Visitor Counts Research Articles

Exploring human-nature interactions in national parks with social media photographs and computer vision.

Understanding the activities and preferences of visitors is crucial for managing protected areas and planning conservation strategies. Conservation culturomics promotes the use of user-generated online content in conservation science. Geotagged social media content is a unique source of in situ information on human presence and activities in nature. Photographs posted on social media platforms are a promising source of information, but analyzing large volumes of photographs manually remains laborious. We examined the application of state-of-the-art computer-vision methods to studying human-nature interactions. We used semantic clustering, scene classification, and object detection to automatically analyze photographs taken in Finnish national parks by domestic and international visitors. Our results showed that human-nature interactions can be extracted from user-generated photographs with computer vision. The different methods complemented each other by revealing broad visual themes related to level of the data set, landscape photogeneity, and human activities. Geotagged photographs revealed distinct regional profiles for national parks (e.g., preferences in landscapes and activities), which are potentially useful in park management. Photographic content differed between domestic and international visitors, which indicates differences in activities and preferences. Information extracted automatically from photographs can help identify preferences among diverse visitor groups, which can be used to create profiles of national parks for conservation marketing and to support conservation strategies that rely on public acceptance. The application of computer-vision methods to automatic content analysis of photographs should be explored further in conservation culturomics, particularly in combination with rich metadata available on social media platforms.

Anonymized location data reveals trends in legal Cannabis use in communities with increased mental health risks at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to increases in felt negative affect for many. This is concerning as individuals at increased risk for mental health issues are often more likely to use substances to cope with stressors. Objectives The aim of the current study is to examine whether communities reporting an increased risk for developing mental health issues showed differential patterns of legal cannabis use as the pandemic began. A secondary goal is to examine the feasibility of using anonymized location data to uncover community consumption patterns of potential concern. Methods Anonymized location data from approximately 10% of devices in the United States provided a count of the number of visitors to 3,335 cannabis retail locations (medical and recreational) each day from December 1st 2019 through April 2020. Visitor counts were merged with the average number of mentally unhealthy days (aMUDs) reported in the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) county the retailer was located along with FIPS county population and poverty rate estimates. A Poisson spline regression predicting visitors by day, aMUDs, as well as their interaction was performed, entering population and poverty rate as covariates. Results As the pandemic began communities reporting a greater aMUDs showed greater visitation to cannabis retailers. Conclusions These results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to increased legal cannabis use in at risk communities. They also highlight the value anonymized location data can provide policymakers and practitioners in uncovering community level trends as they confront an increasingly uncertain landscape.

Implementing Technology-Based Visitor Counts in Parks: A Methodological Overview

Historically, documenting visitor counts in park, recreation, and tourism spaces has been fraught with challenges that often result in data with questionable reliability and validity. However, these counts are necessary for managers in that they inform budgets, staffing, and policy. The purpose of this methodological study is to detail the processes involved in implementing technology-based counting systems within parks with the goal of assisting managers who wish to modernize visitor counting procedures. The first step involves a detailed site analysis, with considerations specific to park boundaries, access to power sources, the availability of WiFi, and whether lighting is needed for the technology to function. Once the site analysis is completed, the technology options can be considered, with the understanding that the accuracy of the counts will be impacted by visitor flow, focal area of interest, the number of counters utilized, whether visitors must be carrying WiFi-enabled devices to be counted, data transmission options, and access to dynamic features such as those that eliminate double counts. A case study approach was used to demonstrate implementation procedures, focusing on site and technology selection, then moving on to installation considerations, data collection, validation, data analysis, and management implications. The Korean War Veterans Memorial (KOWA), a National Park Service holding located within the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, DC, was selected as an optimal site based on semi-porous boundaries, consistent visitor flows, and ready access to power sources. After consideration of price, privacy, ease of installation, and ready access to data, 3D people counters were the chosen technology. The counters were installed in weatherproofed housings and mounted on lampposts that were situated at the two main entrance sites to the memorial. Analysis of twelve weeks of data indicated that the counting accuracy of the 3D counters was high, minimal modifications were needed, and visitor privacy was retained. A similar methodological approach can be applied by park managers within a wide variety of settings.

Do zoo visitors induce attentional bias effects in primates completing cognitive tasks?

