Recreation Experience Research Articles

Social distancing and beach open spaces: Recreational experiences of tourists at Bangsaen beach after the pandemic

Social distancing and beach open spaces: Recreational experiences of tourists at Bangsaen beach after the pandemic

Locals, tourists, and water recreation issues at Claytor Lake, Virginia

Claytor Lake is a 4,500 acre impoundment of the New River, located in southwestern Virginia and is ideal for pleasure boating, fishing, swimming, and exploration. In fall 2020 a visitor survey was administered to capture boater and adjacent landowner perceptions of the recreation experience, identify safety concerns, and help managers to informed decisions. Almost 200 surveys were collected over a month of data collection. Results indicate that respondents tend to be a dichotomous group of “locals” who live on or within a mile of the lake, and “tourists” who travel greater than 50 miles to visit the lake. Additionally, these two groups access the lake differently through either private docks and launches, or public launch sites and the state park, which further complicates water recreation management action on the lake. Respondents also indicated significantly higher “negative experiences” with PWC and Wake Surf boats. Of these user groups, it appears that more frequent users of the lake were the ones to report more issues with PWC and wake surf boats. Additionally, waterfront owners or those living within one mile of the lake reported the highest levels of concern around wake surf and PWC users. Finally, issues of concern varied across different user groups, and there were issues reported with safety and crowding, which also varied across user groups. These results are valuable highlights of how user type and distance from a site can influence interests, and concerns, and may therefore be an important component for recreation site manager outreach and collaborative planning efforts. Recommendations include outreach, education, and more cross-contextual communication between user groups and adjacent landowners.

Youth Outdoor Recreation Experience, Race, and Socioeconomic Status: Explaining Connection to Nature and Future Career Interest

The outdoor recreation industry faces the challenge of recruiting the next generation of professionals. This study examined factors that may influence young adults’ interest in outdoor recreation careers, including participation in organized and unorganized outdoor recreation as a youth, connection to nature (CTN), racial identity, and socioeconomic status (SES). An online questionnaire was distributed using a Qualtrics panel, and criterion sampling was used to ensure the sample included participants with approximately equal representation across racial identity and SES categories. Participation in unorganized recreation, CTN, and SES were found to be significant predictors of interest in outdoor recreation careers. Additionally, participation in organized recreation was found to be a significant negative predictor of CTN, while participation in unorganized recreation and racial identity were significant positive predictors of CTN, and CTN had a small mediating effect on the relationship between unorganized recreation participation and interest in outdoor recreation careers.

Comparative Evaluation of Mountain Landscapes in Beijing Based on Social Media Data

An important part of Beijing’s ecological pattern, mountain landscapes are also the most important natural tourist destinations in Beijing. The unique mountain environment in Taihang and Yan Mountains attracts Beijing and foreign tourists alike. Tourists publish travel photos and comments on social media, which provides a new opportunity for a systematic evaluation of these mountain parks based on social media data. To fully understand the developmental status of mountain landscapes in Beijing, this paper comparatively evaluates 45 mountain landscapes in Beijing based on social media data. Using big data capture, semantic network analysis, importance-performance analysis (IPA), etc., it explores the composition of tourist groups in mountain parks, the preferences of the tourist groups, and the relationships between park tourists and different influencing factors, and evaluates the recreational experiences of tourist groups. The development of recreational activities was found to be more important to local tourists than scenic sites for foreign tourists. According to gender differences, women were more interested in recreational experiences than men, while men were more interested in the park’s landscapes. According to the IPA, tourists were satisfied with the overall recreation offered by mountain landscapes. The perceptual experience was dominated by visual perception, followed by smell; touch, hearing, and taste were of minor importance. Using social media data to analyze mountain landscape resources in Beijing can provide useful insights into the advantages of these landscapes under a variety of site conditions, strengthen local mountain resource development and tourism publicity, integrate tourism management and planning resources in a targeted and attractive manner, and enhance ecological leisure services.

