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The assessment of visitor understanding and perceptions of natural landscapes and attitudes towards functions of a river national park is important for the acceptance and success of park management. The study asked 426 visitors to the Donau-Auen (Danube Floodplains) National Park in Eastern Austria about their affinity to the national park brand, their understanding of the river landscapes and attitudes towards the functions of a national park, and to what extent the visitors perceive the Danube Floodplains as a national park at all. The results show that a large proportion of respondents have some understanding of river national parks and their functions. Many respondents have a sense of being in a national park. However, for 60% of the respondents, the national park brand played almost no role in a visit to the national park. Visitors who have a higher affinity for the national park showed a stronger agreement with the functions of a national park. Those images from the Danube Floodplains National Park that depicted natural landscapes were judged by the majority of respondents to be typical of a river national park, but also meadows. Differences regarding the national park landscapes were not found among visitor affinity segments. Implications for environmental communication are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gästezahlen bilden eine Grundlage für die Berechnung der ökonomischen Wirkungen des Tourismus und für die Entwicklung von Besuchermanagementstrategien der Gebietsverwaltungen. Viele Schutz- und Erholungsgebiete, vor allem jene, die in der Stadt oder am Stadtrand liegen, haben neben der (tages)touristischen auch eine Wohnumfeldfunktion, die zwar ökonomisch betrachtet wenig relevant ist, aber insbesondere für das Gebietsmanagement viele Herausforderungen mit sich bringt. Vorliegende Studie vergleicht drei größere Erholungs- und Schutzgebiete in Wien, deren Besucherstruktur sich aus unterschiedlichen Anteilen an Tagestouristen und BesucherInnen aus dem Wohnumfeld zusammensetzt, hinsichtlich Intensität und zeitlicher Verteilung der Erholungsnutzung. In allen Gebieten wurde mit denselben Besuchererfassungsmethoden (Langzeitzählung, Vor-Ort-Befragung) gearbeitet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich ein hoher Anteil an Tagestouristen in einer stärkeren zeitlichen Konzentration der Erholungsnutzung z. B. im Tages- oder Jahresverlauf manifestiert, während die Erholungsnutzung in Gebieten mit hohem Anteil an Wohnumfeldnutzung ausgeglichener ist. Visitor numbers are important for the assessment of the economic value of tourism and for the visitor management strategies of the area administration. Many protected and recreational areas, particularly those which are urban or peri-urban areas, are not only used by (day)tourists but also by local residents. Although visitors of the residential environment may be less relevant for the economic impact, they are a challenge for area management. This study compares three larger recreational and protected areas in Vienna, which have different shares of day tourists and visitors from the residential environment, regarding use intensities and the temporal distribution of recreation uses. In all areas, the same visitor monitoring methods (long-term counting, on-site survey) were applied. Results show that higher shares of day tourists seem to trigger higher concentrations of recreation uses, for example, during the day and year compared to areas with higher shares of visitors from the residential environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]