Visitation Patterns Research Articles

The dynamic impact of COVID-19 pandemic on park visits: A longitudinal study in the United States

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s park visit pattern has received great attention from both scholars and policy-makers, attributed to parks’ established health benefits and thus serving as an effective strategy to mitigate people’s stress and improve people’s physical and mental health. While burgeoning empirical evidence has been generated, both negative and positive impacts of the pandemic on park visit behaviors have been reported. However, the dynamics of park visits along with the pandemic progress remains underinvestigated. Using locational-based mobile data, this study investigates the longitudinal dynamics of park visits in terms of visiting frequency, travel distance, and time spent within parks across the contiguous United States from January to December 2020. The year-over-year (2019–2020) variations of park visitation patterns are associated with pandemic-relevant variables (i.e., the number of infection cases, and policy stringency index), and the locational characteristics of parks (i.e., “local parks” and “non-local parks” as classified according to ESRI’s US parks dataset). The analytical results reveal that (1) on average, park visit frequency, travel distance, and length of stay reduced since the outbreak of the pandemic; (2) the number of infection cases exerted a negative impact on visit frequency, a positive impact on visitors’ dwelling time, but the inconsistent impact on travel distance in different pandemic periods; (3) the stringency of containment policies negatively affected visit frequency and travel distance, but its impact on park visitors’ dwelling time was inconsistent; and (4) local parks received much fewer visits, even though visitors traveled a longer distance to access some local parks located in peri-urban areas. This study depicts a comprehensive picture of the dynamics of park visitation along with the pandemic progress and sheds light on the ways that parks can aid in recovering from a public health crisis.

Mobile phone data reveals spatiotemporal recreational patterns in conservation areas during the COVID pandemic

Understanding visitation patterns is crucial in developing effective conservation strategies for protected areas, as it serves as an indicator for operating an ecosystem management plan that balances biodiversity and ecosystem services intertwined with public health and social benefits. However, limited data availability during the COVID-19 pandemic has hindered the comprehensive understanding of temporal changes in realized cultural ecosystem services, particularly in recreational activities within these areas. Our study utilized GPS data from mobile phones to quantify visitor characteristics and their contribution to recreational ecosystem services in protected areas at a national scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimated the pandemic's relative impact on visitor patterns at 98 visitor centers in national parks and Ramsar sites in Japan. The total number of visitors and travel distance in various sizes of protected areas decreased after the outbreak of COVID-19. The number of visitors in the protected areas displayed a quick recovery despite the increasing positive COVID-19 cases during the following summer. Post-pandemic, visitors showed a preference for less densely populated protected areas closer to their home range. Our findings partly suggest that protecting a diverse range of conservation areas along the urban gradient could be an effective strategy for maintaining the resilience of recreational services during a prolonged pandemic.

Using Big Data to Assess Park System Performance during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Parks provide essential services to urban dwellers, but the global COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted park usage. Despite this, little is known about the adaptation of visiting behaviors by the public and how visitation patterns vary across different types of parks. In this study, we utilized SafeGraph cellular human movement data to compare park visits in Tucson, Arizona (USA) before and during the pandemic (2019 vs. 2020). We reviewed park management measures in response to the pandemic alongside park visit data. Furthermore, we conducted a GIS analysis to compare the changes in park visits across different park types throughout various days and months. Results indicate that (1) fluctuations in park visits are strongly correlated with COVID-19-related measures; (2) different types of parks experience vastly different processes of visit decline and recovery; (3) river and linear parks maintain their appeal, likely due to the perception of reduced virus transmission risk associated with their primary activities, such as walking and bicycling; and (4) the contrast between weekend and weekday visit patterns reflects the extent of the pandemic impact. These findings offer valuable guidance for park management and park usage, attendance prediction, and design adaptations for future pandemics. We conclude that SafeGraph big data are effective for evaluating park system performance on a broader scale.

