Social and Recreational Carrying Capacity Assessment ofDaland Forest Park, Golestan, Iran

For a natural destination to have a wide appeal, it should have sufficientcapacity to cater for the needs of different types of users. this paper presentsan assessment of the social carrying capacity of tourists visiting dalandforest park (dfp), golestan, iran. social factors such as visitors’ perceptionabout the park’s safety, security and facilities were investigated to determinethe level of social capacity and satisfaction. the mann whitney u test wasused to investigate the likely differences between men and women regardingtheir social capacity. to do this, 168 questionnaires were filled out by thevisitors of the park during summer and fall 2012. the results showed thatabout 60% of the visitors preferred moderately crowded environments whilethe rest preferred low-crowded environments. the results also showed thatthe park, in its current condition, does not provide the maximum level of thevisitor’s satisfaction; therefore, some changes are needed in the area such asraising health care, welfare services and park’s safety. the results of thisstudy reflect the status and expectations of the park's visitors which can beuseful to improve the level of visitor's satisfaction. a number ofrecommendations were provided to upgrade the quality of the recreationservices of the park. furthermore, a general list of criteria was proposed toestimate social carrying capacity and visitors’ satisfaction that can beconsidered for other similar natural parks.