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Abstract |
Parks and recreation areas around the world increasingly serve as international visitor attractions and play an important role in the international tourism industry. Given the increasingly diverse visitors, changes in racial and ethnic composition have confronted the management of parks and recreation areas. Since values presumably influence perceptions and behaviors among members of different cultures, studying values among culturally diverse visitors are important if we are to understand their influence on perceptions as well as parks and recreation behavior. We are not aware of any measure of recreation or leisure values that has been validated cross-culturally. In order to better understand this issue, the purposes of this study are to examine two different types of broad values measures (i.e., Hofstede’s measures of values and Kahle’s List of Values [LOV]) that have been validated cross-culturally, and test values’ utility to predict service quality, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions, both in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In 2005-2008, the visitors to Pokfulam Country Park in Hong Kong and Taroko National Park in Taiwan were surveyed. Using a convenient purposive on-site sampling approach, at sites known to be heavily used by visitors with diverse ethnic backgrounds, we obtained a sample combining the Hong Kong and Taiwan recreation visitors. The results from data analyses showed that Hofstede’s measure of values, as employed in the park and recreation context, needs to be further elaborated and refined to provide acceptable validity and reliability. On the other hand, we found the LOV to be a meaningful and useful measure of values in both settings. The findings also showed LOV’s four dimensions of values, i.e., Respect, Harmony, Achievement, and Hedonism, predicted visitors’ perceptions of service quality, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. Discussion of the findings and implications are provided. |
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