Sustainable tourism and the management of nearshore coastal places: place attachment and disruption to surf-spots

Surfing, a dominant recreational activity in many coastal areas, is a primary driver of local and international tourism. Surf-spots, nearshore oceanic locations where waves break and surfing occurs, are essential community resources. Yet, many surf-spots are at risk of degradation from climate change and other factors. Knowing whether and why surfers consider surf-spots as meaningful places can inform sustainable management of these resources, benefitting the environment and users alike. This study examines place attachment and disruption in relation to surf-spots through an online survey of 1055 surfers in California, where surfing is an important recreational and touristic industry. Our findings suggest that surfers exhibit high fidelity to specific surf-spots and develop deep attachments to those spots, with the strength of the attachment varying depending on the type of surf-spot. Some respondents consider surf-spots to be “part of their family”; few respondents describe no attachments. We conclude that, despite being dynamic oceanic locations, surf-spots are meaningful places for surfers. This importance, combined with the value of surf-spots as resources driving coastal tourism and recreation, warrants systematic consideration of surf-spots as natural resources by managers, and suggests that user–place attachment should be better understood at surf-spots and other tourism sites.     

Problems in Place: Using Discursive Social Psychology to Investigate the Meanings of Seasonal Homes

Researchers continue to explore the nature of place meanings and especially how these meanings are created, disseminated and contested. This paper uses the conceptual framework of discursive social psychology to identify varying interpretive frames homeowners use to characterize the meaning and significance of their seasonal homes as vacation and recreation residences. Among the frames are refuge from modern life, the importance or centrality of seasonal homes in people's lives, obligations and burdens entailed by maintaining dual residences and interactions within a community. The paper advocates for an approach to place meaning that acknowledges the social basis of meaning yet recognizes and focuses on how individuals appropriate and use interpretive frames to explain their relationships to place.     

Influence of recreation on education aspiration

In the wide context of travel and tourism, recreation plays a significant role in occupying holiday‐maker's agenda, so much so that destination is often sought based on recreation activities it offers. Campus recreation for example, is a major component that influences the young when choosing the destination in which to pursue higher education. However, the truly‐important‐but‐often‐dismissed role of recreation is perhaps its value towards the intellectual development of youth. This special value is perhaps more apparent if we discuss it in the context of adolescents in a campus setting i.e. the students. This study is an attempt to examine the relationship between these two dimensions. Specially, it looked at the link between recreation and academic aspirations and achievement using a specific student population. Aspiration is measured by looking at an individual's attitudes, motivation and expectation with regard to formal education. Findings from the study indicated a strong relationship between intensity of recreation with aspiration. It is found that the more intense the recreation activity, the more positive the individual's aspiration towards in class learning is. However, the same cannot be concluded for relationship between intensity of recreation with academic achievement. This is because the study found that individuals who recreate most intensely do not show good academic achievement. The same scenario is also true for those who recreate least intensely. Individuals who showed the best academic achievement are found to be those who recreation intensity is comparatively moderate. The study provided several recommendations for the planning and provision of recreation activities in institutions of higher learning and emphasized the need for students to recognize the importance of balancing academic and nonacademic pursuit in their time management.     

The divergence and coalescence of public outdoor recreation values in New Zealand and England: an interplay between rights and markets

Mid 19th Century English settlers in New Zealand developed a clear set of values for outdoor recreation. A small gregarious farming population used recreation for team sports and the nurturing of a ‘moral and physical health’. Work on the farm was a solitary activity. Recreation should therefore be a social one, taking place on land the rights to which were to be available to all. Developments in England from this time, by contrast, provided recreation values dominated by notions of quiet rural refreshment in manicured landscapes. These values were inextricably linked with national identity for a country with an Empire: the English landscape was the image of a spiritual home and rights over the use of this landscape became increasingly restricted over time. Contemporary national policy in both countries reinforced these distinct value systems. From the late 1970s, however, increasing globalisation has led to a coalescence of value systems for outdoor recreation. Traditional forms of outdoor activities, and the rights to pursue them, have given way to more common leisure lifestyles in both countries. These are now much more based around the home and on health and fitness, and are driven by access through the market rather than through public access rights. Public policy for outdoor recreation in both countries also has embraced this market orientation, pulling back from the centrality of the public provision of access rights.     

中国自然保护地体系建设——红线管控、旅游发展与文化表征

建立以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系,是贯彻习近平生态文明思想的重大举措,是党的十九大提出的重大改革任务。有效协调自然保护地保护与开发的功能定位是实现“生态保护、绿色发展、改善民生”三效合一目标的难点与重点。本文围绕如何有效发挥自然保护地生态系统服务功能这一问题框架,系统分析中国自然保护地在生态保护红线划定、旅游发展与文化要素表征3个方面存在的问题与障碍因素,通过政策梳理、学理辨析、国内外对比等研究方法提出以上三方面问题的破题策略。本文认为要建设与国际接轨、具有中国特色的自然保护地体系,需要运用“可接受的改变极限”思想开展红线划定与管控,因地制策、因时制宜、持续监测;需要加大游憩机会谱的研究及应用实践,实现生态保护与旅游发展相得益彰;需要重视自然保护地内文化景观的提炼识别及其表征、传播,重视国家公园文化认同意义表达。     

