Tourism and tourists in nature, national parks, and wilderness

Modern tourism uses natural environments increasingly for the growth basis of the industry. This has created a variety of positive and negative effects for the environment. In order to reduce the negative and optimize the positive impacts, new modes and forms of tourism utilizing nature have been developed. These new nature-based forms of tourism include terms such as ecotourism, aiming at sustainable development in tourism. However, at the same time other forms of nature-based tourism have emerged, including adventure tourism and safari tourism, which may not always have explicit practices aiming towards sustainability. This chapter takes an overview of the role of natural environments for tourism and tourists. The special focus is on tourism in national parks and wilderness contexts. In addition, the chapter discusses the changing modes and forms of tourism in nature and existing and emerging issues of conflicts in nature-based tourism.