Researchers from the Digital Geography at the University of Helsinki have been studying whether social media data could be used to understand visitor’s activities in national parks and most recent results are presented in Scientific reports: Instagram, Flickr, or Twitter: Assessing the usability of social media data for visitor monitoring in protected areas.
Researchers from the Digital Geography at the University of Helsinki have been studying whether social media data could be used to understand visitor’s activities in national parks and most recent results are presented in Scientific reports: Instagram, Flickr, or Twitter: Assessing the usability of social media data for visitor monitoring in protected areas.
National parks are the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation and provide recreational benefits to humans. Park management and planning require up-to-date information about visitor amounts and their activities.
Collaboration with national park authorities in Finland and South Africa
“As conservation authorities often lack resources to carry out traditional visitor surveys, social media offer a novel and cheaper means of collecting such information”, says Dr. Enrico Di Minin, a conservation scientist investigating nature-based tourism benefits.
Read more at University of Helsinki
Image: Continuous social media feed allows real-time monitoring visitation patterns, emerging activities and changes in preferences of tourists in national parks. (Credit: Vuokko Heikinheimo)
