Integrated Tourism Management Case Study: Use Limits on the Tongariro Crossing ESTABLISHING INTEGRATIVE USE LIMITS ON THE TONGARIRO CROSSING, TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK FINAL REPORT AUGUST 2007 Paul Blaschke, Blaschke and Rutherford, 34 Pearce St, Wellington 2, New Zealand,
[email protected] Pauline Whitney, Boffa Miskell Ltd, PO Box 11 340, Wellington, New Zealand,
[email protected] The work reported here is a case study for the project “Integrated planning and managing of natural areas for tourism-related development”, funded by the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Views expressed are not those of the Foundation for Science, Research and Technology, nor of the Department of Conservation. i Integrated Tourism Management Case Study: Use Limits on the Tongariro Crossing ii Integrated Tourism Management Case Study: Use Limits on the Tongariro Crossing Executive Summary Natural areas attract considerable tourism growth in New Zealand and internationally; while at the same time there is increasing concern about managing the environmental effects of tourism. This action case study addresses a number of management issues for the Tongariro Crossing (the Crossing) in the Tongariro National Park (TNP), New Zealand. Use of the walk has increased rapidly in the last 15 years and many users and managers now feel that the social carrying capacity is being reached or exceeded at times. As well as issues around the number of walkers, there are issues around the management of physical impacts on tracks and vegetation, management of human waste, cultural impacts of large numbers of visitors to an area of great importance to Maori, social impacts of different user groups, marketing, safety management, road-end management, and options for commercial guiding services.