Abstract |
Nature Park Telašcica is a protected area situated in the southeastern part of the island of Dugi Otok. It has been protected since 1980 due to valuable plant and animal life, geological and geomorphologic phenomena, and valuable archaeological heritage. There are strong daily and seasonal oscillations in visitor numbers. Seasonally, visitor numbers peak from mid-July to mid-August. During that period, visitor numbers peak daily between 11:00 h and 15:00 h because numerous excursion ships bring large numbers of visitors into the Park during that time. Large number of visitors at a same time, often resulting in crowding, has been hypothesized to be detrimental to visitor experience. The perception of crowding, however, does not correlate linearly with the actual number of people, but highly depends on the context of the experience. While in concert halls only extremely high densities reduce experience (and some crowding may be essential to a positive experience), even small crowds can be detrimental to an experience in nature, where solitude is sought for. Salt lake Jezero Mir locality of the Park has been suggested to be susceptible to such detrimental effects of crowding because it is a relatively small area frequented by 82% of the Parks visitors. |