An International Conference on Overtourism Organized by ISTHIA in Foix

On Wednesday, February 19, 2025, the Institut Supérieur du Tourisme, de l’Hôtellerie et de l’Alimentation (ISTHIA) of the Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès will host Mateusz Rogowski, a researcher from the Department of Tourism and Recreation at Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań, Poland), for a conference titled “Visitor Monitoring in Protected Natural Areas to Address Overtourism Mitigation.” The event will take place from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM at the Foix Campus, Centre Universitaire de l’Ariège, in the Jean Froidure Amphitheater.

Master’s students in Tourism and Development will have the opportunity to attend this event in person, as part of efforts to raise awareness about current challenges in sustainable tourism. The conference will also be accessible online, with registration available via the QR code on the event poster.

Mateusz Rogowski will present the results of research conducted in the Table Mountains National Park in Poland, which has had a tourist traffic monitoring system in place since 2016. He will detail the Method of Overtourism Optimization, based on the analysis of visitor behavior and data from several national parks in Central Europe. This method aims to identify concrete actions to reduce the impact of overtourism on protected natural areas while improving their management.

This conference is aimed at students, researchers, and professionals involved in the management of protected natural areas or tourism development. It will explore innovative strategies to balance ecosystem preservation and growing tourist flows.

VISITOR MONITORING IN PROTECTED NATURAL AREAS TO ADDRESS OVERTOURISM MITIGATION

The increase in tourist traffic in national parks has made tourism management more challenging. To improve management, park managers need reliable data on visitor numbers and behavior, which is provided by visitor monitoring. This monitoring offers both quantitative data on visitor numbers and qualitative data on their needs and behaviors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed visitor behavior, increasing tourist traffic, especially in easily accessible mid-mountain parks. This trend, along with climate change extending favorable weather periods, has made overtourism a major challenge. To address this, the Method of Overtourism Optimization was developed. This method uses visitor monitoring data and surveys to diagnose overtourism and create optimization actions.

The issue will be illustrated using the case of the Table Mountains National Park in southwestern Poland, where a Tourist Traffic Monitoring System has been in operation since 2016. These analyses will be supplemented by results from other national parks in the European Central Uplands region.