While previous research has focused on the impact of visitors on zoo-housed animals' behavior, here, we evaluated the impact of visitors on the performance of four zoo-housed Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) in a cognitive task. The macaques completed a touchscreen-based match-to-sample task in glass-sided booths at the perimeter of their enclosure, adjacent to a visitor viewing area. The task was novel to all macaques at the start of this study but over the 6-month testing period the macaques showed increased accuracy on the task, suggestive of learning. We recorded the number of visitors within the viewing area roughly every 12 trials each macaque completed. We categorized visitor counts as small (0-20), medium (21-40), and large (41-60) crowds and we considered the macaques' response latencies and accuracy by crowd size and study period (first 3months versus second 3months). If visitor presence negatively influenced performance, we predicted that macaques' accuracy would decrease but response times would increase with crowd size. We found effects of crowd size and study period on the macaques' accuracy. In the first period, the macaques performed at chance and accuracy did not differ across crowd categories. In the second period, the macaques' accuracy improved as compared to the first period, but their accuracy was mediated by crowd size: the macaques were significantly more accurate in the presence of small crowds than medium or large crowds. The macaques' response latencies also varied by study period and crowd size, but we found no evidence of a response-slowing effect.

Differentially private publication of streaming trajectory data

User-generated trajectories (e.g. during traveling) can be leveraged to offer value-added services (e.g. smart city policy formulation), but there are also privacy implications. For example, information about the routes or destinations obtained from such published trajectories can be used to profile and identify users, including during contact tracing in pandemics (e.g., COVID-19) or the monitoring of demonstrations (e.g., surveillance). However, existing trajectory publishing algorithms generally rely on batch processing platforms, and rarely pay attention to real-time privacy protection processing in streaming scenarios. Therefore, we propose a stream processing framework containing two modules for spatio-temporal data. This framework is designed to achieve high data utility, while effectively ensuring the preservation of privacy in the published results. The first module is TSP, which concurrently receives real-time queries from individuals and releases new sanitizing trajectories. The second module is VCR comprising three algorithms based on differential privacy to facilitate the publication of the distribution of position statistics. Our experiments on real-world datasets demonstrate that our framework can effectively guarantee privacy with high data utility, when the appropriate parameter configuration is chosen. In addition, compared with the baseline algorithm Ht-publication, our group-based algorithm AGn-publication achieves better data accuracy in terms of visitor counts at the same level of privacy protection.

Using social media to assess nature-based tourism: Current research and future trends

Social media is increasingly recognised as an important source of information about a wide range of issues, including nature-based tourism. We assess the current state of the academic literature to highlight what sources of data and methods are used, where and to assess which issues and what are the benefits and limitations of this novel source of data. Using a systematic quantitative literature review method, we identified 48 relevant publications mostly from Europe (18) and North America (10) as well as Asia (6), Oceania (5), Africa (4) or South America (3). Most research used Flickr images (36) and/or geodata (40), but studies also used Panoramio (10), Instagram (6), Twitter (3), OpenStreetMap (3), GPSies (2), Wikiloc (2), and Geocaching, Geograph, MapMyFitness and TripAdvisor (1 each) but not Facebook. Benefits include that data can be collected remotely, relatively simply and at low-cost, it complements other data sources, and can be effective in spatial and temporal analysis of visitation, to assess diverse cultural ecosystem services, evaluate visitor sentiments and assign economic values, with similar results to surveys and/or visitor counts. Limitations include fluctuations in popularity and access to data, that it only represents some visitors, areas and activities, demographic data is often limited, and there are important ethical issues. While more research from more locations is required, overall, social media is likely to be increasingly valuable for research and management of nature-based tourism.

Discovering Activity Patterns in the City by Social Media Network Data: a Case Study of Istanbul

With the rapid developments in internet and communication technologies, activities take within the city create a reflection in virtual environments and these traces make visible the relation ties of the city’s dynamic structure. The data generated by mobile devices that take part in everyday life and become integrated with the user’s activities gives valuable information about users’ behavioural trends in the city. This new type of data, called ‘Big Data’ that consist of huge amounts of information with a fine-grained resolution, also help people to make reasoning about the activity pattern formations within the city, with a bottom-up approach. This approach also paves the way for developing a holistic approach. This study aims to discover and analyse the activity patterns of the parts of historical districts of Istanbul by evaluating the data generated from location-based social networks. Foursquare API database is utilised to collect activity data that consist of location, venue, category, and visitor counts (check-in) features. The data mapped and weighted with the check-in counts and spatial statistics analyses held in GIS to discover hotspot and cluster patterns of the activities within the study area. The main finding of the paper is that the spatial distribution of citizens’ demand for products and services creates patterns of emerging urban areas of activity.

