The barriers to millennials visiting Rouge Urban National Park

Anna Kirichenko,Daniela Furtado,Gillian Ramsay,Mana Majedian,Rachel Dodds,Yana Mykhayletska

doi:10.32920/14639175.v1

Abstract

Intensified urbanization has led to more populated cities and less green spaces which are vital to community health, wellbeing and conservation. Rouge Urban National Park in Toronto has recently become Canada’s first urban national park. This park is ideally suited to the millennial population, offering outdoor recreation and green space that this growing market generally desires. There is, however, a lack of research into visitor motivations to urban parks and more specifically millennial motivations. Findings from 280 quantitative surveys found three main barriers to visiting the Urban National Park: distance, transportation, and awareness. The lack of public transport combined with road congestion and fewer millennials owning cars creates issues with accessibility. Poor branding and knowledge through electronic media creates low awareness within a demographic market so tied to technology. Keywords: urban national parks; millennials; distance decay theory; visitor motivations; Canada

Highlights

With general declines being seen worldwide in national park visitation and a 15% decrease seen within Canada alone in the past 10 years [1–3], it is important to look into why these numbers are declining and how to encourage different consumer markets to visit.National parks are global phenomena and they are located globally across North America, Europe and Australia
In Canada, urban national parks (UNPs) are maintained under Parks Canada with the first in Canada established in 2016 as Rouge Urban National Park (RUNP) in Toronto, Ontario
With increased urbanization, protected urban green space is important to help with conservation efforts and community health and well-being

Summary

Introduction

With general declines being seen worldwide in national park visitation and a 15% decrease seen within Canada alone in the past 10 years [1–3], it is important to look into why these numbers are declining and how to encourage different consumer markets to visit.National parks are global phenomena and they are located globally across North America, Europe and Australia. The overall purpose of national parks is to protect and preserve the ecology, flora and fauna unique to a region as well as serve public recreational needs [4]. Urban national parks (UNPs), are defined as:. .large parks within a city, serving the recreational needs of neighbouring residents” [6] The earliest UNPs were established in America in the 1970s and all are located within close proximity to large cities. These parks were created for two main reasons: residents’ recreation and nature conservation [7]. In Canada, UNPs are maintained under Parks Canada with the first in Canada established in 2016 as Rouge Urban National Park (RUNP) in Toronto, Ontario

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