Abstract |
Personal characteristics of the visitors including cultural and socio-demographic background have been found to have an influence on the normative interpretation of outdoor recreation use patterns and perceptions (Manning 2011). In a more technical sense, norms are cultural rules that guide behavior (Sayan et al. 2013). Research in outdoor recreation found that culture and demographics influence peoples’ motivations, expectations and preferences in the outdoor recreation (Fleishman et al 2004, Sasidharan et al. 2005, Buijs et al. 2009, Sayan et al. 2013). Culture has generally been addressed by examining similarities and differences among recreationists based on race, ethnicity, and nationality (Manning 2011) and formulated by standards of quality. One branch of normative theory and methods—structural characteristics models—has special application to park management and formulation of standards of quality in particular (Vaske and Whittaker 2004). In the context of park management, this model works by asking survey respondents (e.g., park visitors, residents of surrounding communities, and the general public) to evaluate the acceptability (or other evaluative dimension) of a range of recreation-related impacts to park resources or the quality of the visitor experience (Manning 2011). |