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Abstract |
Increasingly those monitoring and managing natural areas are interested to know what people talk about in relation to these landscapes and tourism and recreation activities within them. But obtaining such data can be challenging with methods such as surveys, focus groups, interviews and others limited in scale and time due to logistical and financial constraints. With increasing debate occurring online about a wide range of issues, it is increasingly possible to listen into such discussions to monitor who talks about what places and issues and how they feel about them, as well as monitor responses to specific events (Norman, 2020). Park agencies, governments and tourism operators are already using popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to communicate with visitors and others about issues relating to visitation such as natural disasters, social unrest, the closure of parks, trails, roads or other facilities, as well as the promotion of specific events and activities. Some platforms, such as Twitter, also provide the opportunity to not only listen to peoples responses to what organizations post, but also monitor more general conversations about a wide range of relevant issues in the form of 280 character tweets posted to the platform (Norman, 2020; Teles da Mota and Pickering, 2020). Here we review some of the benefits and limitations when using Twitter to monitor public debate about natural landscapes and visitation highlighted in a range of recent papers and projects. |
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