Analyzing urban parks’ spatial integration in Budapest to understand changes in visitation patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic

Globally, dramatic changes in park visitation have accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, cities have experienced an overall increase in park visitation after strict lockdowns imposed in the pandemic’s first wave have been removed. However, previous research conducted in Hungary has demonstrated that park visitation varied across parks with different sizes and locations in the city. We hypothesized that the degree of the park’s integration into the urban fabric significantly affected changes in visitation. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a space syntax analysis. Findings show that community parks with an area of 10.01–50.00 hectares and a mean spatial integration of 83.37 experienced the highest increase in the number of visitors (based on mobile devices’ GNSS data). Surprisingly, large metropolitan parks providing highly complex ecosystem services lost many visitors during the pandemic, which might be due to their low spatial integration.

Assessment of Batteries’ Contribution for Optimal Self-Sufficiency in Large Building Complexes

The EU has set ambitious targets to combat climate change. Incorporating renewable energy technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a critical aspect of achieving the European Union’s (EU) 2030 climate goals. Similarly to all member countries of the EU, Greece shares the same climate goals. In order to achieve these goals, ensuring a consistent supply and the effective use of clean energy is pursued, as it has a significant impact on the sustainable development and growth of the country. As the Greek tourism sector is one of the most energy-consuming of the national economy and a major contributor to the country’s GDP, opportunities are presented for innovation and investment in sustainable practices. Such investments must focus on buildings and facilities, where the energy consumption is concentrated. One of the most popular holiday destinations in Greece is the island of Crete. Visitation patterns are seasonal, which means during the summer months, Crete is exceptionally popular and more demanding energy-wise. One of the highest energy-demanding types of tourism-based businesses is the hospitality industry. Energy demands in hotels are driven by factors such as heating, cooling, lighting, and hot water. Thus, such activities require thermal and electrical energy to function. Electrical energy is one of the most essential forms of energy for hotels, as it powers a wide range of critical systems and services throughout the establishment. Therefore, the hotels are highly susceptible to fluctuations in energy prices which can significantly impact the operational costs of hotels. This paper presents an analysis of the annual consumption for the year of 2022 of five hotels located in Crete. An algorithm is also implemented which strives to minimize the capital expenditure (CAPEX), while ensuring a sufficient percentage of self-sufficiency.

Characterizing nature-based recreation preferences in a Mediterranean small island environment using crowdsourced data

ABSTRACT Nature-based recreation is a key ecosystem service that contributes to positive physical and mental welfare but, at the same time, nature-based recreational activities can increase human pressure and impacts on natural areas and biodiversity. Understanding people’s preference for visiting natural settings is challenging due to data and methodological limitations. Social media data can be used to map nature-based recreation. However, variation in popularity of platforms and limitations to data accessibility are highlighting the importance of exploring and using different data sources. We analyzed complementary crowdsourced data using an automated content analysis refined by manual identification to assess nature-based recreation ecosystem services across the Maltese archipelago. A content analysis of images uploaded to Flickr between 2015 and 2021 was performed using the Google Vision machine learning algorithm to identify nature-based interactions and nature visitation patterns were modeled based on landscape characteristics, environmental variables and socio-economic parameters. Flickr data were compared and complemented with publicly available geolocated data from the iNaturalist platform. Significant difference was found between the spatial distribution of Flickr and iNaturalist data. Generalized linear models identified coastal areas, protected areas, natural habitats and accessibility via the road network as significant predictors of nature-based recreational visits. Localities with a higher percentage of people receiving old age and unemployment benefits were also positively correlated with users’ preference for nature-based recreation. Finally, we discussed how the low resource methodology developed here to identify people’s nature-based recreational preferences can be used to assess which natural areas should be prioritized for ecological restoration efforts.

Manipulating network connectance by altering plant attractiveness.

