Crowding in Germany’s national parks: the case of the low mountain range Saxon Switzerland National Park. eco.mont (Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research)|eco.mont Vol. 5 No. 1 5 1|

摘要

Every year 1.7 million people visit the Saxon Switzerland National Park, resulting in avery high visitor density, especially in the western parts of the national park. This paperpresents the results of a survey conducted in 2011 (n = 312), which investigatedthe perception of crowding, influencing factors and displacement effects. Overall,nearly one third of the visitors (31.3%) felt crowded, with a maximum of 74.4% at theBastei rock, a popular spot within the park. Using a logistic regression, the numberof perceived encounters, plus motives and expectations were found to be the keyfactors to influence the perception of crowding. Nearly half of the visitors (48.7%)already act or plan to act on crowding, choosing temporal and spatial displacementstrategies in equal measure.