Social media data for analysing spatio-temporal patterns and nature-based preferences of people in national parks

The use of social media has been rocketing during the past years and many platforms provide interfaces for mining the openly posted status
updates and pictures. The wealth of social media data is both spatially and temporally sensitive as people are frequently sharing their
geotagged experiences and thoughts with their friends/followers via social media platforms. In nature conservation, there is an increasing
need to understand the patterns of human activities from the viewpoint threats and opportunities for conservation planning and management.
In this poster, we explore the usability of geotagged social media data as an information source about human patters in space and time, and
content to derive further information on the spatial patterns. First, we assess the relationship between social media posts and visitation rates
in protected areas. For this purpose, we use data on visitation rates in 16 parks in South Africa and 38 parks in Finland plus Instagram data
from the same areas. Secondly, we assess the spatial patterns of visitation of tourists within national parks and, thirdly, their preferences
using content analysis. Our preliminary results are promising as the temporal patterns of social media users within parks are strongly
correlating with official visitation rates. The amount of social media posts reveal the popularity of national parks quite similarly as more
traditional visitation statistics. Furthermore, the content of social media posts are relatively well in line with the preferences of visitors
surveyed with more traditional methods. Overall, social media data is a promising source of additional information both for researchers and
practitioners.