European Forest Recreation and Tourism

A Handbook

Simon Bell, Murray Simpson, Simon Bell, Murray Simpson, Lisa Tyrväinen, Tuija Sievänen, Ulrike Pröbstl

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781135211202
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Arquitectura
• Subtopic: Planificación urbana y paisajismo

*Please note the 2015 paperback is a reprint of the original 2008 hardback*

In an increasingly urbanized world more and more people are turning to our forests and woodland for recreation and tourism. Planning and providing for this growing demand poses challenges that need to be addressed by managers and designers alike.

Based on a study of forest recreation from across Europe, the editors bring together the expertise of more than eighty leading professionals and academics to provide a clear and concise guide to best practice. Case studies and careful research give a detailed insight into the issues that forest recreation raises, from strategic planning to integration into the existing rural economy.

Essential reading for tourism planners, landscape designers and countryside managers delivering forest recreation and tourism.

1 Forest recreation and nature tourism in Europe: context, history and current situation

Ulrike Pröbstl, Birgit Elands and Veronika Wirth

Introduction: history, background and trends

Modern forms and patterns of recreation and nature tourism are products of the industrialised society. Forest recreation can be said to go back to mediaeval times when kings and aristocrats took part in hunting. Tourism started in the eighteenth century when rich people embarked on Grand Tours, crossing the Alps and experiencing the sublime, later also visiting other places around Europe where mountains, lakes, coastlines and forests gave access to ‘wild’ nature (Bell 2008). Outdoor recreation for the middle classes developed in the nineteenth century once railways permitted easier travel for those with time to spend. Recreation in forests still included – and continues to include – hunting but expanded to hiking and sight-seeing. The royal hunting forests were often opened up to the public as one of the first types of parks, often as a result of social pressure and also as cities expanded and grew to meet these areas. For most working people, until the socialist and trades union movements improved working conditions, their only time off work was a Sunday so that these were the main times they could relax, stroll in a green area, obtain fresh air and exercise and meet other people for different social activities. Forests were associated especially with freedom from social control and recovering from work (see Riehl 1857 in Ammer and Pröbstl 1991). Furthermore, the collection of products such as berries and mushrooms was and still is a popular activity in many areas. As cities grew, they attracted people from the countryside, who liked to continue some traditional activities and to supplement their diets with natural products. After the Second World War, especially in Western Europe, the increase in mobility, facilitated by an extensive road network for cars, an increase in mass car ownership and a growth of the amount of free time opened new opportunities for recreation and tourism. The development of the so-called ‘recreation society’ and an increasing demand for different forms of recreation can be seen across Europe from the 1960s. In the central and eastern European countries the Communist system institutionalised recreation, offering holidays for the workers to different places, such as forests and mountains with sanatoria and other facilities but there was significantly less car ownership and people still tended to travel by train. People today have more leisure time and more money to spend than ever. Most people’s leisure time exceeds the hours spent on paid work. For example, on average adults in the UK over 16 years old spend just 13 per cent of their lifetime in paid work or study, whereas 22 per cent of their lifetime is spent at leisure, of which some includes outdoor recreation of some kind (Roberts 2006).

The enormous rise in recreational use of European forests in the 1960s and 1970s also led to the creation of new forms of protected areas focusing on social function such as the ‘Nature Park’, which provides a beautiful landscape for ‘stressed modern people’ (Toepfer 1956 in Pröbstl 2004). Most of these parks are located in heavily forested landscapes and they have been established in most of the central European countries. The increasing demand of recreation also placed significant pressure on the forests in or within easy reach of urban areas. Examples of the former royal hunting forests play an important role here (as noted above) such as Fontainebleau near Paris, the New Forest within reach of London, or the Forstenrieder Park near Munich. The increase in recreation demand also leads to an increase in infrastructure, the development of new visitor facilities, while it has also become a significant factor not only in forest planning but also in regional planning and city development plans.

At present the importance of the social function of forests – for recreation, as a source of health and well-being and for nature tourism – is becoming increasingly recognised. The importance of forests for leisure purposes can be simply illustrated by looking at the visitor numbers for a sample of countries, although the figures are difficult to compare due to differing definitions of what constitutes a visit and what counts as a forest, as well as methodological differences. For French forests about 1192 million visits a year are reported and for Swedish forests about 373 million visits a year by people between 18 and 74 years old (European Communities, 2002).The importance of the forested environment for recreation purposes is even more visible when the visits of forests are compared with other regional destinations. Elands and Van Koppen (2007) showed that 58 million visits a year to Dutch forests must be seen in the context of 26 million visits a year to the beach, sea and dunes and 27 million visits a year to lakes, rivers and ponds (visits of at least two hours).

Leisure and recreation is big business. In Britain, for example, in 2005 leisure expenditure accounted for around 18 per cent of all consumer spending, depending on exactly what is classed as leisure (Research and Markets 2005). Recreation and tourism can also claim to be the world’s largest industry. It is also an important source of employment. Roberts (2006) stresses the fact that leisure remains one of the few economic sectors in which employment growth is predicted: hence the interest of businesses and authorities in villages, towns, cities, regions and countries throughout the world in gaining the largest possible share of the leisure market that they can. In many rural areas of Europe, tourism is seen as the last resort for preventing the migration of younger people to urban areas (Elands and Wiersum, 2003).

