Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism-Research Planning and Management最新文献

As scuba diving proliferates in popularity as a nature-based recreational activity, the associated benefits and impacts are correspondingly emerging. Previous studies showed that underwater photographers are potentially the more impactful group of scuba divers. To further explore the impacts and behaviour of underwater photographers, this study attempted to predict their impacts through three photography-related variables, including species of interest, photography habit, and photography commitment through a case study in Hong Kong. A scuba diver survey was performed in summer 2021 to assess the impacts of divers, a follow-up questionnaire survey was delivered, and a total of 106 samples were collected. Findings showed that underwater photographers caused more negative impacts than ordinary scuba divers. Among underwater photographers, individuals more interested in conspicuous and actively moving species have more frequent contact with marine organisms. In contrast, those more interested in cryptic and sedentary species were more likely to cause intentional contact. Underwater photographers with greater commitment also showed more frequent and more intentional connections. Implications were drawn regarding underwater photographers' behaviors, and relevant suggestions were recommended to address the potential concerns.

Management implication

This study highlights the significant ecological impacts of underwater photographers who cause higher contact rates with the coral community, which causes more severe damage. The research suggested various policies for the protected areas managers to mitigate the advert ecological impacts from the recreational divers as follows:

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  Train underwater photographers on proper techniques to reduce ecological impact.

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  Regulate the use of professional photography devices in marine environments.

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  Implement comprehensive pre-dive briefings to promote eco-friendly diving practices.

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  Use supervised dives to ensure adherence to environmental guidelines.

By adopting the above measurements, the marine ecosystem can be protected, which can promote sustainable tourism practices.

The primary objective of this paper is to study how botanical gardens are experienced. Firstly, the study attempts to demonstrate how the senses shape visitor satisfaction and loyalty to the garden. Secondly, to gain new insights into the visitor experience, the study highlights the importance of information, emotions, social interactions, and behavioural responses. The survey was carried out through a structured questionnaire. The sample for this study included 373 respondents, contacted through non-probabilistic convenience sampling, in Botanical Garden Viera y Clavijo, in Gran Canaria. After checking the scale's validity with confirmatory factor analysis and the Alpha Cronbach test, the study performed a path analysis to test eleven hypotheses on the effect of sensory responses, emotions, information, social interaction and behavioural responses on visitor satisfaction and visitor loyalty as well as the direct relationship between visitor satisfaction and loyalty. The findings provide convincing evidence that satisfaction and loyalty show fundamentally different precursors. While the former relates to behavioural responses, social interactions and low-involvement senses such as hearing, the latter is formed by high-involvement senses such as smell and touch. However, both variables show the same emotional background, and neither is rooted in the information provided about the garden. Therefore, given the practical implications, the study suggests that botanical garden managers enrich peripheral routes of persuasion by emphasising emotional interventions over cognitive strategies.

Management implications

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  Gardens should offer visitors opportunities for free exploration along diverse trails with a variety of flora and fauna, which would encourage a positive attitude in visitors.

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  Garden managers should design environments that evoke emotions such as tranquillity, charm and love so that visitors have positive experiences on a deeper level.

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  Recognise the importance of social interactions with botanic garden staff, visitors and companies to further enrich the visitor's visit.

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  Garden managers must prioritise the sensory experience in the gardens. Visitor satisfaction is highly dependent on sensory factors, especially hearing. Ensure environments are calm, natural and noise-free to optimise satisfaction levels.

Reported Lyme disease cases have been rapidly increasing globally in recent years. Despite this, few studies have explored how the public perceives health risks associated with ticks and Lyme disease, especially within the context of visitor experiences in natural areas. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a survey of visitors to one of Ontario, Canada’s most visited provincial parks. Despite high perceptions of risk, few visitors feel sufficiently educated about ticks and Lyme disease. Further, only 51% of visitors would return to the park if future regional incidents of tick-borne illnesses increased by 10–30% (under climate change). Interestingly, no significant correlations were uncovered between home distance and tick-related risk perceptions or self-reported tick education levels. These results may be indicative of the normalization of tick-related risk throughout many of southern Ontario’s most populated regions. Finally, our results also revealed that there is no preferred “one-size-fits-all” risk communication strategy that can be used to support risk-reducing behaviour change in a natural areas context. We recommend a diversity of evidence-based, on-site, and off-site strategies, that can be considered by governing authorities not only in Canada but indeed globally to reduce tick-related health and safety risks and ultimately safeguard visitor experiences in natural areas subject to increasing tick prevalence.

Management Implications

Management Implications: The expanding range of ticks and increasing cases of Lyme disease are presenting significant risks to those who visit natural areas, requiring increasing management attention and action by governing authorities, including park managers and regional health units. Through a mixed-methods approach, we examined park visitor perceptions, behaviours, and preferred communication strategies regarding tick and Lyme disease risk. The results revealed a number of key findings, including:

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  While risk perceptions of tick bites are high, few visitors feel sufficiently educated about ticks and Lyme disease;

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  Only 51% of visitors would return to the park if future regional incidents of tick-borne illnesses increased by 10–30% (under climate change);

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  Visitors with further travel distances were significantly less likely to return to the park after experiencing an in-park tick bite; and,

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  There is no preferred “one-size-fits-all” risk communication strategy within a park visitor context.