Mutualistic interactions between plants and their pollinating insects are critical to the maintenance of biodiversity. However, we have yet to demonstrate that we are able to manage the structural properties of these networks for the purposes of pollinator conservation and preserving functional outcomes, such as pollination services. Our objective was to explore the extent of our ability to experimentally increase, decrease, and maintain connectance, a structural attribute that reflects patterns of insect visitation and foraging preferences. Patterns of connectance relate to the stability and function of ecological networks. We implemented a 2-year field experiment across eight sites in urban Dublin, Ireland, applying four agrochemical treatments to fixed communities of seven flowering plant species in a randomized block design. We spent ~117 h collecting 1,908 flower-visiting insects of 92 species or morphospecies with standardized sampling methods across the 2 years. We hypothesized that the fertilizer treatment would increase, herbicide decrease, and a combination of both maintain the connectance of the network, relative to a control treatment of just water. Our results showed that we were able to successfully increase network connectance with a fertilizer treatment, and maintain network connectance with a combination of fertilizer and herbicide. However, we were not successful in decreasing network connectance with the herbicide treatment. The increase in connectance in the fertilized treatment was due to an increased species richness of visiting insects, rather than changes to their abundance. We also demonstrated that this change was due to an increase in the realized proportion of insect visitor species rather than increased visitation by common, generalist species of floral visitors. Overall, this work suggests that connectance is an attribute of network structure that can be manipulated, with implications for management goals or conservation efforts in these mutualistic communities.

Forest restoration treatments indirectly diversify pollination networks via floral- and temperature-mediated effects.

In North American conifer forests, a variety of federally initiated thinning programs are implemented to restore pre-European settlement forest structures, but these changes may impact ecosystem function via impacts on sensitive biotic communities. Across the wildland-urban interface of the Front Range region of Colorado, agencies associated with the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) have implemented thinning treatments across thousands of hectares of ponderosa pine forest; here we leverage these treatments as an experimental framework to examine thinning effects on a pollinator community. We measured variation in forest structure and sampled bee community assemblages using multiple methods (trapping and netting) to compare bee biodiversity and patterns of floral visitation by bees (bee-flower networks) between mechanically thinned stands that were 3-10 years after treatment and nonthinned stands. Three key findings emerged: (1) Native bee abundance, richness, and diversity were 120%, 53%, and 37% greater, respectively, in thinned stands. In addition, nestedness, richness, and abundance of bee-flower interactions were all substantially higher in thinned stands, and there was increased functional redundancy in bee assemblages after thinning. (2) Structural equation modeling indicated that variation in temperature and floral abundance were mediated by canopy openness and correlated with bee richness and abundance, thereby indirectly driving variation in bee-flower interactions. (3) Four floral species (Penstemon virens, Cerastium arvense, Erysimum capitatum, and Geranium caespitosum) were identified as key connectors in bee-flower interaction networks, though these were not necessarily the most abundant flowering plants. Our analyses indicate that native bee α-diversity and bee-flower interactions positively responded to thinning treatments, and these effects were indirectly driven by canopy removal. We conclude that CFLRP treatments have conservation value for native bee communities. Further monitoring is warranted to evaluate the longevity of these effects.

Visitation patterns in a peri-urban natural park: Comparing mountain bikers, runners, walkers and hikers

Urban natural parks are popular destinations for activities such as short walks, longer hikes, mountain biking and running. But how does visitation for these activities vary, and how can information about visitation patterns facilitate management by enhancing social and environmental benefits? Employing a case study approach, we compared the four activities in Serra de Collserola Natural Park, a large popular park close to Barcelona in Spain. When 1788 visitors were surveyed and data analysed using Categorical Principal Components Analysis and Chi-squared tests, clear differences were found in sociodemographics (age, gender, occupation, educational level and where people lived), visitation patterns (frequency, means of transport, group size and composition, when visited, length of visit, and trail use), motivations (active, relaxation, nature, landscapes, socializing, time with family, etc.), and environmental and social impacts, including conflicts among user groups and crowding. This diversity in visitation highlights ways in which management could be better tailored to specific cohorts of visitors. For this specific park it highlighted issues with concentrated use (more resources needed on weekends), how equity of use could be enhanced (promoting running and biking for women), and how conflict could be reduced (by spatial segregation for faster and slower activities). Future surveys could examine emerging issues associated with changes in use since COVID-19, facilities for aging populations, and the spread of e-bikes among others.

