As we have just embarked on our PhD journey in nature-based tourism for the VIMAS project, this quote profoundly resonates with us. It reminds us to embrace the beauty of our journey that lies ahead, a thoughtful process of growing as we strive to do good for the environment and for society through our research. Our first step as a team was attending the Monitoring and Management of Visitors in Recreational and Protected Areas (MMV12) conference in Schneverdingen, Germany. The nature at the conference venue, Camp Reinsehlen, added to our excitement. The atmosphere of rustling trees, buzzing bees, greenery, and warm sunshine kept us motivated with this prolonged German summer. Since we all come from northern-European countries where summer is slowly starting to fade by September.
The conference started with an inspirational welcome speech by MMV chair Peter Fredman, who is also part of our VIMAS supervisory team, and we were excited to attend parallel sessions covering a different range of topics related to our research scopes. The presentations at the conference confirmed that visitor monitoring is essential for the maintenance and development of recreational and protected areas and for meeting sustainability goals in favor of the environment and communities around us. As early-stage researchers, we gained knowledge in new technology use in visitor management, exciting research designs for nature interpretation and conservation, and most importantly, we had the opportunity to widen our connection through meeting nature-based tourism experts from all over the world.
Zsolt from our research team was inspired by several sessions he attended and expressed his excitement to the rest of us. ‘‘It is fantastic to see those presentations about how the impact of recreation on health is measured in Finland, the role of nature reserves in war-torn Ukraine, and how to make mountain hiking trails in the Tatras accessible for disabled people. It is a privilege to be here and exposed to these discussions.’’
In the middle of the conference, the hosts motivated us by organizing inspiring field trips in the host region. These field trips were based on different means of transportation; a hike, a horse wagon ride, and a bicycle tour to Hoffen Heather Garden nature management area with certified nature interpretation guides. We learned the history and long development process of Hoffen Heather Garden; numerous natural and human influences have played a role in establishing a sustainable nature reserve.
On the last day of the conference, we were full of new knowledge, inspiration, and motivation for our future research developments. Ilker added: "I have always thought about bringing platform economies to outdoor and wilderness areas to benefit local communities but crowdfunding for biodiversity was an idea I hadn’t considered before. This could be an excellent starting point for digitalizing or creating new financing channels to support nature and wilderness conservation. My main takeaway from the conference is that making a financial model is about finding new revenue sources and building new pathways for existing funds and money to flow into conservation areas.”
Four inspiring days at the MMV Conference had passed gracefully, and we were looking forward to our very first VIMAS training School in Copenhagen for another week. The contrast between Schneverdingen and Copenhagen was just perfect; from nature to the buzzing Copenhagen city, it always shows us that it is full of sustainable approaches. We started our training school with a touch of adventure by taking a Kayak trip on the Copenhagen canal.
As Noelien from our team is very into researching natural soundscapes, she highlighted the bicycle field trip we took in Naturpark Amager. ‘‘The 1 km long Rute til Ro (Route of calm or rest) was very inspiring, and we walked our bicycles along this route, slowing down and allowing ourselves to connect to nature differently. My Favorite sign on this route is the sign that invites us to listen to the invitation of nature (Lyt til naturens invitationer). The sign text encourages you to observe the seasons of nature and observe the seasons in your own life and how you can also decide to take the time to slow down just as nature does in the wintertime.’’
Copenhagen training school was a mix of everything, fun, adventures, new learning, and city vibes. Saumya from our team added her enthusiasm to use learning from this training school in her research in designing communication strategies to enhance long-term pro-environmental behaviors in visitors to nature areas. ‘‘It is amazing to see these new approaches to visitor data gathering, such as location-based/timeline-based/ visual, text, and audio-based visitor data from social media, and learn about how to handle these big data with privacy concerns.’’
With lots of learning and nice memories gathered during these two weeks from MMV12 and training school with our VIMAS researcher and supervisors, we said goodbye and until we meet again soon. We look forward to our second training school in Finland next summer and MMV 13 in 2026.