The Concept of Comprehensive Tracking Software to Support Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas

Abstract

Visitor management in protected areas requires knowledge of visitors—their numbers, time-space curves, motivation, behavior, and satisfaction as an important input. The systematic analysis, comparison, and synthesis of visitor monitoring methods, with the focus on methods for individual tracking, is conceptualized in the form of a mind map. The map serves as a basis for managed dialogues with experts from several protected areas in the Czech Republic. The theory and experts’ practical insight are processed by the means of systems analysis with the aim to formulate (1) a guideline for the integration of heterogeneous data about visitors and (2) the concept of an advanced intelligent software tour guide with an individual tracking function. The proposed concept aims to achieve comprehensive monitoring of visitors’ time-space behavior in the context of their socio-demographics, goals, preferences, feelings, and the resulting impressions. In addition, the visitor flows may be interactively influenced in a personalized way by the application, leading to better individual impressions and satisfaction, with full respect for the carrying capacity of the territory. Related challenges, such as the stimulation of visitors to use the application, are discussed. The ongoing experimental implementation of the concept as a part of a comprehensive destination application is mentioned at the end.

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