{"title":"Visitation patterns in a peri-urban natural park: Comparing mountain bikers, runners, walkers and hikers","authors":"Estela Inés Farías-Torbidoni , Sebastian Dario Rossi , Catherine Marina Pickering","doi":"10.1016/j.jort.2023.100686","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>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.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46931,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism-Research Planning and Management","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism-Research Planning and Management","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221307802300083X","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
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.
城市自然公园是短途散步、长途远足、山地自行车和跑步等活动的热门目的地。但是,这些活动的访问是如何变化的,访问模式的信息如何通过提高社会和环境效益来促进管理?采用案例研究的方法,我们比较了Serra de Collserola自然公园的四种活动,这是西班牙巴塞罗那附近的一个大型受欢迎的公园。对1788名游客进行了调查,并使用分类主成分分析和卡方检验对数据进行了分析,发现在社会人口统计学(年龄、性别、职业、教育水平和居住地)、访问模式(频率、交通工具、团体规模和组成、访问时间、访问时长和路径使用)、动机(积极、放松、自然、景观、社交、与家人在一起的时间等)以及环境和社会影响方面存在明显差异。包括用户群之间的冲突和拥挤。访问的这种多样性突出表明,管理可以更好地针对特定的访问者群体。对于这个特定的公园,它强调了集中使用(周末需要更多的资源),如何提高使用的公平性(促进女性跑步和骑自行车),以及如何减少冲突(通过空间隔离快速和缓慢的活动)。未来的调查可能会研究自2019冠状病毒病以来使用变化、人口老龄化设施和电动自行车普及等相关的新问题。
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.