Urban walkability is receiving increasing research attention due to the environmental and health benefits of walking in comparison to driving, yet little is known regarding the walking behaviors of urban visitors who arrive by tour bus. The purpose of this study is to investigate the walking behaviors of diverse tour bus user groups visiting a spatially complex urban destination to better understand urban walkability, barriers to walking, and the derived benefits to walking for tour bus participants. Using an immersive mixed-methods approach, researchers collected eight days of on-bus/off-bus data to document information specific to walking activities, site-to-site transport, tour bus cruising/idling, operational efficiency, mobility, access, and safety. Four target visitor groups included school age, adults, international, and senior citizen veterans. Pedestrian miles traveled ranged from 2.0 to 10.5 miles during tours that lasted between 4.30 and 14.15 h, while primary barriers to walking included itineraries, weather, and safety considerations. Addressing the psychology of walking to evolve from utilitarian to a purposefully integrated leisure activity within tour bus itineraries is the key to decreasing dependency on tour buses for site-to-site transport in urban destinations.

Management implications

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  Spatially complex urban park designs should consider walkability factors such as access, connectivity, path quality, safety, and aesthetics.

• •Policies that highlight and reward smart mobility should be prioritized to increase utilitarian and leisure walking in urban parks.

• •Tour mode bundles should purposefully embed walking activities in itineraries to increase physical benefits and participant satisfaction.

Many protected area managers contend with increasing demand and insufficient funding (e.g., overcrowding, overuse, maintenance shortfalls, and staffing shortages). To combat these challenges, managers are exploring management actions (i.e., differential pricing, amenity pricing, reservation systems, and demand-based pricing) to increase revenue and distribute or reduce visitor use during peak times. However, implementation of these management actions may displace visitors, affecting gateway community stakeholders (e.g., park staff, affiliated nonprofits, tourism operators, destination management/marketing organizations (DMO), and elected officials) who benefit from state parks. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the effects these actions may have on gateway community stakeholders. Utilizing Weber's theory of formal and substantive rationality (WTFSR) coupled with the triple bottom line (economic, environmental, and social impacts), we conducted a concurrent, nested mixed methods study with 25 gateway community stakeholders of North Carolina State Parks (NCSP). Analysis of 25 semi-structured interviews and embedded rating and ranking questions provided a deeper understanding of stakeholders' preferred management actions, motivations for those preferences, and perceived impacts of NCSP management actions. Apart from demand-based pricing, gateway community stakeholders expressed overall positive economic, environmental, and social sentiments towards the proposed management actions, suggesting a suite of actions may be ideal for increasing revenue and distributing or reducing visitor use during peak times in protected areas.

Management implications

• •Gateway community stakeholders can effectively differentiate between suites of management options to enhance environmental protections, community benefits, and profits.

• •State resident discounts, amenity pricing, and reservation systems were all highly ranked across multiple stakeholder groups, suggesting NCSP has multiple options to increase revenue and distribute or reduce visitor use during peak times. However, demand-based pricing had limited support from stakeholders suggesting NCSP should prioritize other management actions. The varying levels of support for management actions makes it crucial for NCSP to communicate their management action decisions with stakeholders.

• •Protected area managers must sustain relationships with gateway community stakeholders to be able to understand stakeholders' perspectives on the impacts of management actions.

• •Beyond NC, this study provides a strategy for protected areas facing similar challenges to assess how management actions may impact gateway community stakeholders or other key stakeholders (e.g., park users, underserved communities).

The present study aimed to identify the factors related to cognitive and conative image attributes in an insular marine protected area and determine which factors explain tourist satisfaction and behavioral loyalty. The research was conducted in the Galapagos Islands, a marine protected area in Ecuador, South America. A total of 407 tourist questionnaires were collected on-site, including national and foreign visitors, and factor analysis and ordinal logistical regression techniques were applied. The findings reveal four factors in the image attributes of insular marine protected areas: Staff Attention, Tourist Facilities, Nature, and Cultural Activities. Among the factors explaining satisfaction with the tourist destination, as well as the intention to recommend it and provide positive feedback, Nature and Staff Attention at the destination stand out. Meanwhile, the cultural activities factor best explains the intention to return to the destination.

These findings enhance the academic understanding of the factors influencing the image of coastal and marine destinations, particularly in insular marine protected areas. They also offer valuable insights for destination managers, providing practical guidelines to improve destination images, thereby boosting tourist satisfaction and loyalty.

This paper presents findings from a study that examined how well mountain bikers' cognitive processes predicted their recommendation intent—the intention to share their recreation experience with others. Specifically, we examined relationships between different mountain biking recreation goal appraisals, emotions, and mountain bikers’ intentions to suggest mountain biking destinations to others. We tested hypothesized relationships using a structural equation modeling approach. Our results show that goal congruence and interest are the primary appraisal factors predicting recommendation intent among mountain bikers. While satisfaction and affective emotions are distinct factors that affect post-trip recommendation behavior, our results suggest that satisfaction emotions are significant secondary predictors of recommendation intent and have a stronger relationship with post-trip recommendation intentions than affective emotions. These study outcomes may be used to inform and develop effective management strategies for mountain biking destinations by designing based on user experiences.

