Managing Routes and Trails - Tourism and Trails: Cultural, Ecological and Management Issues - page 229

These are important for monitoring trail behavior and finding out what ele-
ments of a trail, or the level of degradation, are most and least acceptable to
the visitor. However, Wolfe et al. (2012) argue that visitor surveys should be
considered a supplementary data source to first-hand observations, given
that consumers often do not recognize the spatial aspects of trails as por-
trayed on maps and photographs.
Additional monitoring mechanisms have been introduced in recent years
that are helpful in keeping track of visitors and their route-based activities.
Digital tracking technologies, such as satellite navigation devices, land-based
tracking mechanisms and other global positioning systems (GPS)-based tools
can be extremely expedient in identifying how tourists or recreationists use
networks of trails spatially and temporally, such as in historic cities or
national parks (Shoval & Isaacson, 2007, 2009; Wolfe et al. , 2012). Even other
electronic media, such as digital guides (Bohlin & Brandt, 2014) at museums,
historic sites and natural settings, have the potential to assist managers in
analyzing the spatial behavior of visitors. Cameras have long been useful in
assessing trail impacts, and, with improved technology in recent years, they
are becoming more capable of providing better-detailed images for analysis.
For example, Timothy and Groves (2001) demonstrated how webcam images
can be applied to trail settings to capture numbers of users at certain times
of the day, their activities and their behaviors.
Targeted marketing
Heritage trails and routes represent new marketing opportunities that
have been less promoted in destinations compared to other cultural 'attrac-
tions', such as sites of thanatourism or pilgrimage (Timothy & Boyd, 2006).
While promoting trails is an important part of management, it has long been
met with trepidation on the part of some public lands agencies given the
potential negative ecological impact of overuse. Nevertheless, since one of the
primary goals of trail managers is to provide public access to outdoor experi-
ences, as opposed to some land management premises that are geared more
toward preservation, this is less of an issue in the context of recreation and
tourism corridors. It is important for managers also to realize that trails can
be marketed in ways that strike a balance between use and conservation.
Most of the promotion for routes, footpaths and other trails is done by
word of mouth and the media. Their popularity inspires users to share their
experiences with other potential consumers, who then also become involved
in trail encounters. Mass marketing is rarely done for short-distance and
nature-based routes, but it is fairly common for heritage trails, especially in
the developing world. Boosterist approaches to mass marketing, where
increased tourist numbers and expenditures are the primary goal, rarely suc-
ceed in the trails context, for as other sections of this topic have noted,
crowded conditions on routeways severely diminish the cultural or natural
experience for visitors.