Landscape Parks and the Development of Tourism in the Protected Areas of the Polish Carpathians

Abstract

Protected mountain areas are usually highly attractive from the perspective of developing tourism. Tourism poses a chance for economic development of these areas, but also damages the natural environment. It is therefore of paramount importance that principles governing the management of tourism in protected areas be defined so as to reconcile the requirements of environmental protection with the needs of local communities and tourists’ expectations. This chapter presents a theoretical model for the application of the concept of sustainable tourism development in protected areas and discusses difficulties that arise in harmonious development of Carpathian landscape parks. One of the reasons is the lack of stakeholders’ cooperation as well as the lack of comprehensive long-term planning. In the landscape parks, efforts should be undertaken to introduce the practice of joint management, based on broad cooperation between the administrative bodies of landscape parks, local governments, representatives of local businesses, non-governmental organizations and other parties oriented towards the development of tourism.