Developing Economic Policy Instruments for Tourism Management in Protected Areas

Protected areas (PAs) are the main strategy for area-based nature conservation, and they provide opportunities for rural development through tourism and recreation. Economic policy instruments help PAs to manage commercial activities by regulating visitor flows and providing revenues to strengthen infrastructure and oversight. We employ Icelandic National Parks as a case study of the challenges, opportunities and constraints associated with introducing a concession system to regulate commercial tourism. We summarize and review how the legal framework is used and conduct 21 semi-structured interviews to elicit PA manager and business stakeholder views regarding concessions. Our study answers the literature calling for more studies on concessions and is novel in the context of the Nordic rights to roam. Our results show Iceland has introduced a comprehensive, legally-binding framework for concessions. Stakeholders generally agree that commercial activities need to be regulated, and concession revenues are an important source of financing for the PAs. However, concessions have been introduced primarily with economic motives, and the main challenge is to integrate holistic sustainability into concession contracts with social and environmental criteria. Overlaps and conflicts in the legal regulatory framework contribute to this challenge and could be initially addressed by clear policies providing guidance and interpretation.