Examining the relationship between recreation settings and experiences in Oulanka National Park – A spatial approach

Pietilä, Miisa; Kangas, Katja

doi:10.1016/j.jort.2015.03.004

Cited by 29 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…As such, this attraction represents a key management challenge if reduced visitation in this central area is to be achieved. This underlines that knowledge of placerelated features such as scenery and attractions is crucial when examining the reasons for hiking choices inside a recreational area (Pietilä & Kangas 2015). The Peer Gynt Cabin offers limited services (accommodation, opening times, food etc.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Motivations for visiting NPs in Scandinavia are well studied (Aasetre & Gundersen 2012), but the spatial hiking choices and alternatives inside these NPs have so far received less attention (but see Pietilä & Kangas 2015;Raadik et al 2010). The study by Raadik et al (2010) on recreational experience preferences (REP) within Fulufjället NP emphasized that further research should examine differences between visitors across the park's different zones.…”

Section: Factors Influencing Visitors' Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Outdoor recreationists can be placed along this gradient according to what kind of experience they prefer (Clark & Stankey 1979;Driver & Brown 1978). Pietilä and Kangas (2015) examined the relationship between recreational settings and visitor experiences in Oulanka NP in Finland. However, they found that different types of visitors, such as first-time and repeat visitors, had fairly similar setting preferences; several other site-specific studies have shown that there is little or no difference in REP scores across visitors to different ROS classes or places (Backlund & Stewart 2012;Fix et al 2013;Pietilä & Kangas 2015).…”

Section: Factors Influencing Visitors' Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linking visitors’ spatial preferences to sustainable visitor management in a Norwegian national park

Selvaag¹,

Aas²,

Gundersen³

2020

ecomont

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The increasing numbers of tourists visiting national parks contribute to new opportunities as well as challenges. Alpine and Arctic national parks in Northern Europe are key habitats for vulnerable species such as wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus), and there is a significant need for management tools that can reduce the negative impacts of tourism. To gain knowledge about visitors' motivations and spatial preferences, we carried out a survey of people (n = 498) on paths in part of Rondane National Park, Norway. The results indicate that a large share of the visitors in the central, vulnerable part of the National Park may find their desired recreational benefits in the less vulnerable fringe entrance areas. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the results and how to increase knowledge about visitors' spatial preferences in order better to regulate their behaviour with the aim of reducing impacts on vulnerable fauna. ProfileProtected area Rondane National Park Mountain range Rondane Country Norway

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Factors Influencing Visitors' Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Factors Influencing Visitors' Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linking visitors’ spatial preferences to sustainable visitor management in a Norwegian national park

Selvaag¹,

Aas²,

Gundersen³

2020

ecomont

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“…PPGIS studies present spatially explicit ways to measure experiences as the participants in these studies are asked to mark on a paper or web-based map where they had certain kinds of experiences. In the context of outdoor recreation, PPGIS studies have explored visitors' motivations for mountain biking in certain places (Wolf, Wohlfart, Brown, & Bartolome, 2015); visitors' perceptions of their most positive and most negative experiences (Pietilä & Kangas, 2015); residents' perceptions of areas that have particular positive qualities, such as beautiful scenery or peace, and areas with negative features (Tyrväinen, Mäkinen, & Schipperijn, 2007); visitors' health benefits (Brown, Schebella, & Weber, 2014); and visitors' experiences related to aesthetics, solitude, social interaction, trailbased activity, learning, and wildlife (Brown & Weber, 2011). However, these studies have explored visitor experiences based primarily on the ad hoc needs of a certain study area, and have not used acknowledged conceptualisations of visitor experience, such as the Recreation Experience Preference scale.…”

Section: Mapping Visitor Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most visited sites of the park, with well-developed infrastructure, are Kiutaköngäs and Pieni Karhunkierros in Juuma. Visitors to the park often perceive these locations as the highlights of their visit as they are characterized by unique rapids and cliffs and host some of the most famous sights in the park (Pietilä & Kangas, 2015). Most of the study participants (N = 170) were Finnish, with previous experiences of visiting Oulanka NP (Table 1).…”

Section: Study Site and Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visitors’ place-based evaluations of unacceptable tourism impacts in Oulanka National Park, Finland

Pietilä

Fagerholm

2016

Tourism Geographies

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Managers of outdoor recreation areas must understand how certain types of settings influence visitor experiences to support preferred on-site experiences. Geographically explicit techniques need to be utilized to explore this setting-experience relationship because inaccurate measuring methods have resulted in a weak association between settings and realized visitor experiences. This study piloted accurate GIS methods to study how visitor experiences differ across settings in Oulanka National Park, Finland. Data on visitor experiences was collected in a map-based online survey. Visitors (N = 170) completed the survey after their visit to Oulanka NP by marking first the locations which they had visited on an electronic map and then selecting those experience items, such as relaxation and physical wellbeing, that they had felt in these locations. The study area was classified into four different settings on a continuum of primitive to developed, using measures of infrastructure, social interaction, and accessibility in GIS software. Mapped experiences were compared against the settings using chi-squared test. No significant differences were found in experience items across recreation settings. The results encourage continued use of GIS tools to study visitor experiences and their geographical contexts, but suggest using more qualitative forms of mapping.

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Where wilderness is found: Evidence from 70,000 trip reports

Derrien,

Winder,

Wood

et al. 2023

People and Nature

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Outdoor recreation is an essential way many people engage with nature. The provision of public spaces for recreation intersects with conservation practices motivated by intertwined social and ecological values, such as strict practices associated with the concept of ‘wilderness’. Debates persist about how such concepts and management practices influence people's recreation experiences. Many US public land management agencies facilitate opportunities for outdoor recreation, relying on management frameworks and tools intended to foster specific experiential qualities. But these frameworks and tools assume simplistic relationships between settings and people's experiences, and managers rarely assess these relationships. This study uses a data set of nearly 70,000 crowdsourced trip reports from a hiking website to understand the qualities of visitors' experiences on trails. We study the geographic distribution of experiential qualities commonly associated with US wilderness areas: aesthetics, awe, challenge, pristineness, quietness, solitude and timelessness. Using analytical methods that rely on machine learning and natural language processing, we identify these experiential qualities in trip reports from hundreds of routes, and use generalized linear models to analyse relationships between the frequency of each experiential quality and the route's administrative, built, biophysical, geographic and social settings. We find that four of the seven experiential qualities (aesthetics, awe, challenge and solitude) are commonly described in trip reports, each appearing in 15%–55% of manually coded reports. The extent to which setting characteristics explained variability in experiences differed, ranging from 34% of the variability in the proportion of trip reports describing aesthetics to 55% for awe. The setting characteristics associated with each experiential quality also differed, with characteristics such as trail mileage and summit destinations having stronger influences on experiential qualities than characteristics such as wilderness designation. Synthesis and applications. Our findings suggest the need to consider more diverse variables in experience–setting relationships, develop more robust models to characterize those relationships and create new data sources to represent understudied variables. These advances would help empirically inform and improve frameworks and tools used for recreation and wilderness planning and monitoring, and potentially promote more responsive management to evolving social–ecological values. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Examining the relationship between recreation settings and experiences in Oulanka National Park – A spatial approach

Cited by 29 publications

References 50 publications

Linking visitors’ spatial preferences to sustainable visitor management in a Norwegian national park

Linking visitors’ spatial preferences to sustainable visitor management in a Norwegian national park

Visitors’ place-based evaluations of unacceptable tourism impacts in Oulanka National Park, Finland

Where wilderness is found: Evidence from 70,000 trip reports

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