Effects of Place Identity,Place Dependence,and Experience-Use History on Perceptions of Recreation Impacts in a Natural Setting

It is generally accepted that recreation use in natural environments results in some degree of negative social and environmental impact. Environmental managers are tasked with mitigating the impact while providing beneficial recreation opportunities. Research on the factors that influence visitors' perceptions of environmental and social conditions is necessary to inform sound environmental management of protected natural areas. This study examines the effect of prior experience with the setting and two dimensions of place attachment (i.e., place identity and place dependence) on visitors' perceptions of three types of recreation impacts (i.e., depreciative behavior, environmental impacts, and recreation conflict). Principal components analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were used to test the study hypotheses using data collected from 351 visitors through on-site questionnaires (response rate of 93 percent). The results show that prior experience exhibited a moderate and significant direct positive effect on place identity, place dependence, and visitors' perceptions of recreation impacts. Contrary to study hypotheses and prior research, neither place dependence nor place identity exhibited a significant effect on the dependent variables. The results show that prior experience causes visitors to be more sensitive to depreciative behaviors, environmental impacts, and recreation conflict. These findings raise concerns over potential visitor displacement and deterioration of site conditions. Implications for resource managers are discussed, which include education, modifying visitor use patterns, and site design strategies.     

Skier and Snowboarder Motivations and Knowledge Related to Voluntary Environmental Programs at an Alpine Ski Area

Many alpine ski areas have recently adopted voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) such as using recycling, renewable energy, and biofuels to help reduce their environmental impacts. Studies have addressed the performance of these VEPs in mitigating environmental impacts of this industry, but little is known about visitor awareness and perceptions of these programs. This article addresses this knowledge gap by exploring skier and snowboarder knowledge of VEPs at a ski area and the influence of these programs on their motivations to visit this area currently and behavioral intentions to visit again in the future. Data were obtained from an onsite survey at the Mt. Bachelor ski area in Oregon, USA (n = 429, 89.7% response rate). Few skiers and snowboarders were knowledgeable of VEPs at this area and fewer than 20% were motivated to visit on their current trip because of these programs. Other attributes such as scenery, snow conditions, and access were more important for influencing visitation. Up to 38% of skiers and snowboarders, however, intend to visit this ski area more often if it adopts and promotes more VEPs. Managers can use these results to inform communication and marketing of their environmental programs and performance to visitors. Additional implications for management and future research are discussed.     

Effects of knowledge,personal attribution and perception of ecosystem health on depreciative behaviors in the intertidal zone of Pacific Rim National Park and Reserve

Human activities levy a biological cost on ecosystems as resources are accessed and utilized at rates which are often incompatible with inherent ecosystem processes and structures. The recreational impact of humans upon intertidal zones and particularly fucoid algal assemblages is one major threat facing coastal ecosystems. The effect of human values, knowledge and perception in effecting biologically costly behaviors has rarely been examined. We hypothesize that with respect to intertidal zones: (1) Personal attribution and perception of ecosystem resiliency are more important than knowledge in determining the extent of depreciative behaviors individuals engage in, and; (2) Individuals who are uncertain about ecosystem resiliency will behave in a manner consistent with the 'precautionary principle'. We measured the depreciative behavior, and the attitudes and perceptions to ecosystem resilience, of visitors to Wick Headland in Pacific Rim National Park, British Columbia. Attitudes, knowledge, perceptions, and personal attribution were measured using questionnaire survey and structured interviews undertaken in situ. Depreciative behaviors of visitors were discreetly observed and correlated to the questionnaire survey and interview responses. We show that visitors who recorded greater knowledge of intertidal ecology engaged in more depreciative behaviors than visitors recording less knowledge. Visitors who perceived high ecosystem resilience in the intertidal zone engaged in significantly more behaviors eliciting biological cost than those who perceived low ecosystem resilience. Visitors who recorded uncertainty regarding ecosystem resilience engaged in significantly more depreciative behaviors than those who perceived low ecosystem resilience but slightly fewer depreciative behaviors than those who perceived high ecosystem resilience. Personal attribution was inversely correlated to the mean number of depreciative behaviors. We discuss the relevance of these results to the management of intertidal zones and marine protected areas, to multiple use management, the management of visitor impact, and natural resource use.     