Energy efficiency of the Visitor Pattern: contrasting Java and C++ implementations

Design patterns are applied frequently during software evolution in order to make the software more flexible and amenable to extension. One little-studied aspect of design patterns is their propensity to increase run-time energy consumption due to the indirection and additional structure they introduce. In this paper we study the impact of the Visitor pattern on energy efficiency. The Visitor pattern separates an algorithm from the objects it acts upon and improves maintainability by placing each algorithm within a single visitor class. This is at the cost of increased indirection due to the double dispatch required when the algorithm is invoked. We experimentally investigate the energy impact of varying the implementation of this pattern, and of removing the pattern entirely from software written in Java and C++. In our results we observe energy consumption reductions greater than 7% in a Java-based textbook example when the pattern is implemented using reflective dispatch, and reductions of over 10% when experimenting with an open source Java project, JavaParser. The complete removal of the pattern yields more complex results, with little impact in the textbook example but reductions of over 7% in the JavaParser study. To explore the generalisability of our findings, we subsequently apply the same transformations to the C++ based CppParser. Total pattern removal here sees energy consumption reductions of over 66% while the reflective dispatch approach increases energy consumption by up to 2012%. Our results highlight the energy savings that can be achieved when the Visitor pattern is removed both in Java and C++ implementations, and also show that some language specific features can allow for further energy savings when the implementation of the pattern is varied.

Glosophagine bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) as floral visitors of Stenocereus huastecorum (Plantae: Cactaceae) in the Jaumave Valley, Tamaulipas, Mexico

The objectives of the present work were to determine the species of bats as floral visitors of Stenocereus huastecorum Alvarado-Sizzo, Arreola-Nava & Terrazas, 2018 in the Jaumave Valley, the night activity patterns of these floral visitors, their abundance within the flowering periods of 2018 and the comparison of effectiveness of nocturnal and diurnal pollinators. During March-May and August-October 2018, 12 nights were sampled per flowering period using three mist nets of 12 x 2.6 meters. Bats captured were identified, samples of pollen were taken from them which was processed by Erdtman's acetolysis. Three different treatments were applied to evaluate pollination effectiveness (nocturnal exclusion, diurnal exclusion, and control), selecting three flowers in 19 individuals. Leptonycteris yerbuenae (Martínez & Villa, 1940), L. nivalis (Saussure, 1860) and Choeronycteris mexicana (Tschudi, 1844) were the nocturnal floral visitors of S. huastecorum during its two flowering periods, the first species being the most frequently recorded throughout the night. Although this species has flowers with chiropterophilous characteristics, no significant differences were found in the effectiveness of diurnal, nocturnal and control pollinators. Very little is known about the nocturnal floral visitors of S. huastecorum and the effectiveness of its pollinators in the north of its distribution. Since this species is very important for the economy of rural communities due to the sale of its fruits, this research provides basic information for the conservation and use of this species.

Visitors’ Perceived Crowding, Visual Attention, and COVID Infection Risks in National Parks: A Social Density Optimization Approach

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the complexity of national park visitors’ perceived crowding and visual attention. Decision support frameworks are needed to monitor, quantify, and forecast visitors’ visual attention, perceived risks, and perceived crowding by different social density conditions before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study forecasts temporal patterns of visitors’ perceived crowding by varying perceived risk levels and visual attention in a national park. A mixed-methodology was developed using longitudinal monitoring, visitor surveys (n = 444), and eye-tracking experiments (n = 42). Results suggest that visitors’ perceived crowding and visual attention fluctuate dramatically by varying perceived risk levels. Moreover, Kernel Density analysis and mediation analysis indicate that perceived crowding is associated with inadequate visual attention to natural landscapes, and visual attention is a mediator between perceived risk and perceived crowding. Results developed a real-time analytical approach for visual attention and perceived crowding guided by the dual-process theory and attention restoration theory.

