Spatial tradeoff between biodiversity and nature-based tourism: Considering mobile phone-driven visitation pattern

Nature-based tourism contributes to the conservation of biodiversity by offering financial stability and enhancing visitors’ interest in nature, and thus has become an increasingly important issue in managing protected areas. However, unsustainable tourism can adversely affect biodiversity due to increased human traffic, and can devastate a wilderness area. Although the demand for nature-based tourism is on the rise, monitoring tourist’s spatial visitation pattern and its characteristics in protected areas is extremely rare. Therefore, this study quantified the spatial visitation pattern of tourists in protected areas in an innovative way by using mobile phone information and evaluated the trade-off between conservation requirements and visitation preferences to offer insights into biodiversity conservation. To clarify the causal relationship between tourism and biodiversity by considering various biodiversity factors at the species and landscape levels, we applied a Bayesian network approach reflecting multi-causality. This study showed significant spatial causality between biodiversity and tourism preference, particularly with respect to biodiversity at the species level. Supporting artifacts in protected areas were not affected in such a relationship. This study highlighted the necessity to monitor 133 protected areas on Jeju Island that were identified as visitation hotspots. The methodology and its applications described in this study may offer insights into the improvement of tourism management and the conservation of biodiversity in protected areas.