Yu-Fi Tuan, a renowned geographer and writer, taught a course called "Environment and the Quality of Life" for a quarter century. During this course, he also practiced conducting field trips in an unusual method. In his article, Yu-Fi Tuan mentions that in their first meeting with students, he would try to ease their anxiety by saying,
“Feel at ease, for all of you have already satisfied one basic course requirement, which is a minimum of eighteen years of fieldwork. The challenge now is to make sense of what you have picked up in all that time.”
When students questioned the reference to "eighteen years," they soon realized that Tuan was referring to their whole life span. Essentially, he implies, their entire lives were field trips, and they were in the field, even unknowingly, observing, experiencing their lives, and engaging with their environment, even if not through formal projects. It will not be hard to guess the title of his article: "Life As A Field Trip," which suggests that unstructured Field Trips offer a pleasant experience and the possibility of serendipitous discoveries. However, these are rare and structured field trips; on the other hand, unstructured field trips can be more effective as they provide an organized experience, albeit with fewer surprise discoveries in general (Tuan, 2001). In this context, visitor monitoring and management studies rely on field trips to better understand visitors' behavior and improve the management of natural and outdoor areas. These studies are important, although, as Canadian distinguished professor emeritus Paul Eagles noted, “If we can't show the phenomenon in numbers, then it does not exist in a political and economic context.”
As part of this effort, together with one of my supervisors, Professor Andris Klepers, we went on an excursion to the Gauja National Park to monitor visitors and develop financial strategies for the maintenance of the protected areas. In the broader context of common causal relationships, we aim to discover serendipity of visits and confirm our existing knowledge from the literature and previous field studies.
In Latvia, as in most Nordic countries, national parks do not charge entrance fees. While this free-roaming policy supports accessibility, it also limits the parks' ability to generate self-sustaining revenue. However, it is certain that entry fees are not the only way to generate revenue...
During our visit to the popular nature and cultural heritage site, we explored a visitor centre located near the ancient sandstone grotto and conducted a brief talk to gain further insights into visitor experiences and local management practices. The Visitor Centre, located in a parking lot between the main road and the Gauja River, was our first stop. It has access to Gutman's Cave (grotto), the hiking trail, and recreational areas. That location serves as a parking lot, charging 2.50 euros for cars, 5.00 euros for minibuses, and 7.00 euros for buses. The Visitor Centre features a souvenir shop offering a range of products, including umbrellas, T-shirts, trinkets, and other items of interest to tourists, as well as snacks, and provides free WC facilities. An estimated 1,660 vehicles visited the spot in October, 1,600 in January, and 1,400 in July. Most tourists arrive by car and pay for parking, while the local community, which uses the site for longer recreational activities or hikers from further afield, enjoys free access to the site. Additionally, four market stalls exist next to the information center. These market stalls allow local vendors to sell their products to tourists. Visitors can park their cars, warm up inside a closed area, and satisfy their basic needs to be ready for the great experience at the National Park. The National Nature Conservation Agency manages the area, which is leased to the local municipality for this purpose. The municipality further collects parking fees and organizes the auctioning of the market places to private entrepreneurs, who pay the rent and also benefit from the goods sold. The management of the site is relatively complex.
Field trips are necessary not only for observation but also for monitoring and counting visitors, as well as for gaining a better understanding of the local contexts in which visits occur. Thus, researchers collect data for their long-term scientific missions or projects and suggest solutions to current site and visitor flow management problems. Most counters have their own batteries, allowing them to operate independently for a short period. They can also upload the data they collect directly to the computer researcher interface. However, there is one issue where physical interaction is always needed: they need to be installed and relocated to other areas.
That is why we drove to the Castle of the Livonian Order in Sigulda (where public event impact was measured) and removed the counter there, then drove again to its new location, the Mežmuiža springs. The springs flow along the rocky slope and create a small lake, which, besides its visual attraction, is also a popular spot for ice swimming in winter. This fragile geomorphological area encompasses both publicly and privately owned land, including houses, highlighting the complexities involved in managing natural areas and directing visitor flows accordingly.
Visitor counts can be crucial in determining the flow of visitors to the site and comparing it with other sites in the region. In addition, the site has long had an automatic flow counter at the trailhead, which is used more by tourists, while winter swimmers from the surrounding communities are familiar with the possibilities of accessing the site from the other side, which will allow better segmentation of visitor flows through this small study, also comparing the results of the two counters. One of the challenges of installing the counter is finding a suitable location. These are typically referred to as "bottleneck" sites, characterized by a concentration of visitors in a narrower section of the trail. Such a site should have clear visibility to allow people to be accounted for; the height should be sufficient to avoid the mixing of animals and people. Similarly, a beam counter set too low may count each step as a separate visit, resulting in inaccurate data. Finally, snow can block the sensors, which also needs to be taken into account, as do safety or aesthetic considerations, etc. After we found the right spot in the field for the counter, we installed it over a small wooden bridge to collect the data for visitors. Subsequently, we established a data connection with the software and conducted multiple tests to verify its proper functioning.
As a last stop, we also visited the Gauja Nature Education Center in Sigulda. Such centers educate people about the value of nature and ecosystems, aiming to reach thousands of individuals annually through various outreach methods. They host students and children in their center, which features many informative drawings and interactive tools. They also visit schools and kindergartens, producing TV programs to educate the public about nature, with the aim of raising environmental awareness and promoting environmentally friendly activities.
This is a notable example of how nature parks serve both to protect the natural environment and educate the public. It would also be important here to measure the return and impact of such centers on society. They provide a safe indoor gateway for children and their parents to experience nature up close and personally before being immersed in it.
This field trip provided valuable hands-on experience about Gauja National Park and visitor flow management. I found the opportunity to address the practical challenges of data collection through the use of counters and financial strategies practiced in the field, which expanded my theoretical knowledge.
Reflecting on this experience, we are reminded of Yi-Fu Tuan’s (2001) insightful view that “life is a field trip.” For Tuan, the value of a field trip lies in the lived experience and the potential to discover meaning in unexpected places. It is not only in structured data collection. Our experience is what turns observation into understanding. In this way, our journey echoed Tuan’s belief that experiencing the world consciously is itself a form of knowledge and perhaps the most meaningful kind. While referring to Paul Eagle's point: "If we can't show this phenomenon in numbers, it doesn't exist in a political and economic context." A set of actions like this makes it much more convincing to influence policy or to demonstrate the public benefits of investing public money and using natural heritage assets responsibly.
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