Study implications for management

The study underscores the crucial need to tailor mountain biking trails to align with bikers' recreational aspirations and abilities, emphasizing the importance of offering diverse experiences suited to different skill levels. Instead of the typical strategy to grow biking destinations by expanding trail networks, managers should prioritize aligning trail experiences with bikers' expectations and desires to boost competitiveness. Strategic investments in trail infrastructure and services, coupled with feedback systems to gauge changing needs and satisfaction levels, are critical. Collaborating with local biking groups can enhance understanding and adaptability to evolving preferences. Continuous efforts to personalize trail experiences based on bikers' preferences are essential for garnering positive feedback, ensuring enduring enjoyment, and sustaining the appeal and growth of mountain biking destinations.

Avitourism and avitourists are more frequently characterized by intense photography. Although discussions on wildlife photography are not new, few have explained the meanings behind photo-sharing. Drawing on the concept of photograph as trophy, we interviewed 26 Chinese avitourists across a wide specialisation spectrum. From casual to advanced avitourists, we found that the stories behind the photos, the particularity of species, and the sophistication of photography techniques are the defining qualities of trophy-like photos. Sharing such photos, like conservation photographs, indicates co-existence and amicable encounters with nature. These photos may be used to communicate high social status. The finer the photos were made, the stronger the implications that they are costly, pro-environmental, and produced with the assistance of power. Importantly, pro-environmentalism implicitly communicates a sense of altruism and cultural capital, which enables status signalling. Such photos can contribute to the reinforcement and competition of status, which thereby catalyses cheating and other deviant photography actions. Such deviance is reversely justified with the positive pro-environmental birder image. Excavating such multi-faceted meanings of bird photos may help explain bird photo-taking and sharing, and provide implications for involving birders in protected land management.

Managerial implications

Status signalling can help manage birders communities. As deviance like baiting for photography is driven by the desire for status signalling, on-site regulations on bird photography tours are needed for the short run. In the long term, it is important to incorporate ethical guidelines in birding tour operations and promote compliance with the ethical code of conduct as a socially superior practice. Additionally, leveraging social status can be achieved by creating platforms for avitourists to showcase their photos and gain recognition. This may encourage the participation of knowledge experts who demand status signalling into anti-deviance promotion, environmental education, and protected land management.

Camping experiences have long been regarded as transformative, fostering not only a connection to the natural environment but also intricate social dynamics among participants. While existing literature recognizes the significance of camping experiences in shaping individual and collective well-being, there remains a critical research gap regarding the specific influence of campers' co-production on family cohesion, place identity, and resilience. This paper explores the direct positive influence of campers' co-production on family cohesion, place identity, and resilience, while also examining the mediating role of place identity in shaping connections between campers' co-production and family cohesion, as well as resilience. Purposive sampling was utilized to survey voluntary visitors at five representative camping sites across northern, central, and southern Taiwan, resulting in a collection of 826 valid questionnaires. This study finds that campers' co-production has a positive influence on family cohesion, place identity, and resilience. Moreover, campers’ place identity has a positive influence on family cohesion and resilience. Furthermore, the mediating role of place identity in shaping connections between campers' co-production and family cohesion, as well as resilience, is supported. By unraveling these dynamics, the research contributes both theoretical insights into the specific connections within the camping context and practical implications for designing camping programs that enhance familial and individual well-being.

Recent trail development has been motivated by sustainable tourism destination principles, suggesting a paradigm incorporating an eco-cultural trail concept. As with conventional trails, eco-cultural trail destination governance necessitates coordinated development and management of all landscape elements, emphasizing and protecting cultural and natural assets. This research aims to provide a sustainable strategy for developing eco-cultural trails, applying a qualitative approach and stakeholder participation. Two focus groups and a workshop were conducted involving stakeholders representing governmental agencies, private enterprises, academic experts, students, and environmental organizations. A case study trail “Seven Hanging Valleys” was used in this study to develop an eco-cultural trail development and management strategy. Natural and cultural landscapes, trail infrastructure, trail visitor experience, and marketing and collaboration were the examined dimensions. Based on stakeholders’ visions, a destination development and management plan was established, aligning the environmental objectives to preserve natural and cultural assets, with improved overall experience for travellers and the community.

Management implications

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  Community collaboration provides trail managers and policymakers with a framework that identifies the essential levels of investment, programming, and management required to assist trails in becoming more economically and socially driven.

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  The proposed management plan for eco-cultural trails can assist landscape managers with indicated management priorities when developing eco-cultural trails that aim to respect natural and cultural assets and provide memorable trail-related experiences.

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  The process of creating a stakeholders' shared vision for the sustainable development of the trail site provides trail managers with a better understanding of existing and future threats and allows them to future-proof trail maintenance and service plans.