Identifying Temporal Patterns of Visitors to National Parks through Geotagged Photographs

Visitor data is essential for decision-making, policy formulation, and monitoring of protected areas. In this context, the data on the temporal distribution of visitors is essential to characterize influx and seasonality, and even to measure the carrying capacity of a site. However, obtaining information from visitors often involves high costs and long production times. Moreover, traditional visitor data has a limited level of detail. New sources of data can provide valuable information regarding the timing of visits. In this study, we tested the use of geotagged data to infer the temporal distribution of visitors to 15 Spanish national parks, and we identified temporal patterns of the visits at three levels: monthly, weekly, and daily. By comparing official monthly visitor counts and geotagged photographs from Flickr, we observed that the number of monthly users who upload photos significantly reflects the number of monthly visitors. Furthermore, the weekly and daily distributions of the Flickr data provided additional information that could contribute to identifying the periods of highest visitor pressure, design measures to manage the concentration of visitors, and improve the overall visitor experience. The results obtained indicate the potential of new data sources for visitor monitoring in protected areas and to open opportunities for future research. Moreover, monitoring tourism in protected areas is crucial to ensure the sustainability of their resources and to protect their biodiversity.

Dark sky tourism: economic impacts on the Colorado Plateau Economy, USA

Purpose This paper aims to examine the economic impact from dark-sky tourism in national parks in the USA on the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau is a region encompassing parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah that is known for its dark, star-filled night skies. Tourists in national parks are increasingly interested in observing this natural recreational amenity – especially considering that it is an ecological amenity that is quickly disappearing from the planet. Using a 10-year forecast of visitors to the national parks and using standard input-output modeling, it is observed that, for the first time anywhere, the value of dark skies to tourism in this area. The authors find that non-local tourists who value dark skies will spend $5.8bn over the next 10 years in the Colorado Plateau. These tourist expenditures will generate $2.4bn in higher wages and create over 10,000 additional jobs each year for the region. Furthermore, as dark skies are even more intense natural amenity in the non-summer months, they have the ability to increase visitor counts to national parks year-round and lead to a more efficient use of local community and tourism-related resources throughout the year. Design/methodology/approach Using a 10-year forecast of visitors to the national parks and using standard input-output modeling, we find that non-local tourists who value dark skies will spend $5.8bn over the next 10 years in the Colorado Plateau. Findings These tourist expenditures will generate $2.4bn in higher wages and create over 10,000 additional jobs each year for the region. Furthermore, as dark skies are even more intense natural amenity in the non-summer months, they have the ability to increase visitor counts to national parks year-round and lead to a more efficient use of local community and tourism-related resources throughout the year. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study has attempted to value the environmental amenity of dark skies.

The impact of a park refurbishment in a low socioeconomic area on physical activity: a cost-effectiveness study

BackgroundPhysical inactivity is the fourth highest cause of death globally and is a major contributor to increases in healthcare expenditure. Improving public open spaces such as parks in areas of low socio-economic position (SEP) may increase recreational physical activity in disadvantaged populations. We assessed the cost-effectiveness of the installation of a play-space in a large metropolitan park in a low socioeconomic area based on changes in physical activity.MethodsObservational data of visitor counts and activities undertaken in the park before the installation of the new play-scape (T1), at two months (T2) and 14 months post-installation (T3) were obtained for the intervention and a control park (with no refurbishment) located in a high SEP metropolitan area. Observed sitting, standing, and moderate and vigorous-intensity physical activity were converted to yearly MET-h according to age. Costs of the play-scape and ongoing maintenance were obtained from the organisation managing the refurbishment. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) (ratio of incremental cost to incremental effect) was calculated based on the incremental increase in MET-h from T1 to T3 assuming a 20-year lifetime of the play-scape. Observation counts combining moderate and vigorous activity were used in the sensitivity analysis.ResultsWhen compared with T1, at T3 the new play-scape resulted in an overall incremental net gain of 114,114 MET-h (95% UI: 80,476 − 146,096) compared with the control park and an incremental cost effectiveness ratio (or cost per MET-h gained per park visitor) of AUD $0.58 (95% UI: $0.44–$0.80).The sensitivity analysis combining moderate and vigorous activity into one category showed an increase in estimated incremental MET-h of 118,190 (95% CI: 83,528 − 149,583) and a lower incremental cost per MET-h gained of AUD $0.56 (95% UI: $0.43–$0.77).ConclusionsUsing a benchmark of cost-effectiveness for physical activity interventions of AUD $0.60–$1.30, this study suggests that the installation of a play-scape located in a low SEP area is cost-effective based on its potential to facilitate increases in MET-h. It provides much needed preliminary evidence and requires replication elsewhere.