How Climbers’ Sensation of Recreation Impact and Recreation Experience Affect Their Environmental Attitudes and Environmentally Responsible Behaviors: A Case of Jiaming Lake National Trail

The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly increased the number of climbers who enter reserve areas and use mountain houses compared with the same period in 2019. Mountaineering has become a popular activity causing forest managers to pay more attention in tourist environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) which is key to maintain land sustainable management. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the influence of climbers’ sensations of recreation impact, the recreation experience, and environmental attitudes on ERB in Jiaming Lake National Trail. Questionnaires were distributed online through a Facebook fans social network. A total of 577 valid questionnaires were received in July 2021, and we used SPSS20.0 and SmartPLS3.3.9 software to analyze returned questionnaires. The research found: 1. The recreation experience has a positive and significant impact on both environmental attitudes and ERB. 2. The recreational impact directly affects both the recreation experience and environmental attitudes with negative and positive consequences. 3. The recreation experience has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between recreational impact and environmental attitudes; 4. Environmental attitudes have a full mediation effect on the relationship between recreational impact and ERB. Our findings indicate that with a better recreation experience, hikers increase their positive environmental attitude and ERB. However, the recreational impact is contradictory in that it reduces the recreation experience which indirectly worsens hikers’ environmental attitude. Interestingly, the environmental attitude does not mediate the relationship between the recreation experience and ERB.

Will I See Faces Like Mine?: Exploring Perceived Constraints to Outdoor Recreation Experiences at an HBCU

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore perceived constraints of structured outdoor recreation experiences for students attending a Historically Black College/University (HBCU). Data were collected from four focus group sessions. Grounded Theory was used to analyze the data and from an analysis of data, four themes emerged: 1. Family impact, 2. Companionship, 3. Social media and technology, and 4. HBCU and Black American cultures. This study confirmed the importance of social companionship and the need for relevant marketing strategies as motivators for Black student participation in outdoor recreation activities at this HBCU. A common thread among the groups, was the perception of Whiteness in outdoor spaces and its negative impact on outdoor recreation involvement.

ÖRNEK OLAYLARLA SAĞLIK TURİZMİ VE REKREASYON ARASINDAKİ İLİŞKİYE DAİR BİR İNCELEME

Health tourism, which is among the alternative tourism types in tourism literature and evaluated as special interest tourism according to some sources, has come to the forefront as an important tourism type in recent years. Health tourism, in general, is a broad market that covers niche types such as thermal tourism, spa and wellness tourism, medical and dental tourism, senior tourism and accessible tourism. Although it is stated that the main purpose of health tourism is to protect and improve health, it is also aimed to meet the entertainment needs of tourists through accommodation, nutrition, rest and certain recreational activities. In particular, recreational activities do not only increase the quality of life of tourists for a short and temporary time, but also support their treatment by positively affecting their emotions. Therefore tourists who plan their travels within the scope of health tourism recently prefer facilities that will offer them different recreational experiences other than health services. Although it has been claimed in some studies that the recreational activities organized during the treatment, beyond the health services, make significant contributions to the wellbeing of the tourists, there are still a few remarkable studies in this area. The aim of this study, which was carried out in order to shed light on the gap in the field, is to evaluate the relationship between recreational activities and health tourism types, whose importance is increasing day by day within the scope of health tourism. For this purpose, first of all, health tourism and recreation are explained conceptually in the study and the relations between the two concepts are examined. In addition, by supporting the relations between health tourism and recreation with case studies, a contribution to the recreation literature has been made and new perspectives have been presented to business managers operating in the field of health tourism.

Recreation Matters: Estimating Millennials’ Preferences for Native American Cultural Tourism

Millennials (persons born between 1981 and 1996) comprise a substantial and growing proportion of tourism consumers in the US. Rural economies, especially Native American communities, focused on casino revenue are faced with the challenge of sustainable economic growth in a millennial-dominant, post-COVID-19 pandemic economy. We estimate millennials’ willingness to pay for proposed cultural tourism scenarios using a discrete choice experiment on federally recognized tribal land in Arizona, US. We find strong preferences among millennials for guided recreational experiences, including horseback riding, hot spring visits, hiking, and cooking classes. With a changing demographic of potential visitors and a marked need to incorporate indigenous voices for the future of sustainable tourism, our results provide insight for future economic growth opportunities in cultural and natural resource tourism for Native American and rural communities.

