A methodology to evaluate the management of tourism in protected natural areas

Abstract

There are several methodologies to evaluate the management of protected areas, but there are no references focused exclusively on tourism activity. Therefore, this research proposes a methodology to determine the tourism management in individual protected areas. For this, six international documents related to tourism, nature and culture were reviewed, and six criteria were obtained to assess the tourism management in protected natural areas. Interviews were conducted with 24 specialists from the tourism and protected natural areas and information was obtained to determine the variables to be evaluated within the six determined criteria. A first evaluation matrix was developed with a numerical evaluation system to be applied to the criteria and variables, which was presented and discussed in a validation workshop with 14 specialists. Finally, with the comments and suggestions obtained, the refinement of the matrix and the numerical evaluation was carried out, with which 56 variables were obtained to be analyzed for the six criteria. Each of the variables was assigned four levels of qualification. Using scores and comparative graphs, it is possible to determine which are the criteria that should be worked the most and, within them, which are the strongest or weakest variables, to apply greater efforts in their development. This methodology is expected to contribute to the systematic development of tourism in protected natural areas, under the concepts of sustainability.