Outdoor Recreational Activities in France : Comparative Analysis of Territorial Resources

Abstract

Outdoor recreational and leisure activities are practiced at a variety of scales throughout much of today’s world. The spatial organization of these practices nevertheless demonstrates very striking geographic disparities. The territory in which outdoor activities take place is far more than a mere framework or an inert support for these activities. It is instead a factor in their coproduction. Thus, the key actors in each territory mobilize the local resources differently. This study is situated within the theoretical framework of the territorial economy, according to which each territory is responsible for finding its own means of development. From this perspective, we analyzed and compared the territorial resources mobilized by the actors in each of France’s 96 continental departments (the department being the territorial unit defined for this research) in their quest to develop an outdoor recreation area. In our typological approach, four variables (further broken down into secondary criteria) were assessed : public sector input, the capacity of the economic structure to support the outdoor recreation sector, the presence of an outdoor culture and appropriate social networks, and natural and environmental resources. Correlations and regularities were observed, which are discussed in terms of the differentiated expansion of these activities in France.