Tourism is a growing sector worldwide - people are increasingly looking for outdoor experience in a natural environment where they can enjoy and learn about the nature and history of the places they visit. Natural and cultural values are usually best preserved in protected areas and along national borders. The increased number of protected area visitors is a good opportunity for promotion of natural and cultural resources but it also poses challenges to protected area managers who are facing the rapidly growing tourist flows.

This manual intends to increase the understanding of the importance of planning, management and monitoring of tourism in protected areas in the Dinaric Arc. At the same time it reflects the specifics of protected areas and tourism development in transboundary context as well as potentials coming from joint cooperative management of tourism in this region. There are already excellent examples of such a management ongoing in the transboundary areas of the Dinaric Arc, some of them presented in the current publication. We hope that the guidelines in the publication will encourage more to follow.