Innovativeness in the sustainable development of sylvan tourism

Abstract

This article presents statutory requirements concerning forest protection and focuses on those of them which serve significant social functions, especially tourism. It describes the tourist potential of the State Forests and outlines their tourist development and accessibility. The issue of bringing sylvan tourism products into market as well as the notions of forest education and possibilities of innovation in management of tourism and recreation in the State Forests are given particular consideration. In the context of general characteristics of forest tourist valorisation the factors influencing the condition and damage to undergrowth are discussed. In particular there are presented some major threats to the forest environment resulting from tourism development and, what is even more important, countermeasures against the threats are also presented. They include traditional methods and modern systems of audio guides, audio and text files, as well as appropriate tourist movement control taking into account the forest acceptable absorption and forest tourist-recreation capacity rates. Implementation of the final conclusions presented in the article may contribute to the development of the new kind of tourism called sylvan tourism and reduce threats to forest environment.