78 | ClimaParks - Climate change and management of protected areas
opening hours at the Park’s reception. Prior to arriving at the Park, visitors can check on the camera of the Park’s web portal for the basic weather conditions at both weather stations. Within the framework of the program entitled The effectiveness of managing protected areas in Slovenia, Final report of the RAPPAM analysis, tourism and recreation are specified as activities posing potential pressure and threats to the protected areas (Kus & Sovinc, 2009), even though we cannot talk about tourism in the majority of cases, but of protected area visitation. The authors assess that pressures and threats are the greatest at Triglav National Park, while in smaller protected areas, such as Sečovlje Salina, they are moderate or small. These data are based on the estimates made by the areas’ managers and not on the grounds of results obtained through analyses of the gathered data, which means that their interpretation can be false. Even more, any conclusions as to the impacts exerted on protected areas by “tourism and recreation,” without acquiring accurate data on the number of visitors and their habits is, to put it mildly, speculative. In accordance with the biodiversity conservation strategy in Slovenia, “tourism” can pose a development opportunity for the areas with high natural assets, although only under the condition that it does not diminish biodiversity, that it reduces utilization of non-renewable sources and follows the principles of sustainable visitation, which has to include preservation of diversity, characteristics and beauties of nature and landscape. Sustainable visitation of protected areas should be understood as opportunity and not as pressure or threat. Intense cooperation between the nine parks within the Climaparks project in the implementation of various project tasks will contribute to the exchange of good practices and strengthening of cooperation between Slovenia and Italy. By setting up a joint measuring and observation network we expect to build above all a solid foundation for the preparation of comparative analyses, which can then be carried out for the first time within and between separate parks. We are upgrading the existing and establishing new methods of visitation monitoring for the purpose of assessing the trends and adaptation of the visitation management. Within the framework of the Climaparks’ “Sustainable visitation of parks” work package, regular monitoring of the Park’s visitors and their counting at both entrances was introduced. In the 2006–2012 period, the Park was visited by 267,743 people. The carrying capacity concept is not uniformly defined, for different definitions have been presented by different authors. Chamberlain (1997) defines the tourist carrying capacity as a level of the activities by man that can somehow still be tolerated by the environment, without this environment getting destroyed and without the local population being affected or the visitors’ satisfaction reduced. According to the World Tourist Organization’s definition, the carrying capacity is stipulated with the maximum number of tourists at a certain tourist destination, which would not yet negatively affect the natural and social environment and reduce the tourists’
satisfaction (Mangion, 2001). With regard to the considered environment’s ecological capacity, which is linked primarily to the changes of biophysical environment owing to the “tourist use,” and social carrying capacity that presents the attitude of both local population and visitors to the environment, use of natural resources and environmental pollution as well as satisfaction of both with the offer and development of visitation in protected areas, the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park’s management stipulated as the upper limit of the still acceptable max. 50,000 visitors per year, which means that 300 visitors at the most can frequent the Park at the same time, or 900 visitors at the most per day.
2010 In 2010, the Sečovlje Salina was visited by 35,010 people. 24,902 of these visited the Lera area, while 10,108 people visited the Museum of Salt-making at Fontanigge. At Lera, 395 guided tours attended by 12,693 visitors (predominantly school groups and pensioners) were accomplished. In 2010, 67 annual passes as well as 1,390 family admission tickets, 9,526 tickets for adults and 13,902 tickets for children, schoolchildren, students and pensioners were sold at Lera. From the beginning of visitor counting on 1 November 2010, about 70 visitors entering the Park free of charge were counted.
2011 In 2011, Sečovlje Salina Nature Park was visited by the record-breaking 47,430 people. 38,702 of these visited the Lera area, while 8,728 people visited the Museum of Saltmaking at Fontanigge. At Lera, 529 guided tours attended by 16,753 visitors were accomplished; most of these were school groups and pensioners, but the number of foreign visitors is increasing as well. In 2011, 27 annual passes as well as 1,801 family admission tickets, 9,202 tickets for adults and 15,529 tickets for children, schoolchildren, students and pensioners were sold. 11,745 visitors entered the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park free of charge, while 56 groups with a total of 1,347 visitors were enabled free guidance through the Park. 100 annual passes were donated to all participants of the cleaning action. The Park was entered by land by a total of 43,082 visitors (90.84% of all visitors), while 4,348 visitors (9.16% of all visitors) arrived by sea. A total 2,291 of these landed at Lera and 2,057 visitors at Fontanigge. Among those coming to the Park by boats were mostly school groups.
2012 In 2012, the Park was visited by 45,000 people: 36,729 of these visited the Lera area, 8,281 the Museum of Salt-making at Fontanigge. At Lera, no less than 431 guided tours attended by 13,585 visitors were accomplished. Most of these were