Opplevelser i relativt urørt natur med få andre folk

Abstract

This article presents a literature study of the comprehensive amount of North-American wilderness research. In recent years there has been a paradigm shift in national park policy and management in Norway from nature protection towards wise tourism use of the areas. A national branding strategy for National Park (NP) tourism and a program for development of local visitor strategies for NPs in Norway was presented in 2015 with the ambition to bolster local economies through tourism development in and around NPs while maintaining conservation interests. This implies a much more active visitor management approach, including different measurements and spatial zoning that take care of the spectrum of users to these areas. The core question is what kind of nature experiences these relatively wild areas offer for the users, and how management can safeguard the experience values. The literature study describes and discusses factors associated with a wilderness experience and identifies a list of factors that are often mentioned in research studies. We concluded, however, that wilderness experience can be interpreted as a relative size, depending on the users` experiences, expectations and something that stands in contrast to a more usual experience. Thus, wilderness experience will not only take part in large areas of INON areas, but also smaller non-developed wilderness-like areas in urban and peri-urban areas.