Visitor Perceptions and the Shifting Social Carrying Capacity of South Sinai’s Coral Reefs

To investigate how the perceptions and behaviour of visitors to coral reefs are influenced by their prior experience and knowledge of marine life, a questionnaire-based study was undertaken at sites in the Ras Mohammed National Park and at Sharm El Sheikh, South Sinai, Egypt. It was evident that over the 10–20 years during which these reefs have deteriorated (mainly due to reef-flat trampling), there have been interrelated shifts in the nature of visitors making use of them. First, there has been a shift from experienced divers and snorkellers to inexperienced snorkellers and non-snorkellers with a poorer knowledge of reef biology. Second, there has been a shift in the predominant nationalities of visitors, from German and British, through Italian, to Russian. More recent user groups both stated and showed that they had less experience of snorkelling; they also showed less knowledge of marine life and less interest in learning about it. Visitor perceptions of both the state of the marine life on the reefs and the acceptability of current visitor numbers also varied between groups. More recent visitor groups and visitors with less knowledge were more satisfied with reef health. In general, however, visitor perceptions of reef health did not correlate well with actual reef conditions, probably because more experienced visitors preferred less impacted sites with which they were nevertheless less satisfied than inexperienced visitors at heavily impacted sites. More recent visitor groups were also less bothered by crowding on the shore or in the water. Consequently, the apparent “social carrying capacity” of sites seems to be increasing to a level well above the likely “ecological carrying capacity”.     

Improving visitor management approaches for the changing preferences and behaviours of country park visitors in Hong Kong

This study identified the changing preferences of country park visitors in Hong Kong and the potential for such changes to have further negative impacts on the ecologically sensitive areas of country parks. A questionnaire was used to collect feedback from 644 country park visitors to understand their preferences and visitation patterns. To investigate visitors’ preferences and behaviours and to develop better visitor management strategies, the survey data were compared with studies conducted 20 years ago. The results showed that the most popular nature‐based activities of 20 years ago, namely, picnicking and barbecuing, have significantly declined in popularity, while other activities, namely, nature studies and nature photography, have surged in popularity in recent years. These changes in visitor preferences have directly increased the negative impacts of visitors on country parks as they dispersed away from the high intensity recreation zones to the ecological sensitive areas. This emerging group of country park visitors has not been fully considered in the existing approach to visitor management and may irreversibly impact the ecological value of country parks. In this study, visitor management in Hong Kong's country parks was reviewed based on these research findings, and potential improvements were suggested.     

A Combined Park Management Framework Based on Regulatory and Behavioral Strategies: Use of Visitors' Knowledge to Assess Effectiveness

In light of the increasing mandate for greater efficiency in conservation of natural reserves such as national parks, the present study suggests educational approaches as a tool to achieve conservation purposes. Currently, the management of human–wildlife interactions is dominated by regulatory strategies, but considerable potential exists for environmental education to enhance knowledge in the short run and to prompt attitude change in the long run. A framework for conservation based on both traditional regulatory- and behavior-oriented strategies was proposed whereby the level of knowledge that park visitors have acquired comprises an obvious outcome and establishes a basis upon which the effectiveness of regulatory- and behavior-based regimes could be assessed. The perceptions regarding park-related issues of two distinct visitor groups (locals and nonlocals) are summarized from a survey undertaken in Vikos-Aoos national park. The findings suggest a superficial knowledge for certain concepts but little profound understanding of the content of such concepts, indicating that knowledge-raising efforts should go a long way towards establishing a positive attitude for the resource. Visitors' poor knowledge of the park's operation regulation contest the efficiency of the presently dominant regulatory management regime. While geographical distances did not appear to significantly differentiate knowledge between the two groups, wilderness experience (as certified by visits to other parks) was proved to be an impetus for generating substantial learner interest in critical park issues among nonlocal visitors. School education and media were found to be significant knowledge providers.     

The Influence of Place Attachment and Experience Use History on Perceived Depreciative Visitor Behavior and Crowding in an Urban National Park

Research on recreational place attachment suggests that place identity, or the emotional/symbolic ties people have to places, and place dependence, which describes a functional attachment to a specific place, influence the perception of social and environmental site conditions. Recent research, however, has found that place attachment is not always a predictor of such perceptions. This study investigated the influence of place attachment and experience use history on the perception of depreciative visitor behavior, recreation impacts and crowding in an urban national park. In 2006, 605 on-site visitors to the heavily-used Viennese part of the Danube Floodplains National Park were asked about past experience, place attachment, perceptions of depreciative visitor behavior, crowding, changes in visitor numbers during the past ten years, and recreation impacts on wildlife. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two dimensions of place attachment. Linear regression analyses found that place identity and place dependence were related to some perceived depreciative visitor behaviors and visitor number changes but not to crowding, while experience use history additionally related to perceived crowding. Visitors with higher place attachment and past experience were more sensitive to social and environmental site conditions. Management implications of the findings are discussed.     

