Tourists' assessment of economic value, benefits and negative impacts of pedestrian walkways: Case-studies of the Paiva River (Arouca) and the Mondego River (Guarda) in Portugal

IF 3.6 3区管理学 Q1 HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM

Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism-Research Planning and Management Pub Date : 2024-05-14 DOI:10.1016/j.jort.2024.100769

António Azevedo , Francisco Freire , Luis Silva , Aurora Carapinha , Rute Matos

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Hiking tourism becomes a popular wellness travel trend across the world. In recent years, we have witnessed the construction of walkways or boardwalks aiming to leverage the attractiveness of nature-based tourism destinations. This paper aims to assess the quality and economic value of two walkways/boardwalks in Portugal (MRW-Mondego River and PRW-Paiva River). A questionnaire applied to visitors at the entrances/exits of those linear walkways obtained 301 (MRW) and 188 (PRW) responses. In both case-studies, visitors provided high scores for the walkways' attributes and their overall satisfaction, which is positively correlated with their willingness to pay for a ticket to access the walkway (MRW- €4.56 and PRW- €6.31 respectively). This study also conducted a K-means cluster analysis for the Mondego RW sub-sample, that identified four different clusters: Cluster 1- (N = 8) Older and heavy spenders, a small segment of male visitors that spend a high amount of money during more than a 2-day stay in the region; Cluster 2- (N = 35) Heavy donators women, composed mainly by women who are willing to donate an higher amount for the conservation of the walkway; Cluster 3- (N = 62)- Average visitor whose members have a profile with characteristics similar to the average scores of the sample; and Cluster 4- (N = 189) Low spenders younger women, that plan their journey avoiding all the consumption moments and spending the lowest amount as possible (about €24). Based on the proposed theoretical framework and on the claims shared by visitors on the survey, this paper provides some recommendations for public decision-makers.

Management implications

•
The local administration should reinvest the direct revenues from the walkways in new support infrastructures (e.g. accessibility, litter collection or the fire prevention/evacuation plan). They must also design an environmental education program for visitors to mitigate conflicts with local population.
•
The tourism operators must advertise and diversify the experiences, targeting the preferences of the four major visitors’ segments identified in the cluster analysis aiming to extend their stay in the region. The quality and variety of the restaurants should be improved and a new line of certified merchandising products is a potential source of shop owners’ revenues.

查看原文本刊更多论文

游客对人行道经济价值、效益和负面影响的评估：葡萄牙 Paiva 河（阿鲁卡）和 Mondego 河（瓜尔达）案例研究

徒步旅游已成为全球流行的健康旅游趋势。近年来，我们目睹了步行道或木板路的建设，其目的是提高以自然为基础的旅游目的地的吸引力。本文旨在评估葡萄牙两条人行道/木板路（MRW-蒙代戈河和 PRW-帕瓦河）的质量和经济价值。在这些线性人行道的入口/出口处对游客进行了问卷调查，分别获得了 301 份（MRW）和 188 份（PRW）回复。在这两项案例研究中，游客对步行道的属性和总体满意度都给出了很高的分数，这与他们是否愿意支付门票进入步行道呈正相关（MRW- 4.56 欧元，PRW- 6.31 欧元）。本研究还对 Mondego RW 次样本进行了 K-means 聚类分析，确定了四个不同的聚类：聚类 1--（N=8）年长且高消费的游客，一小部分男性游客在该地区逗留 2 天以上期间消费较高；聚类 2--（N=35）高额捐赠的女性，主要由愿意为保护步行道捐赠较高金额的女性组成；第 3 组--（N = 62）--普通游客，其成员的特征与样本的平均得分相似；第 4 组--（N = 189）--低消费的年轻女性，她们在计划行程时会避开所有的消费时刻，尽可能花费最少的金额（约 24 欧元）。管理影响--地方政府应将人行道的直接收入再投资于新的辅助基础设施（如无障碍设施、垃圾收集或防火/疏散计划）。旅游经营者必须针对集群分析中确定的四大游客群体的喜好，进行宣传并丰富旅游体验，以延长他们在该地区的逗留时间。餐厅的质量和种类应得到改善，新的认证商品系列是店主收入的潜在来源。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism-Research Planning and Management HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM-

CiteScore

6.70

自引率

5.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism offers a dedicated outlet for research relevant to social sciences and natural resources. The journal publishes peer reviewed original research on all aspects of outdoor recreation planning and management, covering the entire spectrum of settings from wilderness to urban outdoor recreation opportunities. It also focuses on new products and findings in nature based tourism and park management. JORT is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary journal, articles may focus on any aspect of theory, method, or concept of outdoor recreation research, planning or management, and interdisciplinary work is especially welcome, and may be of a theoretical and/or a case study nature. Depending on the topic of investigation, articles may be positioned within one academic discipline, or draw from several disciplines in an integrative manner, with overarching relevance to social sciences and natural resources. JORT is international in scope and attracts scholars from all reaches of the world to facilitate the exchange of ideas. As such, the journal enhances understanding of scientific knowledge, empirical results, and practitioners'' needs. Therefore in JORT each article is accompanied by an executive summary, written by the editors or authors, highlighting the planning and management relevant aspects of the article.