Social carrying capacity assessment from questionnaire and counts survey: Insights for recreational settings management in coastal areas

Because of demographic and tourism increase, coastal areas are facing higher numbers of recreational users. Together with other factors (environmental quality, protection status), the level of use affects the spatial distribution of users. This level also affects the quality of user experience, because beyond a certain level, the number of users results in decreased user satisfaction; this is the social carrying capacity (SCC), which depends on user and site characteristics. This study assessed the SCC in a popular coastal area and examined how it influences the spatial distribution of users. Boat and visitor counts as well as data from a questionnaire-based survey were analyzed to assess i) crowding perception, ii) factors affecting the disturbance associated with use level, and iii) user's coping strategies when managing high use levels. The results demonstrated that crowding perception and disturbances associated with use level depend on-site characteristics, use level, and user characteristics. Boat type was the main factor affecting user's coping strategy. SCC significantly differed between sites and according to the use level anticipated by users. The SCC was fulfilled at every site within the marine protected areas, except for the sites experiencing the lowest use level. This study provides novel and valuable information for the field of recreational use management, when attempting to achieve either sustainable use goals through SCC assessment or biodiversity conservation goals through the effect of SCC on the spatial distribution of pressures related to recreational uses.

The dynamics of tourist excursion ratios in Slovakia show caves from 2000 to 2014

ABSTRACTShow caves are one of the most important targets in developing local ecotourism strategies. This work focuses on a tourism visit rate incidence through an Attractiveness Index concerning 12 selected show caves in Slovakia. Our study focuses on visitor counts published from 2000 to 2014. A set of eight criteria were selected in order to analyse and determine the appeal that each cave may have for visitors. Establishing the “degree” of appeal as an indicator of the tourism and geographic absolute attractiveness value is based on a principal components factor analysis; the resultant single factor was correlated with our selected criteria. We find a strong correlation between touristic cave attractiveness and cave locations, ease of cave passage access (vehicle and trail) infrastructures, cave location in main tourism regions, and the growth of urban areas as they encroach on show cave locations. Similar studies in valorization of show caves tourism have not been attempted in Slovakia or Eastern Europe. The data and result from this study are also clearly important from a managerial perspective. This general framework could be easily expanded to include additional attributes that might be relevant for other market segments or other vacation experiences.

Recreational use in dispersed public lands measured using social media data and on-site counts

Outdoor recreation is one of many important benefits provided by public lands. Data on recreational use are critical for informing management of recreation resources, however, managers often lack actionable information on visitor use for large protected areas that lack controlled access points. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential for social media data (e.g., geotagged images shared on Flickr and trip reports shared on a hiking forum) to provide land managers with useful measures of recreational use to dispersed areas, and to provide lessons learned from comparing several more traditional counting methods. First, we measure daily and monthly visitation rates to individual trails within the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (MBSNF) in western Washington. At 15 trailheads, we compare counts of hikers from infrared sensors, timelapse cameras, and manual on-site counts, to counts based on the number of shared geotagged images and trip reports from those locations. Second, we measure visitation rates to each National Forest System (NFS) unit across the US and compare annual measurements derived from the number of geotagged images to estimates from the US Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring Program. At both the NFS unit and the individual-trail scales, we found strong correlations between traditional measures of recreational use and measures based on user-generated content shared on the internet. For national forests in every region of the country, correlations between official Forest Service statistics and geotagged images ranged between 55% and 95%. For individual trails within the MBSNF, monthly visitor counts from on-site measurements were strongly correlated with counts from geotagged images (79%) and trip reports (91%). The convenient, cost-efficient and timely nature of collecting and analyzing user-generated data could allow land managers to monitor use over different seasons of the year and at sites and scales never previously monitored, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of recreational use patterns and values.

