little rainfalls. In most cases, the infrastructures towards these areas are not maintained because they require a lot of resources to construct the modern infrastructures in such areas. Due to this, visitor management in national parks has proved difficult in that some visitors cannot be able to access the areas where the wildlife is (Lamb et al, 2006). During rainy seasons, such areas with poor infrastructure are inaccessible thus visitors fail to visit the parks. This lowers the amount of money collected thus, hindering the normal activities of the parks due to lack of finances. Constructing roads into backlog requires a lot of money that the government can view as a loss because tourism in some countries that does not have many wild animals cannot receive customers that can generate the amount of money required for the construction and maintenance of modern roads (Nelson et al, 2007). Some of the national parks also lack good telecommunication services due to poor infrastructure (Wagner, 2005). Some of the visitors at times got lost while in the national parks due to poor communication with the management team as a result of poor telecommunication services like internet and cell phone networks (Edwards & Prosser, 1999). Poor communication makes management of visitors in national parks very difficult and costly as some individuals are employed to follow the visitors and give them direction thus minimizing the profit margin of the tourism money paid by the visitors (Peterson, 2012). b) Climate change Climate change is the other issue that affects visitor management in the national parks. The climates in the parks have been altered by human activities like farming that has resulted in deforestation (Manning, 2009). Due to climate change, the wildlife has migrated to far areas in search of water and food because water is difficult to get in that the rivers have tried (Nelson et al, 2007). Following wild animals far to the areas where there is water is tedious and expensive thus making visitor management very difficult. Some visitors can go back without locating where the wildlife are thus making them to complain and call for refund of the money they paid for touring the place because of missing to see the wild animals and birds they expected to see (Vaughn & Cortner, 2013). The climate change has also lead to deterioration of water. The limited available water in the forests has therefore been competed for by the animals and humans. This shortage has led to conflict between humans and wild animals (Peterson, 2012). This has made some wild animals to be more aggressive and violent than before. Due to this, visitors visiting the parks required a lot of security in that they can be attacked by the wild animals. Getting security to each and every visitor visiting the parks is very expensive and hence has become a challenge in managing the visitors in the national parks. c) Ecological management problems It is a matter of fact that neither animals nor vegetation remains static in an environment. It reaches a time when man must interfere the process going on so that he can save some habitats that are constantly destroyed by some specific species of animals like elephants. Some of the problems faced by the management team within national parks are numerous (Suich et al, 2009). This has made them to spend more time in trying to manage the pressures that come from outside parks thus disturbing them from dealing with the visitors that visit the parks. It is indeed useless to give proper management to the visitors and omit the challenges of ecosystem that can destroy all the wildlife in national parks. It is through ecological management problems that make the wild animals to migrate thousands of miles away from their habitats. Such migrations like those that happen between Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa affect visitor management very much (Lamb et al, 2006). This is because tourists from western and European countries can visit Kenya with an aim of seeing Kenya’s wild animals but on arrival they find the animals have migrated to the neighboring country Tanzania. This affects the visitors in that getting the visa is not something easy and they put the whole blame on the management team of the national parks (Manning, 2009). d) Insecurity Terrorism has become a worldwide disaster in that they are reported in all corners of the world. Terrorists tend to take advantage of the visitors in the national parks while they enjoy themselves. This has raised a lot of challenges to the visitor management team in that they have to provide maximum security to the visitors (Edwards & Prosser, 1999). Abduction of visitors has been reported in various national parks especially in Africa yet Africa has many wild animals that attract tourists from all parts of the globe. Sometimes the terrorist hijack the visitors and demand some money before they release them and hence, this has become a big issue to the visitor management team in the national parks (Vaughn & Cortner, 2013). e) Visitor experience Most of the popular national parks like Yosemite have been affected by the overcrowding issues because they receive more than expected visitors that make management team unable to control at a time. Research indicates that due to overcrowding, the managers should balance the open access to national parks with negative impacts on visitor experience and the park environment (Peterson, 2012). Parks in the modern world are used differently by different visitors. Snowmobilers and pilots fly visitors to view the wildlife from above. Motor-boaters and mountain bikers all hope to enjoy their times of seeing the wildlife in their attractive parks (Suich et al, 2009). Administrators therefore face a lot of challenges in trying to balance on how their visitors use various means to access the parks. Some individuals cannot be given the top priority in that all the visitors pay the entrance fee and all the money required from them before entering the national parks (Wagner, 2005). 4. (II) management solutions to the issues a) Development of infrastructure in the national parks One of the main solutions to the visitor management issues in the national parks is construction of modern infrastructure. This will help the management team to easily give direction the visitors that visit the national parks for them to walk and drive with minimum supervision (Miles, 2009). This will minimize the cost of employing more workers within the national parks in that the visitors can access the wildlife on their own. Good infrastructure within the parks will also enable the management team to reach their visitors on time in case of any attack by the wild animals in the national parks (Manning, 2009). Providing the required services to the visitors in the national parks will enable them to stay for long and revisit the parks as well as giving referrals to other visitors (Vaughn & Cortner, 2013). This will boost the activities of the national parks in that they will collect more profit by receiving more visitors annually. The communication within the parks