| Abstract |
Geocaching originated in the year 2000 in the USA as a leisure activity, which requires the recreationists to find containers (so-called geocaches) based on their coordinates posted online. Since geocaches are often hidden off-trail in natural environments, protected areas are likely to be affected by this activity (Brost & Quinn 2011). Previous analysis has shown that the Donau-Auen National Park, which is partly located within the boundaries of Austria’s capital city of Vienna and which is under a large amount of public use pressure (Arnberger & Hinterberger 2003, Tazcanowska et al. 2006), is most heavily affected by geocaching amongst all six Austrian national parks – both in terms of the number of caches hidden and in terms of the number of visits logged online (Hodl 2013). |
