About MMV

Natural areas have significant value as places of rest, relaxation, and recreation. Outdoor recreation is recognized as being an important part of maintaining a healthy work life balance and thus a “good” quality of life. Recreation also stimulates economic development, particularly in rural areas, through activities such as ecotourism. It is generally recognized that other factors, such as demographic shifts, greater amounts of free time, and increased travel development, will likely lead to future increases in demand for outdoor recreation in developed countries. This increase in interest in such activities will also call for management strategies which take into account people’s expectations, needs, and behaviors.

MMV conferences allow researchers to share ideas and experiences relating to the many facets of visitor monitoring and management, more specifically policies, problems, and innovative solutions to those problems.

Previous MMV conferences:

• 2002, Vienna, Austria
• 2004, Rovaniemi, Finland
• 2006, Rapperswil, Switzerland
• 2008, Montecatini Terme, Italy
• 2010, Wageningen, The Netherlands
• 2012, Stockholm, Sweden
• 2014, Tallin, Estonia
• 2016, Novi Sad, Serbia

Documentation from these conferences is available at Link to previous MMV conferences

About the conference MMV9

The proposed conference theme will be “recreation, place and local development”. The underlying assumption is that recreational areas are not just physical assets “waiting” to receive visitors but that they must be perceived in a relational way, e.g. as social constructs. When compared with typical MMV issues, this sub theme raises new questions. How can monitoring practices acknowledge such “place based” effects? What tools can be used to describe such social relationships? It can be argued that the local development induced by nature-based tourism is partly endogenous. Beside natural and physical assets, it relies on “specific” social resources that are key factors in destination differentiation.

Questions to be considered may include but are not limited to the above-mentioned theme. Since 2002, MMV conferences have included presentations on a wide variety of topics. The list below is by no means exhaustive, and we would welcome any other presentations on innovative and exploratory subjects, as well as special sessions. Examples of sessions include:

• Development in visitor monitoring (including new NTIC tools)
• Trend and social patterns in outdoor recreation participation
• Children in nature: experiences, learning and health
• Outdoor recreation in urban proximate nature
• Spatial planning, resolving conflicts and safeguarding access
• Integrating outdoor recreation and nature conservation
• Education, outdoor learning and communicating nature
• Nature experiences and environmental awareness
• Environmental values and attitudes in outdoor recreation
• Nature based tourism & Ecotourism
• Nature based sports
• Commercialization of nature
• The economics of outdoor recreation
• Managing visitor impacts on destination communities
• Methodological and theoretical developments in outdoor recreation research