A Relationship between Number of Campers and Crowding Perception at Campsites in Daisetsuzan National Park

Abstract

Establishing carrying capacity requires investigation of the characteristics of visitors' crowding perception, various factors such as for examples, perceived number of other visitors, visitors' experiences, their expectation of density and significance of crowding.
This study examined the relationships of actual use levels, perceived use levels, desirable use levels and visitors' crowding perception at campsites in Daisetsuzan National Park. We examined the differences between desirable use levels and acceptable use levels. For these purposes, visitors' perceptions and views of use level were acquired by the questionnaire survey.
The subjects perceived lower use levels than actual use levels at high use levels. The results indicated that desirable use levels were stable to actual use levels. Therefore, it is apparent that an increase of actual use level increased the difference between actual or perceived use levels and desirable use levels. The increase of those difference increased crowding perception and decreased preference of density at campsites. Also it was revealed that desirable use levels were lower than acceptable use levels.