Technique Bidirectional Visitor Counter

Bidirectional counters, electronic devices, or systems that track and count people or objects entering and exiting a specific space offer valuable insights into various applications. In marketing and sales, bidirectional counters are crucial in understanding customer behaviour, optimizing strategies, and enhancing overall performance. This paper investigates the design of a simple bidirectional counter application and evaluates its impact on marketing and sales. By tracking visitors, conversion rates, and visitor patterns, bidirectional counters enable data-driven decision-making and improved customer experiences. The paper highlights the potential of bidirectional counters as powerful tools for marketers and sales professionals, maximizing sales opportunities and driving effective marketing strategies to satisfy customers and increase profits.

Exploring spatiotemporal dynamics of flower visitor association pattern on two Avicennia mangroves: a network approach.

Plant-flower visitor interaction is one of the most important relationships regarding the co-existence of the floral and faunal communities. The implication of network approaches is an efficient way to understand the impact of community structure on ecosystem functionality. To understand the association pattern of flower visitors, we performed this study onAvicennia officinalis and Avicennia marina mangroves from the islands of Indian Sundarban over three consecutive years. We found that visiting time and sites (islands) influenced the abundance of visitors. The bipartite networks showed a significant generalized structure for both site-visitor and visiting time-visitor networks where the strength and specialization of visitor species showed a highly and moderately significant positive correlation between both networks respectively. All the site-wise visiting time-visitor networks and year-wise site-visitor networks were significantly modular in structure. For both the plants, most of the visitors showed a generalized association pattern among islands and also among visiting times. Additionally, the study of the foraging behavior of dominant visitors showed Apis dorsata and Apis mellifera as the potential visitors for these plants. Our results showed that flower visitor networks are spatiotemporally dynamic. The interactions of visitors with flowers at different times influence their contribution to the network for becoming a generalist or peripheral species in the context of their visiting time, which may subsequently change over islands. This approach will help to devise more precise plant species-specific conservation strategies by understanding the contribution of visitors through the spatiotemporal context.

Transport and Mobility Segregation in Urban Spaces

Introduction & BackgroundPublic transportation is one of many factors that influence the level of disadvantage in a city. By facilitating movement within urban areas, transit systems can democratise accessibility to resources, while also fostering social integration among individuals from different areas and sociodemographic backgrounds. Conversely, inequalities in transport services can hinder individuals from fulfilling their travel demands. In this work, we explore socioeconomic segregation in cities from the perspective of their transit systems and how it intersects with segregation levels on a residential and employment level.
 Objectives & ApproachIn our analyses, we combine socioeconomic data from the 2020 American Community Survey with amenity visitation patterns from anonymised mobile phone traces, provided by SafeGraph, to estimate the mobility flows between areas (i.e., Census Block Groups - CBGs) in a given city. We define a CBG's segregation level using the Index of Concentration at the Extremes, which ranges from -1 to 1, reflecting extreme concentration of individuals from low and high income groups, respectively. Moreover, we retrieve General Transit Feed Specification and OpenStreetMap data to construct transit-pedestrian networks for various US cities.
 Relevance to Digital FootprintsWe leverage digital footprints, in the form of mobility flows between CBGs, to estimate the socioeconomic composition of different public transport routes within a city. By combining digital footprints with the respective economic breakdowns of trip origins, and transit-pedestrian networks, we can develop a better understanding of how segregated individuals are throughout various contexts of urban life.
 ResultsWhile segregation still exists in the transport and amenity dimensions, our findings suggest that individuals are exposed to the highest magnitudes of segregation in the residential dimension, with amenity and transit segregation allowing for potential avenues for reducing experiential segregation. However, we observe that the transit service in many cities hinders individuals in low-income neighbourhoods from accessing areas characterised by more affluent socioeconomic backgrounds.
 Conclusions & ImplicationsThese results underscore research that reveals how mobility patterns in neighbourhoods with a high concentration of underprivileged demographics, be it immigrant or ethnic minorities, tend to have more constrained activity spaces than their privileged counterparts. Although it is unclear whether mobility patterns are influenced by segregation levels of neighbourhoods, it is apparent that by limiting exposure to different types of neighbourhoods, transit systems impose constraints on the activity space and urban experience of individuals, namely those without access to personal vehicles. We highlight the benefit of analysing segregation as a spatio-temporal experience rather than a static variable, showing how mobility is used as a tool to try and overcome residential segregation. Moreover, identifying inequalities within transit systems is the first step in providing improved transit service, particularly to individuals from especially vulnerable demographics. Ultimately, by identifying how transit infrastructure may perpetuate segregation, we pursue the first of many steps to re-imagining transport as a point of inclusion within the urban realm.