should also be excellent so that the visitors communicate with the management team in case of an emergency or so that they can be easily traced when they get lost within the national parks. This will also ensure that the management team gets information on time on matters health of the wildlife from the subordinate staff from the field (Peterson, 2012). b) Conservation of climate Since climate change is one of the main issues that has led to conflict between wildlife and humans. The governments must pass the laws that protect the environment such as the laws against deforestation. By doing this, there will be limited conflicts between the wildlife and the human beings and hence the management team will put more focus on the visitors rather than on the control of the conflicts (Nelson et al, 2007). This will also make the animals to stay on their original habitats hence, making the visitors to find them easily because they will not be looking for water and food in the furthest ends. Minimizing the clash between the humans and the wild animals will also make the animals docile thus reducing the number of attacks normally caused by the wild animals to the visitors. (Suich et al, 2009). Minimizing the insecurity within the parks will result in reduction of finances allocated to security and hence the money will be used in other activities like upgrading infrastructures heading to the national parks. c) Provision of security within the national parks by the government The other management solution within the national parks is the provision of security. Terrorism has had tourists as their main targets in most national parks around the world (Miles, 2009). Provision of security within the national parks will assist the management team to gain confidence from the visitors. This will enable them to receive more and more visitors and hence, the profit margin will shoot. Guaranteeing security to the visitors will also make them to stay for long within the national parks and this will enable the management to get more money from the tourism sector (Vaughn & Cortner, 2013). d) Adoption of modern management practices within the national parks Provision of modern services to the visitors within the national parks is the other management solution worth noting. Control of traffic jams and provision of quality food will enable many visitors to visit the national parks at the same time (Lamb et al, 2006). Use of technology such as automation will help the visitors to finish their activities within the park in a shorter period of time. The use of modern faster means of transport like electric trains will also minimize the traffic in the national parks. 5. Recommendations The governments must increase the budgets allocated to the tourism sector and recreational developments in that human beings are social beings and they enjoy visiting new areas. The well being of the ecosystem within their borders also depends with the level of seriousness the concerned governments take their national parks for. The appreciation of the visitors depends with how the national parks are managed and the visitors will always pay for what they enjoy within the national parks. The cornerstones of the nation’s nature are the national parks and hence they must be conserved as the main part of environmental conservation (Miles, 2009). The industrial pressure from the humans must be controlled by the governments so that the famous parks remain conserved for the ecological system and integrity to be maintained (Edwards & Prosser, 1999). Maintenance of national parks leads to maintenance of ecosystem that in turn maintains the health of the people. Te wild animals and plants are given refuge by the conservation of national parks and hence each and every individual must be educated on importance of maintaining the national parks. The management issues facing the national parks must be handling with care. For the national parks to compete with other resorts, they must advertise what they offer to the guests through the modern ways of advertisement such as face-book and twitter (Lamb et al, 2006). The decisions made must also be smart for example majoring on analytics to customize offerings and experiences that excellently match resort guests desires so that they compete with private parks that offer the same services like Walt Disney. 6. Conclusion In conclusion, there are several visitor management issues facing the national parks. Poor infrastructure is one of the main issues that affect the visitor management in the national parks in that the visitors cannot access some parts of the national parks. Poor infrastructure also raises the cost of maintaining the visitors within the parks in that it forces the management team to employ more workers that monitors the visitors within the parks. Terrorism as part of insecurity has also affected visitor management in that most of the visitors have ceased visiting most of the national parks especially in the third world countries. For the national parks to flourish, the visitors must be given the entertainment by the attractions in the national parks that they deserve. There must be careful planning in the national parks by the management team to avoid manageable inconveniencies that normally faces the visitors. Proper strategic planning’s must also be laid by the management team to ensure that the park attendance perform their duties as expected by the visitors for example in the hotel fronts within the national parks. Scientific researches are also important in upgrading the national parks and maintaining the species that are almost extinct due to human activities. 7. References Edwards, J., & Prosser, R. (1999). Environments. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes. Lamb, J., Goodrich, G., Brame, S. C., & National Outdoor Leadership School (U.S.). (2006). NOLS wilderness ethics: Valuing and managing wild places. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. Manning, R. E. (2009). Parks and people: Managing outdoor recreation at Acadia National Park. Burlington, Vt: University of Vermont Press. Miles, J. C. (2009). Wilderness in national parks: Playground or preserve. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Nelson, J. G., Serafin, R., & NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Contributions of National Parks and Protected Areas to Heritage, Conservation, Tourism, and Sustainable Development. (2007). National parks and protected areas: Keystones to conservation and sustainable development. Berlin: Springer. Suich, H., Child, B., & Spenceley, A. (2009). Evolution and innovation in wildlife conservation: Parks and game ranches to transfrontier conservation areas. London: Earthscan. Peterson, E. (2012). Frommer's Yosemite and Sequoia. Hoboken [N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Vaughn, J., & Cortner, H. (2013). Philanthropy and the National Park Service. Wagner, F. H. (2005). Wildlife policies in the US national parks. Washington, DC [u.a.: Island Press. Wilson, R. K. (2014). America's public lands: From Yellowstone to Smokey Bear and beyond. Read More