Campsites are full again, for the third summer in a row. The pandemic brought a new wave of visitors into the parks, which is largely positive: people who had never slept in a tent are discovering why experienced campers keep returning.
These visitors brought their phones, as do experienced campers. Every lookout, waterfall and quiet beach is now being posted online with a location pin attached.
We have already observed this pattern elsewhere in the world.
What happens to a wild place after a photo goes viral?
Visitor numbers can rise far beyond what the site can handle. We lived for several years on Nusa Ceningan, a small island next to Nusa Lembongan, off Bali. Across the channel lies Nusa Penida, home to a beach called Kelingking. Many people have seen it without knowing its name: a cliff shaped somewhat like a T-rex head, above turquoise water. It became a fixture on Instagram, and the crowds that followed far exceeded what the path down, the roads and the beach could accommodate.
The pattern is the same everywhere. A site known to a few hundred people a year is posted by an account with a large following. The location pin circulates. The following summer, there is a line in the parking lot, a network of shortcuts where the trail used to be, and toilet paper behind every rock.
None of this is intentional. One photo leads to another, and the algorithm does the rest.
The same phenomenon is now visible here, on a smaller scale: trailheads with cars parked a kilometre along the shoulder, and small lakes that were once quiet on a Wednesday.
How do the Leave No Trace principles apply to social media?
The seven Leave No Trace principles have existed for decades and remain fully relevant: plan ahead; travel and camp on durable surfaces; dispose of waste properly; leave what you find; minimize campfire impacts; respect wildlife; and be considerate of other visitors. Leave No Trace Canada provides useful material on each principle, which is worth reviewing even for experienced outdoor enthusiasts.
In 2018, the Leave No Trace Center in the United States published guidance specifically for social media: tag thoughtfully, consider what your photos show, give back to the places you visit, and use your posts to encourage good practices. None of these recommendations is complicated; they simply call for a moment of reflection before sharing.
When should a location be geotagged?
For a busy, well-managed site with a parking lot, washrooms and a hardened trail, tagging the exact location is appropriate. The site is designed to receive visitors.
For a fragile site, such as a small lake with two campsites, a mossy clearing or a nesting area, we recommend tagging the region, the park, or nothing at all. "Somewhere in the Laurentians" is sufficient. Those who truly wish to find the site will do the research, and those visitors generally treat it with more care.
Why show responsible practices, not only the view?
A canoe on a calm lake at sunrise attracts likes. A photo of a cleaned fire pit, or of the garbage bag carried out at the end of the trip, attracts far fewer.
We recommend posting these images regardless, as people reproduce what they see.
What else do visitors leave behind besides waste?
"Pack it in, pack it out" has traditionally referred to garbage. We believe the principle should extend further.
Drones are the most obvious example. The footage can be remarkable. However, a drone over a quiet lake at dawn is highly disruptive for everyone else on the water, and it also disturbs wildlife. In Canada's national parks, recreational drone flights are not permitted without authorization from Parks Canada. Provincial rules vary, so we recommend checking them before packing a drone.
Bluetooth speakers on a portage and phone calls from the one rock with a signal fall into the same category. None of these is illegal, but they create noise in places people visit specifically to escape it.
How can a tourism business share wild places responsibly?
This is a delicate question for businesses, since outfitters, campgrounds and tour operators depend on those same photos.
At Ceningan Divers, the dive resort co-founded on Nusa Ceningan in 2015, this tension has been present from the start. The reef is the product. The resort adopted a no single-use plastic policy, holds weekly beach cleanups and joined Green Fins in 2018, the program for environmentally responsible diving and snorkelling. At the same time, prospective guests need to see the reef online in order to come.
Our experience shows that responsible practices can become part of the story. Divers who care about reefs prefer to dive with operators who share that commitment. Showing the cleanups, explaining the rules before a dive and describing why coral must not be touched attracted precisely the guests the resort was seeking, without discouraging anyone.
The same applies to a campground or a canoe outfitter in Quebec. A business can share the beauty of a place and, in the same post, show visitors how to treat it. This does not weaken the marketing; for the right customers, it is the marketing. For businesses seeking to promote a place without compromising it, some planning on the social media side is highly effective. We recommend deciding in advance which locations will be shown precisely and which will remain general.
What simple test can be applied before posting?
Parks are beginning to limit visitor numbers through reservations, and more people now understand the effect of a geotag than a few years ago. This is encouraging. However, short-form video is spreading locations faster than photos ever did, and the parks are unlikely to be able to manage this on their own.
We therefore apply a simple rule of thumb, which is not scientific: if a place could not accommodate a thousand additional visitors, it should not be geotagged.