Tourism within and between European countries is changing as new areas become popular and new types of tourism activity are developed. Of the motives for tourism, ‘landscape experience’ and ‘nature experience’ are among the most important, after the classical expectations of ‘relaxing’ and ‘escaping everyday circumstances’ (See Figure 1.1). For example, more than 50 per cent of German travellers are looking for nature and ecological integrity at their tourism destination, while in Finland, in 2004, 40 per cent of the population took nature trips (Tyrvainen 2004). The natural character of forests means that they are also seen as providing important benefits to operators of nature tourism, a growing market at the present time.

The forests of Europe continue to offer attractive experiences but only as long as their natural qualities are retained. Exploitation of forests for timber production may have negative effects on the qualities of the landscapes in which recreation takes place. There is also a danger that, by identifying and over-promoting prominent natural areas for recreation and tourism, large numbers of visitors and their associated impacts can significantly degrade what most people value in the area. Visitor use can negatively affect both the environment and the quality of visitor experiences (Bell 2008; Arnberger and Haider 2007; Moigneu 2005; Schemel et al. 2000). In order to improve any services offered, ensure all stakeholders are satisfied and that the integrity of the environment is maintained, it is essential that management strategies and impacts are continuously monitored, evaluated and reviewed. Poorly developed and maintained facilities may devalue the very qualities that people have come to experience and over-use may result in environmental degradation. Thus, forest recreation and tourism has to be sustainable at the site level and over the forest as a whole. The need for related marked research on the visitors to assess their satisfaction with the area and facilities poses a new challenge for forest managers and recreation and tourism providers.

1.1 Nature tourism is an increasing market, with forest landscapes providing a major setting. Photo: Ulrike Pröbstl.

The actual demand for recreation or nature tourism in any given forest area is influenced by several societal trends as well as developments in politics and forest management. Recently a number of attempts have been made to try to anticipate the trends in outdoor recreation demand likely to result from changes already underway in society. One example has been carried out in England by the Henley Centre who produced a report for Natural England which attempted to evaluate trends likely to affect outdoor recreation over the next 15 to 20 years. This report identified a large number of drivers that may affect recreation (Henley Centre 2005). The initial list can be expanded and grouped into a number of major themes that are likely to affect different countries and regions in different ways and to different degrees. The main issues in this context are (see also Bell et al. 2007):

• demographic change
• the affluent society
• health and well-being
• re-spiritualisation
• globalisation
• balance of work and leisure
• the information and knowledge society
• environmental awareness
• changes in forest management.

Demographic change

Many statistics demonstrate the major effect of a range of demographic changes (Eurostat 2006), such as population decline in many parts of Europe. In most urban areas in Europe, however, population growth through immigration is a significant factor. The demographic changes include the ageing society, where people are living longer, a trend for people to have children later, lower birth rates leading to families with fewer children, a wider range of household types, migration of young people from the countryside to cities, rural depopulation, reducing populations in some countries and increasing populations in others. These changes result in different patterns in the use of leisure and recreation time, for example older retired people may have many years for participating in recreation although as they grow older their physical abilities reduce. This older generation may also consider preventative medical care, such as visits to spas, as an important component of their life. Society is also characterised by an increasing number of new types of partnerships and changing family structures, which affect the supply and demand of recreation facilities. For example, recreational suppliers increasingly target single parent households with youth camps, and special group offers. As people have children at later ages they are able to spend more time travelling or take more holidays in the years before they start a family.

The affluent society

As developed countries become more prosperous and people have higher average incomes they are able to spend a greater proportion of their income on leisure and recreation activities. This factor is also linked to the development of a ‘convenience culture’, to the rise of the empowered consumer, who wants more choice, and to changing work patterns enabling people to use leisure time more flexibly. As economies mature and people already possess most of the tangible consumer products that they want, they start to desire intangible products such as experiences, often gained through leisure and recreation, and especially through travel to far-off places and in the pursuit of extreme adrenaline sports and experiences. The evidence of this can be seen in some of the statistics related to nature tourism in developing countries. Some of the factors that have contributed to this growth trend in nature tourism are that people are looking for new experiences, adding diversity to their experiences, combining business travel with holidays and looking to ‘get back to nature’ (Maetzold 2002). In Europe, pressure on leisure time is leading people to go on more, but shorter, trips (ETC 2006). In addition, increased incomes and the growth of single-person households among the youth market (16–35 age group) which accounts for over 20 per cent of global tourism, are expected to result in more active holidays, particularly adventure nature tourism (ETC 2006).

Health and well-being

Closely related to the demographic changes are an increasing relevance of health and wellbeing. One reason is that society is increasingly concerned about the physical and mental health of its citizens, with many conditions such as obesity and stress seen as reaching epidemic proportions. Part of the concept of well-being is also associated with social inclusion, where people from disadvantaged communities are able to take part fully in society. Disability, age, poverty and poor living environments are often associated with each other and with poor health and well-being. This has led to a desire to make the outdoors, especially more natural areas, accessible and used by as many people as possible. Research is showing increasing evidence of positive linkages between natural or green areas and human health and well-being, both physical and mental, for all ages (Bell et al. 2008).

Re-spiritualisation

Another trend is that of so-called ‘re-spiritualisation’, which can be seen in an increasing amount of publications in the field of esoteric a...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on the authors
• Contact details
• COST
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Forest recreation and nature tourism in Europe: context, history, and current situation
• PART I
• PART II
• PART III