Impact of Weather Variability on Golfing Activity and Implications of Climate Change

Abstract

Despite the obvious influence of weather conditions on golfing activity, the relationships between participation in golf and specific weather variations have rarely been considered in the empirical literature. Given the increasing evidence to support global climate change, quantification of historical relationships between participation and weather conditions is a vital prerequisite to modeling the potential implications of changing weather patterns for participation in outdoor activities such as golf. The purpose of this article was to determine the influence of weather variations on daily golfing activity at three golf courses in Michigan. Multiple regression analysis revealed that variations in maximum temperature and precipitation had statistically significant influences on daily golfing activity in all the models developed. Fluctuations in other variables, including minimum temperature, public holidays, consumer confidence, and the price of gas, also emerged as significant, but not consistently so across all the models. The results presented highlight both the problems and opportunities associated with modeling the relationships between outdoor activity participation and weather conditions. While the models constructed do identify interesting relationships between the variables tested, they also illuminate the difficulties in accounting for the myriad of influences on outdoor activity participation in a quantitative setting. Nevertheless, the analyses should be of immense utility to outdoor recreation and tourism planners and managers for both the short-and long-term planning and management of their enterprises. Models of present-day relationships between activity participation and variability in climatic, economic, and other relevant factors could aid in short-term decisions regarding issues such as purchasing and staffing requirements. When combined with scenarios of future climatic, economic, and other conditions, they could also be used to inform choices regarding the expansion of existing facilities and diversification into new geographic and/or activity domains.

Weather and Tourism: Thermal Comfort and Zoological Park Visitor Attendance

“…This is further emphasized by Rutty and Scott [13] who recently stated: "there remains an important need to improve current climate change assessments by both basing them on climate data that represent the localized conditions where such tourism activities take place and providing considerations for thermal-physiological comfort." Before researchers can effectively understand how future climate change scenarios broadly impact tourist behavior, however, many researchers have suggested the importance of establishing present-day baselines for human behavioral response to varied weather conditions [14][15][16][17][18].…”

Modeling the sensitivity of outdoor recreation activities to climate change

“…Even though the relationships be tween weather and outdoor recreation are obvious, quantitative assessments of these effects are rare (see e.g. Nicholls et al 2008 for a literature overview). Existing literature that explicitly links weather with the participation in outdoor recreation activities ranges from the analysis of water-based activities (e.g.…”

“…Weather conditions are one of the major determinants for leisure, sport, tourist and outdoor recreation activities (Palutikof et al 2004, Nicholls et al 2008, Perch-Nielsen 2010. Therefore, the impact of climate on these activities has received particular attention (for over views see Gössling & Hall 2006, Nicholls et al 2008, Perch-Nielsen 2010.…”

“…Therefore, the impact of climate on these activities has received particular attention (for over views see Gössling & Hall 2006, Nicholls et al 2008, Perch-Nielsen 2010. Climate change will, for instance, lead to changes of visitor flows within seasons of the year as well as to changes in the activities used (e.g.…”

“…Berkhout & Brouwer 2005 for the Netherlands), golfing (e.g. Nicholls et al 2008 for the USA), skiing (e.g. Koenig & Abegg 1997for Switzerland, Moen & Fredman 2007 for Sweden, Dawson et al 2009 for the USA, Endler & Matza rakis 2011 for Germany), leisure time physical (outdoor) activities in general (e.g.…”