Integrating Social Marketing into Sustainable Resource Management at Padre Island National Seashore: An Attitude-Based Segmentation Approach

High demand for outdoor recreation and increasing diversity in outdoor recreation participants have imposed a great challenge on the National Park Service (NPS), which is tasked with the mission to provide open access for quality outdoor recreation and maintain the ecological integrity of the park system. In addition to management practices of education and restrictions, building a sense of natural resource stewardship among visitors may also facilitate the NPS ability to react to this challenge. The purpose of our study is to suggest a segmentation approach that is built on the social marketing framework and aimed at influencing visitor behaviors to support conservation. Attitude toward natural resource management, an indicator of natural resource stewardship, is used as the basis for segmenting park visitors. This segmentation approach is examined based on a survey of 987 visitors to the Padre Island National Seashore (PAIS) in Texas in 2003. Results of the K-means cluster analysis identify three visitor segments: Conservation-Oriented, Development-Oriented, and Status Quo visitors. This segmentation solution is verified using respondents’ socio-demographic backgrounds, use patterns, experience preferences, and attitudes toward a proposed regulation. Suggestions are provided to better target the three visitor segments and facilitate a sense of natural resource stewardship among them.     

Wilderness campsite impacts: Do managers and visitors see them the same?

Human-induced impacts from recreational use of wilderness continue to be a significant management challenge, threatening the integrity of the wilderness resource and the quality of visitor experiences. Campsite impacts are of particular concern to managers. One approach to this problem is the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) planning system, which focuses attention on the question, “How much change in wilderness conditions is acceptable?” The research reported here compares and contrasts wilderness manager and visitor perceptions of theacceptability of different levels of campsite impacts,amount of impact, and perceptual zoning of wilderness. The results reinforce previous findings regarding differences between managers and visitors. Management implications are discussed.     

Is this trail too crowded? A choice experiment to evaluate tradeoffs and preferences of park visitors in Garibaldi Park,British Columbia

Large crowds in parks can be a problem for park managers and visitors. However, perceptions of crowding are difficult to measure due to coping mechanisms deployed by park visitors. Furthermore, perceptions of crowding should not be measured in isolation, but rather as part of a suite of conditions that comprise the visitors’ outdoor experience. We used a dichotomous choice experiment with visual images and eight attributes to estimate park users’ utilities associated with their visitor experience in Garibaldi Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. Our visual method allowed us to control for background view and compare user preferences on hiking trails with preferences at final destinations. We find that utilities are more sensitive to crowding at viewpoints than to other aspects of the outdoor experience. Thus, visitor satisfaction and crowding perceptions are more likely to be defined by where visitors have these encounters rather than the total number of encounters.     

The impacts of recreation and tourism in the remote North Kimberly region of Western Australia

The environmental impacts created by recreational visitors to the wet-dry tropics of Western Australia raise questions about the type of visitor and the capacity of remote areas to 'carry increasing numbers of visitors. This paper looks at those questions in regard to some of the more remote natural attractions in the tropical North Kimberley region. Three locations—Cape Domett at the mouth of the Ord River, the Admiralty Gulf and the Mitchell Plateau—illustrate the differences between attractions, visitors, patterns of visitor behavior and their impacts on the local environment. As the highly variable nature of the Australian wet-tropics renders the use of conventional site indicators of carrying capacity difficult, an ecological alternative is proposed for research. The dominance of local and other Australian four-wheel drivers to the Kimberley and the impacts they create are shown to challenge the government's promotion of the region to overseas visitors and its notion of tourism as a sustainable industry.     

Factors affecting overall satisfaction with a river recreation experience

Visitor satisfaction has been a consistently stated goal of outdoor recreation management. Recreation resource managers provide opportunities for the visiting public with the anticipation of satisfying the needs of the visitors. Management efforts are often evaluated in terms of visitor satisfaction. In the recent decade, a multiple satisfactions approach has been the primary research paradigm guiding visitor satisfaction research. This paradigm has focused primarily upon behavioral-type dimensions such as crowding, goal attainment, and resource impacts resulting from behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the importance of a setting dimension relative to behavioral-type dimensions for explaining differences in visitor satisfaction. A sample of 895 river visitors were sent a questionnaire in the mail; 682 were returned for a 76.2% response rate. Regression analysis indicated the setting dimension was ranked as one of the most important dimensions for explaining differences in visitor satisfaction. Other dimensions considered included group behavior, perceived crowding, parking, past experience, encounters, use levels, and time waiting. Implications for management are discussed.     

