Tourism and Visitor Management
in Protected Areas:
Guidelines for Sustainability
IUCN Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No. 27, 2018
(This Site is No Longer Maintained)
Contact: Dr. Yu-Fai Leung (Leung@ncsu.edu)
Contact: Dr. Yu-Fai Leung (Leung@ncsu.edu)
Project Overview
Background, Goal and Objectives
In 2002, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) published the Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas: Guidelines for Planning and Management (Sustainable Tourism BPG hereafter), through the World Commission on Protected Areas’ (WCPA) Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series. This report was a revision of a 1992 set of guidelines, published by IUCN, UNEP, and the World Tourism Organization (WTO). The 2002 Sustainable Tourism BPG sought to increase understanding of protected areas tourism in theoretical and practical ways, with a goal of ensuring that tourism contributes to, and does not undermine, the purposes of protected areas. This 183-page document addressed the history, evaluation, planning, development, economics, management, and scientific aspects of protected area tourism. This report has been well-used by protected area stakeholders globally, is well-cited in the literature, and has helped support many decision makers.
Since the 2002 edition was published much has changed in the field of protected area tourism with respect to visitation characteristics, governance, policy initiatives, science and technology, natural resource conditions and other important topics. It is crucial to update the Sustainable Tourism BPG after ten years to ensure that research, theoretical frameworks, planning and management strategies, case studies, and recommendations reflect the most current state of knowledge.
The goal of this project is to revise the 2002 Sustainable Tourism BPG document and produce the Third Edition so that it is more relevant to protected area stakeholders globally in the 2010s and beyond. This revision incorporates new research, update the theoretical frameworks presented, use current case studies, and develop guidelines and recommendations relevant to the next 10-15 years. The specific objectives are:
To update the background information used to develop the current best practices guidelines;
To engage WCPA Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group (TAPAS) members and other stakeholders of protected area tourism in enhancing the contents and utility of the guidelines; and
To publish the protected area tourism guidelines through the WCPA’s Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series.
Project Milestones
First project workshop at the 2012 IUCN World Conservation Congress, Jeju, South Korea
Second project workshop at the 2013 George Wright Society Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA
Draft manuscript launched at the 2014 IUCN World Parks Congress, Sydney, Australia
The Best Practice Guidelines released at the CBD COP 14 meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, November 2018
A publication in the IUCN Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series
A contribution of the IUCN WCPA Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist (TAPAS) Group
Project sponsors: IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammerarbeit (GIZ) of the Federal German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development provided financial support. North Carolina State University Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management provided significant in-kind support.
Project Outputs
Leung, Y.-F., Spenceley, A., Hvenegaard, G., & Buckley, R. (eds.) (2018). Tourism and Visitor Management in Protected Areas: Guidelines for Sustainability. IUCN Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No. 27. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. DOI: 10.2305/IUCN.CH.2018.PAG.27.en ( Full-Text PDF: English | Español | Français | Deutsch | монгол хэл (Mongolian) | Portuguese )
Editors and Contributors
Editorial Team
Yu-Fai Leung (Editor-in-chief), North Carolina State University, USA
Anna Spenceley, STAND, South Africa
Glen Hvenegaard, University of Alberta, Canada
Ralf Buckley, Griffith University, Australia
Contributors
The contents of this Best Practice Guidelines book are provided by 58 contributors from 23 countries and territories. Below is the complete list:
James Barborak, USA* (s,b)**
Rajiv Bhartari, India (b)
Maria Ana Borges, Peru (b)
Kelly Bricker, USA (b)
Ian Bride, UK (s)
Ralf Buckley, Australia (b,e,s)
Robyn Bushell, Australia (b,s)
Giulia Carbone, Switzerland (b)
Lee Cerveny, USA (b)
Chih-Liang Chao, Taiwan ROC (b)
Jorge Chávez, Peru (b)
Mei-Hui Chen, Taiwan ROC (b)
Ivana Damnjanović, Serbia (b)
Sandra de Urioste-Stone, USA (s)
Paul F. J. Eagles, Canada (s)
Elizabeth Halpenny, Canada (b,c,s)
Donald Hawkins, USA (b)
Kurt Holle, Peru (b)
Anna Hübner, Germany (b)
Glen Hvenegaard, Canada (c,e,s)
Delphine M. King, Kenya (b)
Lisa M. King, Malaysia (b)
Lincoln Larson, USA (b)
Yu-Fai Leung, USA (b,c,e,s)
Dau-Jye Lu, Taiwan ROC (b)
Robert Manning, USA (b,s)
Peter J. Massyn, South Africa (b,s)
Stephen McCool, USA (c,s)
Kamal Medhi, India (b)
Anna B. Miller (b,p)
Mark Milstein, USA (b)
Luis Monteiro, Czech Republic (b)
Jasmine Moreira, Brazil (b)
Debbie Mucha, Canada (b)
Dani Ndebele, South Africa (b)
David Newsome, Australia (b)
Young Ng, Hong Kong SAR, China (b)
Marcello Notarianni, Italy (b,s)
Dan Paleczny, Canada (b)
Jake Paleczny, Canada (b)
Midori Paxton, Thailand (b,s)
Mohammad Rafiq, UK (b)
Jianghua Ran, China (b)
Sibylle Riedmiller, Tanzania (b)
Andrew Rylance, South Africa (b,s)
Therese Salenieks, Canada (b,c,s)
Erin Seekamp, USA (b)
Susan Snyman, South Africa (b,s)
Anna Spenceley, South Africa (b,c,e,s)
Andy Thompson, New Zealand (b,s)
Dashpurev Tserendeleg, Mongolia (b)
Erik Val, Canada (b)
Alexandra Vishnevskaya, Kazakhstan (b)
Chelsey Walden-Schreiner, USA (b,p)
Megan Elper Wood, USA (b)
Dilya Woodward, Kazakhstan (b)
Chengzhao Wu, China (b)
Xiaoping Zhang, China (b)
_____________
* name (given/first,family/last) and country of residence; ** type of contribution: b = case box, c = chapter coordinator, e = editor, p = project assistant, s = section
Search all contents of this website, including all online references cited in the 2018 Best Practice Guidelines Book and a global collection of guidelines, handbooks, manuals and other resources pertinent to sustainable tourism and visitor management in protected areas.
Search terms can include any combinations of:
Topic keywords
Authors or organizations
Geographic scope
Search results with a 'PDF' prefix indicate an available PDF document. Acrobat or Acrobat Reader software program is required for viewing.
program is required for viewing.
For a full list of all documents contained in the database, visit
Online Repository (General Database)
New Resource Suggestions
If you would like to suggest a relevant guideline, manual or resource for this online database, please complete the publication submission form.