Ecoturismo e conservazione: aspettative del visitatore e limiti alla fruizione sostenibile nell'oasi di Valle Averto (laguna di Venezia)

Ecotourism is a kind of tourism practiced in relatively undisturbed natural areas, where the visit’s experience is relate to the protection of wildlife, provided that the limits of carrying capacity for tourists are respected. The case study of this thesis is the WWF Oasi of Valle Averto where, through the administration of 224 questionnaires, we have studied the [III] demographic and socio‐economic expectations, the origin and the willingness to pay of visitors. The data collected showed that visitors from not more than 40km away, are distributed mainly in the age group 35‐50 years, have a medium‐high level of preparation and select the spring time and the organization of events for the visit the area. The average willingness to pay for the entrance fee is about 4,20 €, which corresponds to a total gain of 7.000 €. A number of factors contribute at the size of the carrying capacity, whose control requires the establishment of a monitoring plan. At present, therefore, it has decided to set a band of noise around the direct path with a width growing conventionally based on the data reported in Miller et al. (1998). The current annual influx of visitors (2.833) corresponds to a direct interference band of a 8,05 m width. The management of the Oasi will ultimately consider, without any limitation, that the doubling of the current band noise would correspond to an influx of 5.600 visitors per year, which may be controlled by adjusting the price of admission or other measures, as discussed in the thesis.