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Manager’s Perceptions of Overcrowding in National Parks of Germany
Dalarna University, School of Culture and Society.
2021 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

This thesis examines the phenomenon of overcrowding in German national parks from amanagement perspective. Data were collected from eight managers using semi-structuredinterviews to identify their perceptions of overcrowding as well as impacts and reactions. Placeattachment theory was chosen to enhance the theoretical background before a thematic analysiswas carried out.The results demonstrate that COVID-19 pandemic is a main reason for a change in travelbehavior, relating to overcrowding. Furthermore, it was found out that OC is not a newphenomenon that occurred during Covid-19 for the first time. More already existing problemshave been put more in the spotlight through the pandemic. One reason found was the naturetourism trend. Social media could not be identified as a supporting factor for overcrowding.Concerning the underlining theoretical background of sense of place theory and placeattachment, it was obvious that participants reveal that they foremost associate a strongattachment referring to as home and a long-time commitment to the workplace they can bereferred to as place identity. Place identity could influence their professional role by makingemotional connections, resulting in negative streams against visitors. Looking at the impacts, itwas revealed that they do not differ from existing literature. Here, a connection betweenalready existing hotspots and OC, infrastructural overload for the region occurred and the mostsignificant result found was that OC and infringements are interrelated. Finally, resultsbelonging to the addressing of management show that increased ranger presence was used fromall participants as the first choice. Moreover, it was found that communication behavior hasalso changed. It was found that no standardized strategy to OC was applied, and themanagement implemented many approaches.Contribution to the theoretical field can be made by enhancing knowledge of OC in the nationalpark context. The study focuses on manager's perceptions of overcrowding instead of settingthe spotlight on visitors as it is common in existing literature in recreation research. Moreover,the Covid-19 pandemic is taken into account and for the practice, the results can helpmanagement in NPS as it is shown by delivering three possible implications.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2021.
Keywords [en]
Crowding, national parks, protected area management, manager perceptions, place attachment
National Category
Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-38184OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-38184DiVA, id: diva2:1595691
Subject / course
Tourism Studies
Available from: 2021-09-20 Created: 2021-09-20

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • chicago-author-date
  • chicago-note-bibliography
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf