The right of public access: potentials and challenges for ecotourism.

Abstract

Abstract This chapter presents an overview of the (i) Swedish right of public access, (ii) the current attitudes toward the right of public access, and (iii) the interaction between the right of public access and nature-based tourism, especially ecotourism. Three themes concerning public access and ecotourism are highlighted: (1) the right of public access prevents tourism entrepreneurs from charging people for entering the general rural landscape if no special arrangements are involved that could be charged for; (2) the right of public access forms an important basis for peoples' interest in and experience of nature in Scandinavia; and (3) a discussion of 'dark green' variants of ecotourism could in many ways bring us closer to some of the fundamentals of the right of public access.