The REVAMP natural experiment study: the impact of a play-scape installation on park visitation and park-based physical activity

BackgroundDesigning parks that optimise visitation and support visitors to be active is important for public health. Yet there is very little evidence about whether playground refurbishment achieves these objectives. This study examined the impact of the installation of a play-scape in a large metropolitan park in Melbourne, Australia.MethodsNatural experiment study (intervention vs control). At both parks, park visitation and physical activity were assessed before (T1, 2013) and after the intervention at 12 (T2, 2014) and 24 months (T3, 2015). At each time point, measures included: observations of park visitors using the System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities on four weekdays and four weekend days, objective monitors to record usage of the walking paths and the number of cars entering the park; and intercept surveys with adult park visitors. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted with local residents at T1 and T3.ResultsThe observational data showed a 176% increase in park visitor counts from T1 to T2 (Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR) = 2.76, 95% CI = 1.04–7.33), at the intervention park relative to the control park. The intervention park had a 119% increase in counts of visitors observed engaging in MVPA from T1 to T2 (IRR = 2.19, 95% CI = 1.14–4.20), and a 128% increase from T1 to T3 (IRR = 2.28, 95% CI = 1.19–4.38), relative to the control park. The relative increases in visitation at the intervention park play-scape compared with the control park playground were highly statistically significant from both T1 to T2 (IRR = 18.12, 95% CI = 5.51–59.59) and T1 to T3 (IRR = 15.05, 95% CI = 4.61–49.16). Similarly, there was a significant interaction between time and park with regard to the number of visitors observed engaging in MVPA in the play-scape/playground areas. The intercept survey data showed an increased odds of children’s regular visitation to the intervention park at T2 (OR = 2.67, 95% CI = 1.08, 6.64), compared with T1, relative to the control park. The remaining results from the intercept survey, objective monitors and resident surveys showed no significant differences in visitation between the two parks.ConclusionsThese findings confirm that a well-designed play-scape installation has the potential to increase park visitation and encourage visitors to be physically active.Trial registrationCurrent controlled trial ISRCTN50745547.

Free and Open Source Software Tools For Implementation of Information Visualization in Libraries and Information Centers

Libraries generate and collect an enormous amount of data regarding usage statistics, circulation, visitor counts, budget, resource sharing data, Inter-Library Loan transactions, Document delivery statistics, etc. This collected data is interpreted for making policy decisions over library development and for the improvement of existing library services. Traditionally, libraries have been presenting the data using archaic tools such as simple graphics, tables, and charts. The recent phenomenon of Information Visualisation has provided tools and techniques for displaying information in innovative and creative ways to present abstract data. Considering the potential of Information visualisation, the tools and techniques provided by the field of Information visualisation should be exploited by the library and information centres for the presentation of library data. This paper presents an overview of various free and open source software tools available for better implementation of information visualisation in libraries for better decision making.

Instagram, Flickr, or Twitter: Assessing the usability of social media data for visitor monitoring in protected areas

Social media data is increasingly used as a proxy for human activity in different environments, including protected areas, where collecting visitor information is often laborious and expensive, but important for management and marketing. Here, we compared data from Instagram, Twitter and Flickr, and assessed systematically how park popularity and temporal visitor counts derived from social media data perform against high-precision visitor statistics in 56 national parks in Finland and South Africa in 2014. We show that social media activity is highly associated with park popularity, and social media-based monthly visitation patterns match relatively well with the official visitor counts. However, there were considerable differences between platforms as Instagram clearly outperformed Twitter and Flickr. Furthermore, we show that social media data tend to perform better in more visited parks, and should always be used with caution. Based on stakeholder discussions we identified potential reasons why social media data and visitor statistics might not match: the geography and profile of the park, the visitor profile, and sudden events. Overall the results are encouraging in broader terms: Over 60% of the national parks globally have Twitter or Instagram activity, which could potentially inform global nature conservation.

Models of count with endogenous choices

In transportation and traffic analysis count data arises frequently, collectively emerging from individual traveler choices from a choice set of alternatives. Examples include network origin-destination (OD) flow rates and visitor counts at sites, for example transit stations and public parks. From a modeling perspective, these data are aggregate counts at the top level, but are comprised of individual discrete choices at the lower level. Models of count data are widely applied in the transportation and traffic fields. However, only a moderate level of applications jointly model count observations at the top level with discrete choice models at the bottom level under a random utility maximization (RUM) framework. This paper considers modeling count data with an underlying choice process as a joint model that merges an observed event count process with a discrete choice process, where the count level is Poisson distributed. This model captures both processes within a single random utility framework that preserves a direct mapping between the count intensity and the utility of the chosen alternative, including unobserved variables and latent factors. The decision-making context examines discretionary activity type choice for activities completed within a one-day period. The results show that a model of count with endogenous choices can account for the mapping of impacts of choice attributes from the lower level towards the observed count at the top level emerging from choices, including the idiosyncratic term associated with the utility of choice alternatives. Furthermore, since this model preserves the linkage between the maximizing utility and rate parameter in the joint model, identifying the contribution of attributes between the two levels is possible.