Understanding consumer behaviour and adaptation planning responses to climate-driven environmental change in Canada's parks and protected areas: a climate futurescapes approach

Parks and protected areas are a global ecological, social and health resource visited by over 8 billion people annually. Their use can yield substantial benefits, but only if a balance between ecological integrity and sustainable visitation is struck. This research explores the potential influence of climate-driven environmental change on visitation to North America's most popular glacier, the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park, Canada. Photorealistic environmental visualizations were used to gauge visitors’ perceptions of environmental change and potential impacts on consumer behaviour. Results suggest that impacts could substantially diminish the site's pull as a tourism destination. Rather than improving visitation prospects, expert-proposed adaptations underestimated the importance of perceived naturalness and contributed to further potential decline. Findings are relevant to protected areas planning and management. They suggest that a natural path to climate change adaptation is the best way to support both ecological integrity and the long-term tourism pull of protected areas.     

Visiting a Climate-Influenced National Park: The Stability of Climate Change Perceptions

Understanding perceptions of global environmental issues, such as climate change, can help inform resource management, policy development, and communication with constituents. Although a considerable amount of research documents citizens’ perceptions of climate change, few have investigated how interactions with climate-impacted parks and protected areas influence these perceptions, and consequently elements of environmental management. Using a mixed methods Instrument Development Approach, the researchers examined the stability of park visitors’ (N = 429) climate change perceptions during a daylong interaction with climate-sensitive and influenced resources at Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska. Results indicate that global-level beliefs about climate change remained relatively stable during a park experience, but perceptions about climate change at the park-level (e.g., impacts) appeared more malleable. Findings also revealed the type of park experience (terrestrial vs. marine) can influence the degree of change in visitors’ perceptions. Implications for communication, outreach, and park management are discussed.     

Carrying capacity as "Informed Judgment": the values of science and the science of values

Contemporary park and wilderness carrying capacity frameworks rely on formulation of standards of quality, which are defined as minimum acceptable resource and social conditions. Formulation of standards of quality involves elements of both science and values, and both of these elements must be integrated into informed judgments on the part of park and wilderness managers. That is, managers must ultimately make value-based judgments about the maximum acceptable level of visitor-caused impacts to the resource base and the quality of the visitor experience. However, such judgments should be as informed as possible by scientific data on the relationships between visitor use and resulting impacts and the degree to which park and wilderness visitors and other interest groups judge such impacts to be acceptable. Such information represents the “values of science” to managing carrying capacity in parks and wilderness. A growing body of literature has begun to address the corresponding “science of values,” and how this type of information might be integrated in park and wilderness management. Visitor-based research has employed normative theory and techniques to explore the acceptability of a range of resource and social impacts related to visitor use, and findings from these studies are being integrated into a body of knowledge and applied in management decision-making. Conceptual and methodological extensions of the normative approach are currently being explored in a variety of park and wilderness contexts, and new theoretical and empirical approaches are being adapted to address trade-offs inherent in carrying capacity. In these ways, the science of values is progressing to meet the opportunities and challenges of the values of science to park and wilderness management. The concept of carrying capacity, along with the theoretical and methodological approaches described in this paper, can be extended to a large number of natural resource and environmental issues.     

Defining Indicators and Standards for Tourism Impacts in Protected Areas: Cape Range National Park,Australia

Visitors’ perceptions of impacts and acceptable standards for environmental conditions can provide essential information for the sustainable management of tourist destinations, especially protected areas. To this end, visitor surveys were administered during the peak visitor season in Cape Range National Park, on the northwest coast of Western Australia and adjacent to the iconic Ningaloo Reef. The central focus was visitors’ perceptions regarding environmental conditions and standards for potential indicators. Conditions considered of greatest importance in determining visitors’ quality of experience included litter, inadequate disposal of human waste, presence of wildlife, levels of noise, and access to beach and ocean. Standards were determined, based on visitors’ perceptions, for a range of site-specific and non-site-specific indicators, with standards for facilities (e.g., acceptable number of parking bays, signs) and for negative environmental impacts (e.g., levels of littering, erosion) sought. The proposed standards varied significantly between sites for the facilities indicators; however, there was no significant difference between sites for environmental impacts. For the facilities, the standards proposed by visitors were closely related to the existing situation, suggesting that they were satisfied with the status quo. These results are considered in the context of current research interest in the efficacy of visitor-derived standards as a basis for protected area management.     