Analysis of Disaster Risk on Expressways for Foreign Tourists to Japan Using Rental Cars: Study Using Central Nippon Expressway Pass

The travel patterns of foreign visitors to Japan are changing from group travel, which was the mainstream to date, to individual travel, and there has been an increase in the number of cars rented by visitors as a means of transportation. The use of rental cars improves access to rural areas and is being promoted as a means of transportation. However, if a natural disaster occurs while driving a rental car, then the individual may face difficulties owing to a lack of local support. Therefore, the traffic volume on the roads used by foreign visitors to Japan during certain periods needs to be estimated in advance as well as the natural disaster risks that exist on those roads. In this study, we utilized CEP data managed by the Central Nippon Expressway Company in Japan to identify the risk of disaster for foreign visitors to Japan who use expressways with rental cars. The CEP data has usage records of foreign visitors to Japan who used rental cars on expressways in the Chubu region of Japan during the period from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019. Using this data, we calculated the risk of earthquake and landslide disasters. Result of this analysis, it is clear that the risk of earthquake disasters is high on expressways in the Tokai region, and the risk of landslide disasters is high on expressways in mountainous areas.

Honeybee visitation to shared flowers increases Vairimorpha ceranae prevalence in bumblebees.

Vairimorpha (=Nosema) ceranae is a widespread pollinator parasite that commonly infects honeybees and wild pollinators, including bumblebees. Honeybees are highly competent V. ceranae hosts and previous work in experimental flight cages suggests V. ceranae can be transmitted during visitation to shared flowers. However, the relationship between floral visitation in the natural environment and the prevalence of V. ceranae among multiple bee species has not been explored. Here, we analyzed the number and duration of pollinator visits to particular components of squash flowers-including the petals, stamen, and nectary-at six farms in southeastern Michigan, USA. We also determined the prevalence of V. ceranae in honeybees and bumblebees at each site. Our results showed that more honeybee flower contacts and longer duration of contacts with pollen and nectar were linked with greater V. ceranae prevalence in bumblebees. Honeybee visitation patterns appear to have a disproportionately large impact on V. ceranae prevalence in bumblebees even though honeybees are not the most frequent flower visitors. Floral visitation by squash bees or other pollinators was not linked with V. ceranae prevalence in bumblebees. Further, V. ceranae prevalence in honeybees was unaffected by floral visitation behaviors by any pollinator species. These results suggest that honeybee visitation behaviors on shared floral resources may be an important contributor to increased V. ceranae spillover to bumblebees in the field. Understanding how V. ceranae prevalence is influenced by pollinator behavior in the shared floral landscape is critical for reducing parasite spillover into declining wild bee populations.

Influence of Cultural Landscapes on Visitors’ Behavior in the Context of COVID-19 Social Distancing Policies: A Case Study of Open Public Spaces Inside Gyeongbok Palace

