Visitor monitoring in National Park

2009 The Curonian Spit: the main Main facts Lenght – 98km territory of LR– 52km territory of RF– 46km

The widest place – 3,8km (Bulvikis cape)

The most narrow place – 0,38km (RF, by Lesnoje)

The highest point – 67,2m (Vecekrugas or Senosios smuklės d.)

Settlements LR 5 – Smiltynė, Juodkrantė, , Preila, Nida (Alksnynės steading) 2,6 th. residents RF 3 – Morskoje (Pilkopa), Rybachy (Rasyte), Lesnoje (Sharkuva) 1,5 th. residents Kursiu nerija national park: the main facts

The area of the national park – 26464 ha.

9764 ha Land surface 16700 ha Waters: The aquatory–12500 ha The aquatory–4200ha.

Neringa municipality 8,98 th. of land surface.

Klaipėda city municipality 0,794 th. ha of land surface. Number of visitors

Entrance points to KNNP: ƒ Data from Ltd.“Smiltynes perkela” (2 ferry terminals) ƒ Data from Nida Border control quarter ƒ Data from Klaipeda sea port administration

Counting: 1. People 2. Transport: bicycles, cars, vehicles, ships, yachts, boats Summary of passengers ferried to both ways

|Data of Ltd.“Smiltynes perkela” Summary of cars ferried to both ways |Data of Ltd.“Smiltynes perkela” Summary of bicycles and motorcycles ferried both ways |Data of Ltd.“Smiltynes perkela”

Total: 2006 – 120 580 2007 – 126 489 2008 – 147 993 |Data from Nida Border control quarter Sumarry of ingoing and uotgoing persons and transport Visitor survey in the Curonian Spit National Park Methods: counting number of visitors (……. in activity of Visitors’s Centre of KNNP): 1. Tourists and visitors who directly are coming to VC 2. Number of visitors who are taking part in excursions 3. Visitors taking part in education activity, public events of KNNP 4. Visitors who are coming to Nature and culture landscape exposition of KNNP daily registration interview, inquiring questionnaire in writing form According to the low of Ministry of Environment in administration of the park is doing monitoring …………. 1.Counting of visitors in educational cognitive paths (2 time per year, one day in the same place) 2.Counting of visitors in the places of camping, recreation, picnic Not effective Visitors survey in KNNP

Visitors survey in KNNP

Visitors of National park VC 2008

Germany 584 Lithuania 518 Latvia 311 X 148 Estonia 114 Czechia 109 Russia 102 Italy 63 G.Britain 61 France 49 Finland 45 Poland 44 USA 33 Australia 33 Netherlands 24 Sweden 24 Spain 20 Visitors survey in KNNP Visitors survey in KNNP c Visitors survey in KNNP

Visitors survey in KNNP Conclusions The distribution of visitor flows mainly depends on good weather. Activity concentrates in the settlements and it’s surroundings. 80 - 85% of holidaymakers are in the beaches during the sunny days. The using of natural recreation resources [beaches, sea, forest] is very intensive in active summer season – 2,5 months (75 days). The capacity of the small territory of coastline of the dunes has the biggest load [impact] of outdoor recreation [80 – 85 % off all visitors]. The main problem is the destruction of protective dune as a result of uncontrolled visitor flows [settlement Smiltyne]. Problems

Recreation monitoring system Number of visitors in the different zones and areas Intensity of visits in recreation and other zones Measure of carrying capacity New methodology for a costal recreational zones. Thank You!