Intra-spatial displacement at high-use recreation destinations: Employing spatial analyses to explore visitor behavior

Crowding and congestion in parks and protected areas can prompt visitors to use behavioral coping strategies, including intra-site spatial displacement, where visitors rearrange themselves spatially within a recreation destination, seeking unoccupied areas. To date, intra-site displacement has primarily been measured using aspatial survey, interview, or observational methods. Using an explicitly spatial approach combining GPS tracking of visitor groups and concurrently collected estimates of use, we hypothesized a pattern of spatial spreading characteristic of intra-site displacement as use levels increased at three popular day hiking recreation destinations in Yosemite National Park, USA. Using nearest neighbor hierarchical cluster analysis, we quantified patterns in spatial behavior data collected at low, moderate, and high use times at each location. We used three measures of spatial behavior (time spent in all clusters, time spent in entry portal clusters, and percent of groups visiting clusters) to explore how visitor use of clusters varies by use level. Across these metrics, we mostly found no evidence of intra-site displacement as use levels increased. Our results suggest that the relationship between use level and intra-site displacement is nuanced, and other factors such as visitor and site characteristics should be explored in future research. Methodologically, our lack of findings using spatial analyses suggest that findings from self-reported aspatial data collection techniques may overstate the occurrence of intra-site displacement. We discuss implications for managing social and ecological conditions at high use recreation destinations.