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Abstract |
Increases in visitor use of parks and protected areas (PPAs) worldwide are challenging managers ability to provide for a quality visitor experience while also maintaining the integrity of natural resources (Geng et al., 2021). In urban PPAs, high levels of use by a diverse population of recrea-tionists are often observed year-round. Further, these areas often serve larger conservation pur-poses, such as protecting wildlife habitat, and tend to be understudied compared to larger PPAs situated in more rural areas (Hockett, Marion, & Leung, 2017; Wolch, Bryne, & Newell, 2014). Understanding visitor motivations and spatial behaviors are important for effective manage-ment of PPA resources and providing quality visi-tor experiences. However, visitor motivations and spatial behaviors are often studied separate-ly, with visitor motivations studied via visitor surveys and GPS-based tracking methods utilized to examine visitor spatial behavior patterns. Pre-vious efforts to link this data to examine differ-ences in spatial patterns as a result of visitor mo-tivations have proven inconclusive (e.g., Newton 2016 and Beeco et al., 2013) or focused on a single user type (Frey et al., 2018). Further, pre-vious research examining visitor motivations and spatial behaviors has focused on a single activity type in a small sections or areas of larger, often rural, PPAs.This study examined differences in visitor spatial behavior patterns for bikers and pedestri-ans as a function of differences in visitor motiva-tion type across several interconnected, urban-proximate PPAs in Orange County, California, USA. The study area provided visitors a wide array of highly accessible destinations to engage in multi-ple recreation activities, including mountain bik-ing, hiking/walking, running, and equestrian use. A paired visitor survey and GPS-based tracking effort was employed to collect data on visitor characteristics and spatial behaviors. Spatial data was collected using GPS-based tracking methods, and motivation type was derived from multivari-ate statistical analysis of a 36-item visitor motiva-tion scale that appeared on a paired survey in-strument. The motivation scale consisted of 36 Likert-style questions derived from the Recrea-tion Experience Preference (REP) scale widely used to understand visitor motivations on public lands in the United States. Visitors to six different recreation areas in Orange County, CA, USA were randomly selected to participate in the research during the months of May and October, 2021. Each recreation area was sampled for three non-consecutive days between the hours of 7am and 7pm, stratified to include both weekend and weekday days. Visitors were asked to carry a GPS unit with them while recreating, and complete a survey upon the completion of their visit. |
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