A new model proposal for visitor management in planning national parks: Case of Altındere Valley National Park (Macka/Trabzon)

Intensive and unconscious utilization of national parks by visitors causes severe damages and deterioration on the resource values. As a result of this, beginning from 1964, numerous models of visitor management have been developed in order to minimize these undesired impacts. However, these models have been prepared in accordance with the legal, social and cultural conditions of especially the USA and European countries. From this point of view, a new model called "Visitor Impact Management in National Parks (NP-VIM)", which comply with the peculiar conditions of Turkey, is proposed in the current study with specific attention to Altındere Valley National Park. The developed model is based on two foundations: protection and utilization. So as to identify the structure of protection, "Ecological Sensitivity Analysis" was done through the technique of "Analytical Hierarchy Process" and "Visual Landscape Analysis" was conducted making use of "Visual Landscape Quality Assessment". In order to determine the utilization structure, on the other hand, the inventory of activity areas was made, and the impact problems were revealed, subsequently preparing activity action plans. Afterwards, the holistic visitor management framework and principles were determined for the study area. A survey study was conducted on the groups of specialists and administrators for the ecological sensitivity analysis and visual landscape analysis, while another one was implemented to visitors so that we could identify the visitor profile, utilization trends of the given area, activity inventory, current problems and inadequacies in the area. In the light of the findings, it is assumed that the current study could serve as a guide that can be used in other national parks in Turkey.