Visitor Economic Impact Estimates of Garrett County, Maryland

It is a major challenge to estimate the total visitation of a destination without gate counts. This study proposes a modified ratio-based approach by which the visitor number and visitor volume at a county level (Garrett County, MD) are estimated using survey information on the sample percentage of a given visitor type antd the actual documentation of visitor counts of that visitor type. It is estimated that the total person-trips for the county are 1,117,744 during the survey period between August 2008 and July 2009 with an estimated total visitor spending being $243.3 million. Visitor economic impact analyses using IMPLAN indicate that visitors of the county have a total economic impact of $347.7 million in sales. The study shows that the county is quite comparable in terms of the total visitor spending with nearby ski resort counties in West Virginia and also competitive against most other counties in the state.

Monitoring recreation across European nature areas: A geo-database of visitor counts, a review of literature and a call for a visitor counting reporting standard

Nature recreation and tourism is a substantial ecosystem service of Europe's countryside that has a substantial economic value and contributes considerably to income and employment of local communities. Highlighting the recreational value and economic contribution of nature areas can be used as a strong argument for the funding of protected and recreational areas. The total number of recreational visits of a nature area has been recognised as a major determinant of its economic recreational value and its contribution to local economies. This paper presents an international geo-database on recreational visitor numbers to non-urban ecosystems, containing 1267 observations at 518 separate case study areas throughout Europe. The monitored sites are described by their centroid coordinates and shape files displaying the exact extension of the sites. Therefore, the database illustrates the spatial distribution of visitor counting throughout Europe and can be used for secondary research, such as for validation of spatially explicit recreational ecosystem service models and for identifying relevant drivers of recreational ecosystem services. To develop the database, we review visitor monitoring literature throughout Europe and give an overview of such activities with special attention to visitor counting. We identify one major shortcoming in the available literature, which relates to the presentation, study area definition and methodological reporting of conducted visitor counting studies. Insufficient reporting hampers the identification of the study area, the comparability of different studies and the evaluation of the studies' quality. Based on our findings, we propose a standardised reporting template for visitor counting studies and advanced data sharing for recreational visitor data. Researchers and institutions are invited to report on their visitor counting studies via our web interface at rris.biopama.org/visitor-reporting and thereby contribute to a global visitor database that will be shared via the ESP Visualisation tool. Management implicationsThe total annual visitor number is the most important variable for defining the relative importance and the economic recreational value of different recreational areas. Due to the importance of visitor counting and its increased attention in the scientific literature we:•present a geo-database on recreational visitor statistics for nature areas, which allows identifying sites for which visitor statistics exist and which can be used for secondary research•review current practice in recreational visitor counting across nature areas in Europe and give guidance for future applications,•identify shortcomings in the methodological reporting of recent visitor monitoring and counting studies and•present and recommend reporting standard for all future visitor counting studies in order to improve their comparability and to allow assessing their quality.•The reporting standard is translated into a web interface for visitor data collection, which allows for data sharing via a global map-browser.

An evaluation of crowdsourced information for assessing the visitation and perceived importance of protected areas

Parks and protected areas provide a wide range of benefits, but methods to evaluate their importance to society are often ad hoc and limited. In this study, the quality of crowdsourced information from Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) sources (Flickr, OpenStreetMap (OSM), and Wikipedia) was compared with visitor counts that are presumed to reflect social importance. Using the state of Victoria, Australia as a case study, secondary crowdsourced VGI data, primary crowdsourced (PPGIS data) and visitor statistics were examined for their correspondence and differences, and to identify spatial patterns in park popularity. Data completeness—the percent of protected areas with data—varied between sources, being highest for OSM (90%), followed by Flickr (41%), PPGIS (24%), visitation counts (5%), and Wikipedia articles (4%). Statistically significant correlations were found between all five measures of popularity for protected areas. Using stepwise multiple linear regression, the explained variability in visitor numbers was greater than 70%, with PPGIS, Flickr and OSM having the largest standardized coefficients. The social importance of protected areas varied as a function of accessibility and the types of values (direct or indirect use) expressed for the areas. Crowdsourced data may provide an alternative to visitor counts for assessing protected area social importance and spatial variability of visitation. However, crowdsourced data appears to be an unreliable proxy for the full range of values and importance of protected areas, especially for non-use values such as biological conservation.