Background and objective: Many studies have highlighted the psychological benefits of natural outdoor environments and cultural heritage sites for visitors. However, few studies have investigated the combined impact of natural outdoor settings and cultural heritage sites considering contextual factors such as gender, age, time of day, and period on visiting patterns. This study aims to identify the impact of cultural landscapes on visiting patterns, focusing on the open public spaces of Gyeongbok Palace, Seoul.Methods: A mixed-method approach was used to examine the association between cultural landscape elements and visiting patterns. Descriptive statistics and correlation analyses were employed to assess how the cultural landscape affected visiting patterns from 2019 to 2021, considering the impact of COVID-19 social distancing policies. An on-site visit observation and analysis of previous case studies were conducted to further investigate the impacts of cultural landscape elements on visitors' behavior patterns.Results: The findings indicated that the cultural landscape played a role in shaping visitors' behaviors and revealed significant variations in visitation patterns based on visitors' age and the day of the week. A strong positive correlation was observed between teenagers and weekday visits, especially in 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions were in place and students were taking online classes. Furthermore, the results showed a noticeable increase in correlation scores in 2021 compared with those in 2019, supporting the notion of heritage sites serving as healing and relaxing places for people to enjoy as they age.Conclusion: The study findings provide an empirical basis for studying cultural heritage assets and other natural outdoor environments as a type of cultural landscape to enhance visitor satisfaction and provide positive benefits to visitors. It highlights the importance of preserving and promoting cultural landscapes as integrated systems of natural and cultural resources, which can be applied to heritage policies and management strategies.

Spatio-Temporal Network Analysis of the Impact of Mega Event-Based Development: The 2018 Winter Olympic Host City (Gangneung, South Korea) Case

Background and objective: Although mega-events are generally expected to have both short-and long-term lasting favorable effects on host cities, few quantitative studies have investigated this impact based on demand-oriented evidences and through a phased data collection. This study examines the case of Gangneung, a Winter Olympic host city, in order to identify the extent to which the effects of the Olympics are durable.Methods: City map survey was conducted 48 times for 527 visitors for a year and half for visitation pattern observation. In order to investigate the temporal impact of the Olympic event and seasonality, attraction visitation network for seven periods are compared based on using Network density comparison analysis. In addition, a regression analysis-a QAP (Quadratic Assignment Procedure) was followed to examine different factors affecting network formation.Results: As the Winter Olympics were taking place mainly around the Olympic Park, the visitation network results displayed very strong connections among the Olympic park, the Northern coast, and the Southern city’s downtown. However, except the major connections, all other connecting strengths were presented with noticeably weaker strengths when compared to the pre-Olympic period. After the Olympics, the edge strengths were restored to levels similar to those of the pre-Olympic period and, the most noticeable change was the reduced gap between the strongest and weakest attraction group, indicating that the edge strengths tend to distribute equally. Another change was that the strengths of connections to the Olympic Park became stronger, indicating that the Olympic legacy was included as one of the touristic attractions. The results of the following season indicated that the connections among the Northern and Eastern coasts, the Western historical sites, and the Southern downtown area remained strong and connections to the downtown became more prominent with new powerful attraction points.Conclusion: The longitudinal observations revealed that there is a noticeable durable impact of hosting the Olympics. To some extent, Olympic hosting and the KTX railway construction seem to have changed tourist visitation patterns. Although the results warn that the expectation of spillover and durable effect can be hasty, the following results imply that the redevelopment project induced by a mega event has brought the changes and reorganized the travel pattern in small city. This also provides evidence that mega-event impact sometimes lags behind the city government and local community’s schedule, which explains the need for a long-term evaluation.

Geolocated social media data for measuring park visitation in Shenzhen, China

Understanding park visitation patterns and factors that correlate with park use is conducive to urban green space management and planning. Although a growing number of studies have indicated geolocated social media can be used as a proxy for recreational use analysis, most of them relied on a single or similar social media platform(s). In this study, we used geolocated social media data among four popular platforms in China to estimate park visitation and explore the influence of 13 potential factors on park usage in Shenzhen by the geographical detector model. A park visitation index was introduced to estimate park usage, and it indicated large parks, such as natural and city parks, have a higher park visitation index than community parks in Shenzhen. In contrast to the check-in data, the real-time user data has a higher potential to describe park visitation citywide. Our findings demonstrate park size, sports and recreation amenities, the length of trails, and the nearby building density of a given park are likely to influence park visitation. The enhanced interactive relationship of 13 potential determinants of park usage can provide implications for urban park management and planning.