Outdoor Recreation and Nature Tourism: A European Perspective

Economic and social impacts of recreation and nature tourism

The goal of this research was to investigate the social carrying capacity of an urban park in Vienna, Austria. We used a stated choice approach, combined with a referendum style conjoint model. Based on the hypothesis that the perception of crowding is influenced by several factors, digitally calibrated images were generated to depict in a systematic and rigorous manner different visitor number...

Using social media to quantify nature-based tourism and recreation

Scientists have traditionally studied recreation in nature by conducting surveys at entrances to major attractions such as national parks. This method is expensive and provides limited spatial and temporal coverage. A new source of information is available from online social media websites such as flickr. Here, we test whether this source of "big data" can be used to approximate visitation rate...

Constraints to Outdoor Recreation: A Multiple Hierarchy Stratification Perspective

A multiple hierarchy stratification perspective was adopted to investigate outdoor recreation constraints for 3,000 Texans interviewed by telephone in 1998. This theoretical perspective contends that individuals’ socio-demographic characteristics are accorded a position in society relative to others and that this position effects the individual’s access to services. Logistic regression models t...

Minority Participation in Outdoor Recreation

A Global Perspective on Trends in Nature-Based Tourism

Reports of rapid growth in nature-based tourism and recreation add significant weight to the economic case for biodiversity conservation but seem to contradict widely voiced concerns that people are becoming increasingly isolated from nature. This apparent paradox has been highlighted by a recent study showing that on a per capita basis, visits to natural areas in the United States and Japan ha...