Managing Access to Wildlands for Recreation in the USA: Background and Issues Relevant to Sustaining Tourism

Sustainable tourism development that involves protected areas requires access to publicly administered lands. Management of this access is largely culturally determined but informed by science. In the United States, access to public lands (at the federal level) is a result of conflicting legal, professional and long-standing public access traditions that have led to a complex, uncertain and frequently confusing policy environment. As demands for sustainable tourism opportunities rise along with increasing concern for the condition of public lands, we can expect additional restrictions on access. Such restrictions may impact the capability of protected areas to support sustainable tourism initiatives.