Proof of concept study using GPS-based tracking data to build agent-based models of visitors’ off-trail behavior in nature-based tourism settings

Spatial components of visitor behavior in nature-based tourism settings have the potential to influence both the biophysical environmental and recreational experience. Previous efforts to model visitor spatial behavior in these settings have largely been deterministic and probabilistic. Comparatively, agent-based models (ABM) are often considered a more accurate technique for representing complex human behaviors such as visitor use. A key challenge in the development of ABM in nature-based tourism settings has been the lack of detailed, individually-based, georeferenced data on visitors, especially in locations where visitors leave trails. This study is a proof of concept exercise using global position system (GPS) data, collected from visitors in Yosemite National Park, to develop an example ABM of visitor use. Results from this study demonstrate that it is feasible to use GPS tracking data to provide insight into the generation of agent rules, yet knowledge gaps remain for the further development of ABMs in nature-based tourism research.

Distinguishing Participants and Non-Participants in Campus Recreation: The Roles of Knowledge and Motivations

The purpose of this study was to explore how students’ knowledge of campus recreation opportunities and their general physical activity (PA) motivations were associated with participation or non-participation in intramural sports, drop-in sports, and the fitness center. Data were collected using a questionnaire from undergraduate students (N = 348) at a large university in Ontario, Canada. Data were analyzed using logistic regression. Knowledge of opportunities was positively associated with participation in all three campus recreation activities. A desire to enhance the university experience was positively associated with intramurals and drop-in sports. Additionally, a desire to be fit through PA was negatively associated with drop-in sports. In addition to increasing students’ knowledge of opportunities, recreation professionals are encouraged to identify and promote the unique aspects of the campus recreation experience, such as its ability to enhance the university experience, in order to stimulate participation through differentiation from off-campus recreation experiences.

“We Only Run from the Police”: A Qualitative Inquiry into the Lived Experiences of Black Runners

The perspectives and experiences of individuals with marginalized identities, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), are infrequently represented within empirical research. Inquiry using frameworks such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) allows for deeper investigation into phenomena such as racism and discrimination, acknowledged as a threat to public health. This study utilized the contemporary methodological research approach interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA), an approach originating in psychology and increasingly being used by researchers in the realm of human behavior and well-being (Smith et al., 2009). The research consisted of in-depth interviews with four Black recreational runners regarding their recreational experiences, focusing predominantly on their experiences running and race per recommendations of the specific six-step research approach recommended by the methodological approach used. A complex relationship between racial and leisure identity was presented by analyzing interview transcripts, constituting two themes, "Be safe, stay safe" and "Tough situations and the growing process." Although the assumption that by not noticing and addressing race is taking a morally correct position, the position also served to evade the role of power, politics, and race in the lives of the runners and the impact discrimination has on everyday leisure experience.

Characterizing, mapping and valuing the demand for forest recreation using crowdsourced social media data.

Mapping and valuing of forest recreation is time-consuming and complex, hampering its inclusion in forest management plans and hence the achievement of a fully sustainable forest management. In this study, we explore the potential of crowdsourced social media data in tackling the mapping and valuing of forest recreation demand. To do so, we assess the relationships between crowdsourced social media data, acquired from over 350,000 Flickr geotagged pictures, and demand for forest recreation in British Columbia (BC) forests. We first identify temporal and spatial trends of forest recreation demand, as well as the countries of origin of BC forests visitors. Second, we estimate the average number of annual recreational visits with a linear regression model calibrated with empirically collected secondary data. Lastly, we estimate recreational values by deriving the average consumer surpluses for the visitors of BC forested provincial parks. We find that annually, on average, over 44 million recreational experiences are completed in BC forests, with peaks during the summer months and during the weekends. Moreover, a crowdsourced travel cost approach allowed us to value the recreational ecosystem service in five forested provincial parks ranging from ~2.9 to ~35.0 million CAN$/year. Our findings demonstrate that social media data can be used to characterize, quantify and map the demand for forest recreation (especially in peri-urban forests), representing a useful tool for the inclusion of recreational values in forest management. Finally, we address the limitations of crowdsourced social media data in the study of forest recreation and the future perspectives of this rapidly growing research field.

Revolutionizing Medical Education with Metaverse

Metaverse in Healthcare/Medical education has the potential to be an interactive, immersive, and recreational experience tailored to every individual. It can provide new opportunities for healthcare providers to interact with patients in ways that are more intimate. It could for example as walking through a three-dimensional model of the human body with patients, discussing diagnoses and treatments. This would allow providers to simulate the effect of a proposed treatment on the patient’s body before it is applied, creating a more personal and informative experience compared to what is currently possible with two-dimensional images on a screen. This paper focuses on the methods that could be leveraged for revolutionizing the medical education and training using metaverse.

