IANIGLA   20881
INSTITUTO ARGENTINO DE NIVOLOGIA, GLACIOLOGIA Y CIENCIAS AMBIENTALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Tourism impacts in mountain areas: Visitor`s perceptions in recreational areas of Nahuel Huapi National Park, Patagonian Andes, Argentina
Autor/es:
ANA AGUSTINA BARROS; ANA HERNANDO; SEBASTIÁN DARÍO ROSSI
Lugar:
Innsbruck
Reunión:
Conferencia; International Mountain Conference, Innsbruck, 08-12 September 2019; 2019
Resumen:
Along with images of dense forests, glaciers and lakes, around 1000 thousandvisitors per year visit Nahuel Huapi National Park (NHNP) in search of experiences inthe Patagonian Andes. The Park (750.000ha) is the oldest national protected area inSouth America and the most popular in the region. It is located next to San Carlos deBariloche city, a popular tourism destination in the region. Most of the imagespromoting tourism in this city represent the natural landscapes of the Park. Commonimpacts in the city includes water pollution, deforestation and fragmentation due tourbanization pressure and lack of environmental policies to regulate tourism use.Environmental impacts also go beyond city boundaries, due to the increase ofpopularity and unregulated use of trails in the Park which result in trail degradation,vegetation and soil loss. To better understand how visitors live and experience thisissue, perceptions of environmental impacts on trails were assessed at 3 emblematicvisitor´s locations in the Park of high conservation value and with different levels ofuse: Challhuaco, Frey Refuge and Gutierrez Lake. An on-site visitor survey wasconducted during the high season in January 2018. Visual simulations of different levelof impacts on trails were used to explore visitor?s degree of acceptability. Results showthat most respondents accept environmental impacts on trails, highlighting its physicaland biological components or landscape beauty and emotions. In Challhuaco area,respondents found strongly unacceptable having nature experiences in very highdegradedtrails while Frey refuge or Gutierrez lake respondents considered this mildlyunacceptable. This fact relates to factors such as previous experiences in the area orvisitor´s place of origin. Very few respondents considered high levels of impacts mainlydue to difficulty to walk and safety. These findings support previous research showingthat visitors are more concerned on risk and safety factors rather than environmentaldegradation.