Planning and Developing Trails and Routes - Tourism and Trails: Cultural, Ecological and Management Issues - page 180

and dichotomous mandate, it has been shown time and again to be possible.
Providing access includes many different duties and responsibilities. Foremost
among these are enabling entrance to as wide a market as possible, including
local residents and tourists from afar, and non-traditional users, such as people
with physical disabilities. Generally speaking, the duty to afford access also
includes promoting the use of trails via marketing efforts and building public
awareness, seeking funding for trail development and maintenance, and help-
ing benefit the communities involved by encouraging visitor spending. Some
of these issues will be addressed in more detail in the following chapter.
The responsibility to protect trails and their associated resources is
often facilitated by trail design, public education and other efforts to miti-
gate the effects of overuse or careless use. This section of the chapter is
structured around the following planning and development aspects: models
and planning processes, trail funding, the use of volunteers, acquiring trail/
land-use rights, participatory development, cooperation and collaboration,
and theming.

Planning models and processes
Planning and developing trails is a complex undertaking. Good planning
usually equals good trails with fewer conflicts and more durability (Baud-Bovy
& Lawson, 1998; Bergsma, 1988; Dolesh, 2004b; Nowers et al. , 2002). Several
scholars have outlined various planning processes for the creation of routes and
trails, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Hugo (1999: 141-152) sum-
marized a succinct ecotrail planning process composed of five phases: assess-
ment, planning, evaluation, implementation and monitoring (Figure 6.2).

ASSESSMENT
STAGE

PLANNING
STAGE

EVALUATION
STAGE

IMPLEMENTATION
STAGE

MONITOR/
AUDIT

Goals &
Objectives

Proposal Community

involvement

Maintenance

Planning of
trail
corridor &
phases
involved

Evaluate

Construction

Monitoring

Decision

Opening of
trail

Trail
Infrastructure

Auditing

Route
established

Accreditation

Figure 6.2 Comprehensive trail development model
Source: Modifi ed from Hugo (1999)