Whether They Return: Modeling Outdoor Recreation Behaviors, Decision Making, and Intention-to-Return in Congressionally Designated Wilderness

Visitation to parks and protected areas (PPAs) has become increasingly widespread in the United States. This increased visitation is especially concerning within congressionally designated wilderness areas where federal agencies are tasked with the dual mandate of preserving wilderness character while simultaneously providing high-quality outdoor recreation experiences. This study investigated the influence of social, situational, and ecological factors on outdoor recreation visitor behaviors and decision making within the Lye Brook Congressionally Designated Wilderness (LBW) area in Vermont, USA. An on-site intercept survey (n = 576) was employed to collect data from LBW visitors in the summer of 2021. Descriptive and multi-variate statistics (e.g., binary logistic regression, structural equation modeling) indicated that visitor behaviors (e.g., coping, substitution) and decision-making (e.g., intention-to-return) were significantly influenced by social (e.g., conflict), situational (e.g., litter, access), and ecological (e.g., trail conditions, weather) impacts. Moreover, the presence of various weather conditions was found to significantly influence the severity of perceived social, situational, and ecological impacts. Study results indicated that outdoor recreation experiences are multifaceted, necessitating a suite of social, situational, and ecological considerations, especially when examining the relationship between visitor coping behaviors and intention-to-return. This research advances the coping framework, provides empirical support for future examination of social–ecological system (SES) theory, and emphasizes the utility of employing an adaptive systems approach for sustainable PPA management.

Recreation as a transformative experience: Synthesizing the literature on outdoor recreation and recreation ecosystem services into a systems framework

Outdoor recreation is a type of recreation that occurs in, and depends on, the natural environment. Ecosystem services are the benefits people receive from ecosystems. The outdoor recreation research (ORR) field has developed a detailed understanding of the recreation experience but has not developed a full understanding of the contribution of the natural environment to those experiences. Recreation Ecosystem Services (RES) is a newer area of research that highlights the contribution of the natural environment for recreation. The integration of these lines of research can improve our understanding of how the natural environment contributes to outdoor recreation benefits and outcomes. In this conceptual synthesis paper, we outline the evolution of outdoor recreation management to identify key theories and central concepts related to the biophysical setting in ORR. We then summarize contributions from RES, emphasizing the role of the natural environment in this research. Subsequently, we highlight key elements from systems theory and present the idea of transformation as a central element in outdoor recreation. We present a framework that captures central ideas from the ORR and RES fields and highlights the dynamic nature of transformative outdoor recreation experiences embedded in social-ecological complex adaptive systems. A more holistic systems view of outdoor recreation can help researchers and managers envision the bigger picture of how outdoor recreation land management contributes to recreation benefits and ecosystem services. If we understand the full complexity of the recreation system, we are better situated to address specific components in meaningful ways.

Seeing the forest for the trees: A social-ecological systems approach to managing outdoor recreation visitation in parks and protected areas

Parks and protected areas visitation in the United States has increased substantially over the past several decades, and dramatically within the past few years. This expansion in visitation raises concerns regarding the influence of social, situational, and ecological factors upon visitor behaviors, decision-making, and overall experiences. This study investigated the relationship between three influencing factors and visitors’ coping behaviors and overall satisfaction on the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) of New Hampshire. A mail-back and online survey method was used to collect data from WMNF visitors from June to September of 2020 (n = 642). Structural equation modeling and binary logistic regression analyses suggest social factors (e.g., crowding and conflict), situational factors (e.g., litter and access), and ecological factors (e.g., weather and seasonality) were significant predictors of visitor decision-making and overall satisfaction on the WMNF. Moreover, a majority of the sample consistently employed behavioral adaptations such as resource and temporal substitution, and in some instances, permanently abandoned their recreation experiences altogether, all in an effort to maintain satisfaction. This study demonstrates that in addition to social factors, situational and ecological factors should also be integrated when assessing the broader human-nature relationship. This research advances the social-ecological systems framework and suggests the importance of considering the interconnectivity between recreation visitor experiences and natural resources when sustainably managing parks and protected areas. This study found that social, situational, and ecological factors are driving the need for visitor substitution behaviors on the WMNF. Resource and temporal substitution were most common, with an approximate 95% probability of visitor engagement. Results indicate visitors are able to effectively cope with situational and ecological impacts, partially cope with crowding impacts, and unable to cope with conflict related impacts. These findings suggest visitor conflict, followed by crowding, should be prioritized by resource managers. Additionally, resource managers should work with adjacent communities and stakeholders on communication and engagement strategies, especially in areas proximate to recreation sites prone to crowding and conflict.

