Social and Recreational Carrying Capacity Assessment of Daland Forest Park, Golestan, Iran

For a natural destination to have a wide appeal, it should have sufficient capacity to cater for the needs of different types of users. This paper presents an assessment of the social carrying capacity of tourists visiting Daland Forest Park (DFP), Golestan, Iran. Social factors such as visitors’ perception about the Park’s safety, security and facilities were investigated to determine the level of social capacity and satisfaction. The Mann Whitney U test was used to investigate the likely differences between men and women regarding their social capacity. To do this, 168 questionnaires were filled out by the visitors of the Park during summer and fall 2012. The results showed that about 60% of the visitors preferred moderately crowded environments while the rest preferred low-crowded environments. The results also showed that the Park, in its current condition, does not provide the maximum level of the visitor’s satisfaction; therefore, some changes are needed in the area such as raising health care, welfare services and park’s safety. The results of this study reflect the status and expectations of the Park's visitors which can be useful to improve the level of visitor's satisfaction. A number of recommendations were provided to upgrade the quality of the recreation services of the Park. Furthermore, a general list of criteria was proposed to estimate social carrying capacity and visitors’ satisfaction that can be considered for other similar natural parks.