The use of public participation GIS (PPGIS) for park visitor management: A case study of mountain biking Isabelle D. Wolf a, b, * , Teresa Wohlfart a , Greg Brown c , Abraham Bartolom  e Lasa a a NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Office of Environment and Heritage, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Hurstville, NSW 2220, Australia b Centre for Ecosystem Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia c School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia highlights  We evaluated the utility of public participation GIS (PPGIS) in park tourism planning.  Our method was effective for engaging mountain bikers in complex spatial planning.  Insights were gained on rider distributions, underlying reasons and management actions.  We used GPS tracking to validate and surveys to complement PPGIS mapping data.  We discuss the benefits of mixed PPGIS delivery modes (field vs. online data). article info Article history: Received 8 January 2015 Accepted 4 May 2015 Available online Keywords: Public participation GIS Visitor activity management Spatial distributions Protected areas Mountain biking abstract Spatially-explicit participatory planning is a relatively new approach for managing visitors to protected areas. In this study we used public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) mapping and global positioning system (GPS) tracking to monitor mountain bikers frequenting national parks for tourism and recreation in Northern Sydney, Australia. PPGIS was implemented using both an internet application and with hardcopy maps in the field. Our research addressed two fundamental questions for park planning: (1) What is the spatial distribution of visitor activities and location-specific reasons for riding; and (2) What location-specific actions are needed to improve riding experiences? The spatial distributions of riding activities generated in PPGIS showed strong correlation with the GPS tracking results, with riding locations being related to the reasons for track selection. Riders proposed a broad range of management actions to improve riding experiences. PPGIS mapping provides a cost-effective approach to facilitate spatial decision making, allowing park agencies to prioritise future visitor man- agement actions. We discuss the strengths and limitations of these research methods. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Providing quality tourism and recreation experiences is essen- tial for national parks and other public lands to cultivate social support for their protection. Developing national park experiences that promote short and long-term benefits for visitors (Driver, 2008; Wolf, Stricker, & Hagenloh, 2015) may assist in conserving the natural and cultural values of parks (Weiler, Moore, & Moyle, 2013). To create a diverse and high-quality range of experiences, park managers need to understand the potentially conflicting de- mands of different visitor groups. Visitors typically favour specific park locations and times along with supporting facilities that best provide for their preferred ac- tivity. These choices are reflected in visitors' spatio-temporal usage patterns of tourism and recreation areas (Wolf, Stricker, & Hagenloh, 2013; Wolf & Wohlfart, 2014). Parks need to supply ex- periences and facilities consistent with demand to satisfy visitor expectations and to protect natural resources from oversupply (Buhalis, 2000). Popular activity groups in parks around urban centres, such as mountain bikers, require tracks with distinct properties to achieve a desired experience for different styles of * Corresponding author. Office of Environment and Heritage, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Bridge Street 43, Hurstville, NSW 2220, Australia. Tel.: þ61 4 0330 3550; fax: þ61 2 9585 6601. E-mail addresses: i.wolf@online.ms (I.D. Wolf), teresa.wohlfart@environment. nsw.gov.au (T. Wohlfart), greg.brown@uq.edu.au (G. Brown), Abraham. BartolomeLasa@environment.nsw.gov.au (A. Bartolom e Lasa). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Tourism Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.003 0261-5177/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Tourism Management 51 (2015) 112e130