The Power of Campfire Spaces for Diversity Education: A Case Study Analysis of a Diversity-Focused Outdoor Adventure Program

Diversity interventions on college campuses provide engagement opportunities for students to interact across lines of difference. Despite these efforts, hate crimes, racial and cultural insensitivity, and a lack of engagement with diverse peers are prevalent. This qualitative case study used an embedded single-case design to explore a new type of intervention: diversity-focused outdoor adventure trips. These trips draw participants from diverse campus communities and create bridges across student populations who might not interact otherwise. Findings from this study suggest that students experience meaningful experiential learning about diversity on outdoor adventure trips. Students are then able to create connections with diverse peers that impact their views of the campus and diverse peers in their community. These findings have implications for extending campus diversity education beyond the traditional classroom or workshop environment and demonstrates the potential for outdoor recreation and education contexts to be opportunities for powerful personal connections among diverse participants. These connections among individuals illustrate the potential for outdoor recreation experiences to forge new bonds between across disparate communities.

The ‘quiet hunt’: the significance of mushroom foraging among Russian-speaking immigrants in New York City

ABSTRACT Urban foraging provides city dwellers with numerous ecosystem services, but this human-nature interaction is largely missing from the urban ecosystem services scholarship. This exploratory study aims to address this gap in the literature and examines the benefits and values associated with foraging in New York City, United States. We focus on Russian-speaking mushroom foragers, a previously unstudied community. Data from 10 interviews reveals that for some groups, foraging is primarily about cultural ecosystem services, with a provisioning attribute. Foraging supports multiple benefits, most notably contributions to social relations, cultural heritage, and recreational experiences; these nonmaterial contributions often intertwine with material benefits. Our findings further demonstrate the mutual exchange of benefits between humans and nature, including services to ecosystems and species. Participants reported engagement in multiple stewardship practices and actively maintained and enhanced ecosystem services. We encourage future ecosystem services assessments to recognize foraging as an urban activity and consider the bi-directional exchange of benefits between humans and ecosystems. To some participants, foraging was an integral part of their relationship with the natural world, intertwined with relational values of connection to nature, kinship, love, and care. Our results suggest that relational values can be central for understanding the value of ecosystem services. Our study further illustrates that some ecosystem services may be associated with practices, rather than places, and future work should examine these links in more detail.

An Examination of DRAMMA Model Outcomes for Campus Recreation Users

Institutions of higher education are encountering increases in the number of students with mental health issues. As administrators look for ways to promote positive mental health, exploring the role leisure has in the well-being of college students is warranted. This study used the DRAMMA model to better understand the connection of leisure and subjective well-being via the psychological pathways of detachment-recovery, affiliation, meaning, mastery, and autonomy through leisure satisfaction of campus recreation users. Findings suggest campus recreation programs should focus on providing satisfying leisure and recreation experiences that provide meaning, affiliation, and detachment-recovery to students as a potential means to influence subjective well-being.

Examining Campus Recreation and Sports Experiences of College Students with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and Attitudes of College Students Without IDD: A Special Olympics Unified Sports® Study

Recreation and sports participation can produce social health benefits for college students with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD). Despite growing numbers of college students with IDD on college campuses, literature exploring inclusion within campus recreation and sports is limited. To understand how students with IDD have been, desire to be, and can be meaningfully included in campus recreation and sports, experiences of students with IDD (N = 33), and the experiences and attitudes of students without IDD (N = 260) were examined. A mixed methods study design, including web-based surveys and semi-structured interviews, was used to collect data from participants at three American universities. Results of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and thematic analysis revealed a critical need to examine these students’ inclusion within campus life at large.