Managing Routes and Trails - Tourism and Trails: Cultural, Ecological and Management Issues - page 215

Supply Versus Demand Techniques

Management can sometimes focus on supply and demand techniques.
It is common for any discussion of visitor attractions, heritage manage-
ment and managing tourism impacts to provide a list of actions managers
can adopt. Hall and McArthur (1998) provided an extensive list of visi-
tor management techniques (Table 7.1) - those that are supply-driven or
demand-focused.
Hall and Lew (2009: 271) later simplified this approach, noting that
supply perspectives include:

• increasing or decreasing the number of attractions and supporting facilities;

• increasing or reducing accessibility to sites and facilities;

• hardening, softening, protecting or modifying attractions sites;

• spatially concentrating or dispersing sites and facilities.

Demand perspectives include marketing enhancements and educational
campaigns, human resource and service development, and behavioral guide-
lines and regulations. While these are all familiar tactics mostly adopted by

Table 7.1 Visitor management techniques

Supply techniques Demand techniques

Regulating access by:
• area (zoning)
• transport
Regulating visitation by:
• numbers and group size
• type of visitor
Regulating equipment
Modifying the site by:
• hardening
• softening

Regulating behavior
Implementing entry or user fees
Undertaking research on
• the market
• visitor monitoring
Undertaking marketing on:
• promotions
• strategic information
Providing programs for:
• interpretation
• education
Using accredited organizations to bring
visitors to a site
Encouraging and assisting alternative
providers:
• the tourist industry
• volunteers

Source: Modifi ed from Hall and MacArthur (1998: 108-110).