Spatially Characterizing Visitor Use and Its Association with Informal Trails in Yosemite Valley Meadows

Ecological impacts associated with nature-based recreation and tourism can compromise park and protected area goals if left unrestricted. Protected area agencies are increasingly incorporating indicator-based management frameworks into their management plans to address visitor impacts. Development of indicators requires empirical evaluation of indicator measures and examining their ecological and social relevance. This study addresses the development of the informal trail indicator in Yosemite National Park by spatially characterizing visitor use in open landscapes and integrating use patterns with informal trail condition data to examine their spatial association. Informal trail and visitor use data were collected concurrently during July and August of 2011 in three, high-use meadows of Yosemite Valley. Visitor use was clustered at statistically significant levels in all three study meadows. Spatial data integration found no statistically significant differences between use patterns and trail condition class. However, statistically significant differences were found between the distance visitors were observed from informal trails and visitor activity type with active activities occurring closer to trail corridors. Gender was also found to be significant with male visitors observed further from trail corridors. Results highlight the utility of integrated spatial analysis in supporting indicator-based monitoring and informing management of open landscapes. Additional variables for future analysis and methodological improvements are discussed.     

Indigenous Knowledge and Long-term Ecological Change: Detection, Interpretation, and Responses to Changing Ecological Conditions in Pacific Island Communities

When local resource users detect, understand, and respond to environmental change they can more effectively manage environmental resources. This article assesses these abilities among artisanal fishers in Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands. In a comparison of two villages, it documents local resource users’ abilities to monitor long-term ecological change occurring to seagrass meadows near their communities, their understandings of the drivers of change, and their conceptualizations of seagrass ecology. Local observations of ecological change are compared with historical aerial photography and IKONOS satellite images that show 56 years of actual changes in seagrass meadows from 1947 to 2003. Results suggest that villagers detect long-term changes in the spatial cover of rapidly expanding seagrass meadows. However, for seagrass meadows that showed no long-term expansion or contraction in spatial cover over one-third of respondents incorrectly assumed changes had occurred. Examples from a community-based management initiative designed around indigenous ecological knowledge and customary sea tenure governance show how local observations of ecological change shape marine resource use and practices which, in turn, can increase the management adaptability of indigenous or hybrid governance systems.     

Determinants of Visitor Pro-Environmental Intentions on Two Small Greek Islands: Is Ecotourism Possible at Coastal Protected Areas?

A relatively under-researched question is whether there is a possibility of influencing environmentally aware tourists regarding ecotourism at destinations that continue to develop under a pattern of mass 'seaside' tourism. Our objective was to assess the pro-environmental intentions of visitors at two small Greek islands, which are within a Natura 2000 site, specifically Paxoi and Antipaxoi. Intentions involved willingness to receive information about the protected area, willingness to accept pro-environmental limitations on recreational experience, and willingness-to-pay a conditional environmental conservation value added tax. In addition, we aimed to identify determinants of visitor pro-environmental intentions among visitor and visit characteristics, visitor satisfaction, and self-reported environmental knowledge, as well as anticipated outcomes of tourism development and suggestions for protected area management. We randomly collected 324 usable questionnaires during the summer season; 242 (74.69?%) by Greek visitors and 82 (25.31?%) by foreign visitors. Visitor satisfaction was quite high; however, visitors reported low levels of environmental knowledge. Our findings showed that the unique characteristics of the destination were not salient among visitors and that there is a lack of effective outreach campaigns, interpretation, and on-site environmental education programs. However, our study revealed high levels of visitor pro-environmental intentions that might support the promotion of ecotourism on the two islands. We provide recommendations based on determinants of visitor pro-environmental intentions, which might assist towards advancing visitor participation in environmental education projects, environmentally responsible behavior among visitors, and financial contribution to environmental conservation by visitors.     

Past On-Site Experience,Crowding Perceptions,and Use Displacement of Visitor Groups to a Peri-Urban National Park

Past on-site experience was linked to the crowding perceptions and use displacement of 383 on-site visitors to the peri-urban Danube Floodplains National Park, Austria. Three visitor groups were determined according to their area experience: local residents from Vienna and rural communities, having the highest level of experience; regional visitors from the city and eastern Austria; and tourists from Austria and abroad with the lowest degree of experience. Crowding perceptions were significantly different across the user groups. More than 50% of local residents perceived the national park as crowded, whereas only 27% of regional visitors and 19% of tourists reported such an evaluation. Even among local residents and regional visitors, respondents with more on-site experience expressed a greater impression of a crowded park. Differences in crowding evaluations between local rural and urban residents and between regional rural and urban visitors were not found. For 27% of local residents and 15% of regional visitors, use levels were so unacceptable that they displaced temporally and spatially, whereas use displacement was relatively irrelevant for tourists. The use displacement strategies involved differ among the three user groups. Management implications were discussed, taking the specific situation of the small national park on the urban-rural fringe into consideration.