A Study on Crowding Perception of Visitors in Daisetsuzan National Park

Abstract

Increasing recreational use of natural park affects natural resources and visitor satisfaction. Study of carrying capacity in nature parks will be needed for a suitable management.
The purposes of this paper were to explore the relationships among visitor crowding, visitor per-ception of encounters with others and actual use levels and to grasp the effects of personal attributes on visitor crowding. As a case study, Daisetsuzan National Park was chosen for these purposes.
Actual use levels included visitor density, number of parties encountered and number of visitors encountered. Visitor perception of encounters and visitor crowding were gained by questionnaire survey to visitors on a trail segment.
The results showed that visitor crowding was more related to visitor perception of encounters than to actual use levels. It was suggested that the process of visitor perception of encounters and visitor crowding was affected by their previous experience of Daisetsuzan National Park.