Sustainable tourism management in nature areas

The increase of tourism activities, more diversity in consumer interests and the introduction of new types of activities are processes of change that can be observed in natural areas. These developments have lead to greater attention concerning the environmental and experiential effects of outdoor recreation and nature based tourism activities. The first part of this report is written in English and discusses the utilisation and adequacy of mainly North American management regimes and planning techniques to handle the problems and conflicts resulting from these developments. Rural tourism is discussed in the second part. In England, the planning approach to sustainable rural tourism is based on the idea of integration of a variety of economic, social, cultural and natural elements, and the aim in this country has been to handle this broad array of interests and concerns in an over-arching strategy. In the third part of the report the Norwegian natural management and planning system is discussed with respect to outdoor recreation and nature based tourism.