The Global Database on Protected Area Visitation (GD-PAVIS) aims to be a new tool to improve the reporting on sustainable tourism in protected and conserved areas. Information compiled in the database will help report on several global indicators (e.g. tourism use, tourism value, and tourism-related economic impacts of protected areas), generate knowledge on tourism and protected areas, support decision-making of governments in relation to sustainable tourism strategies in protected areas, and strengthen capacity of park managers to develop appropriate systems to store and manage information on sustainable tourism.

JRC, in partnership with the Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist (TAPAS) Group of IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), is currently carrying out the initiative ‘Enhancing tourism-related information on protected areas’ to determine the feasibility of developing a global database on protected area visitation. This initiative seeks to strengthen global knowledge on tourism and protected areas with the aim to build awareness, better conserve biodiversity, and support sustainable local economic development.

The new global GD-PAVIS database seeks to compile basic summary information on visitor numbers and types, length of stay, the proportion of overnight and international visitors, and the methods used to collect the visitor data. The schema of the database is joint as an attachment to this call. Feedback on the schema is very welcome.

Please submit your visitation data via the online data submission tools on the following sites. Alternatively, you may enter your data in an excel spread sheet that you can download the form for offline use here. The excel spread sheet may be more convenient if you are submitting visitation data for several years and several sites. Please send the filled spread sheet to Philipp.Schaegner@ec.europa.eu.