Engendered ideologies and leisure policy in the UK. Part 2: professional ideologies

This article draws upon PhD research to examine the restructuring of engendered ideologies in leisure policy in the UK in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and to consider the implications for leisure provision for women. The article is in two parts. In Part 1 the kinds of gender ideologies circulating in leisure policy were outlined; in this second part of the article, the articulation of gender and professional ideologies is examined in order to trace the historical emergence and predominance of particular configurations of ideologies from the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. The research on which this article draws indicates that in the emergence of welfare reformist and community development ideologies in the late 1970s and the mid 1980s respectively, feminist ideologies made a significant impact, but that with the emergence of market ideology in the late 1980s, feminist ideologies were losing ground. It is argued that the predominance of market ideology at a time of economic restraint fuelled by the emergence of post-feminism, is likely to lead to a three-tier system of local leisure provision for women: niche marketed leisure provision for women with substantial resources; mass marketed leisure for women with fewer resources; and even less public leisure provision than previously for the most disadvantaged groups of women.     

Recreation research and planning in the federal republic of Germany: A commentary

Abstract

German recreation planning is strongly oriented toward the maintenance and provision of outdoor recreation areas. The rapidly growing consumption of outdoor recreation activities within a densely populated area has led to refined procedures of evaluating landuse potential and distributing outdoor facilities within environmental constraints. One such procedure is the use of attractivity models. Such models utilize a matrix of social, aesthetic, physical, and infrastructure attributes to arrive at a ranking of attractivity for given landscapes. The rankings are the basis of general landuse decisions and outdoor recreation investment procedures.     

Aquatic resources and recreation behavior

While substantial effort has been undertaken to understand the consequences of industrial and agricultural uses for the environment, concern has also been expressed about its other uses, including recreation. Little is known about the relationship between recreational behavior and an environmental resource base. The present paper focuses upon participation in a specific outdoor recreation activity or activity‐cluster and dominant resource base where participation occurs. Resource bases identified were river, lake, ocean, swamp/marsh, forest/mountain, range/ farm and city/town. Emphasis is placed upon aquatic environs and participation in water‐based recreation. Water activities constituted from 14–30 percent of all outdoor activities taking place at those resource bases identified. Aquatic environments provided the resource base for 38 percent of all recreation participation events, water‐ and non‐water based, occurring during one reporting period. While participation in water‐based activities requires a water resource, the array of participation patterns reported suggests that resource bases defined as recreation places provide a wide range of opportunities for non‐resource‐dependent recreation activities. One conclusion is that resource bases cannot be distinguished by the recreation activities occurring on them. Resource bases in fact facilitate a wide range of recreation activities, some holding little direct connection with the resource base, nor are the conditions of the resource sufficient to predict behavioral outcomes.     

A decade of compulsory competitive tendering in UK sport and leisure services: some feminist reflections

The last decade has witnessed the transformation of public policy in the UK following an extensive programme of privatization across a range of public services. When compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) in sport and leisure services was first proposed in 1987 there was widespread opposition from feminists and also from the Labour party who had been out of government for eight years. This period out of office was to continue for a further ten years until New Labour was elected to government on 1st May 1997 with a landslide majority and a manifesto which embraced, rather than rejected, many of the policies of the four previous Conservative administrations. Instead of the widespread failure and subsequent abandonment of CCT predicted a decade ago by feminists, national labour politicians and local labour authorities, CCT is now widely accepted as here to stay. Following ten years of private sector involvement in local authority sport and leisure provision, and the apparent likelihood that such provision is set to continue, it is timely to reflect on CCT in sport and leisure from a feminist perspective. What have been the successes and failures of this policy transformation for women's sport and leisure; how can these successes and failures be explained; and what are the challenges facing research on women and leisure in local government in the future? This paper attempts to offer a state-of-the-art review of CCT and local government sport and leisure provision for women by providing a comprehensive review of CCT literature and surveys, supported by primary research in the form of a regional case study of CCT and its impact on policy, provision and participation for women. The findings demonstrate that, whilst CCT has led to some significant improvements in service levels in sport and leisure generally, there are many areas related to access and opportunity for women participants which still provide cause for concern. Moreover, the findings illustrate that sex-segregation within sport and leisure management continues to be combined with women's marginalization from many aspects of power and decisionmaking in sport and leisure provision. Analysis of the author's survey findings, qualitative interview data and policy analysis illustrates the need for a new research agenda to advise on future policy developments. Such a research agenda, it is argued, needs to take account of, and develop further, research within three areas if the nature of CCT and its implications for gender relations are to be more fully documented and understood: feminist sport and leisure studies, service sector management, and local government studies.     

The impact of research in countryside recreation policy development

This article illustrates the use made of recreation research in the Countryside Commission. It explains some of the different methods employed, describes the main results and shows the impact they have on policy development.

Research has been of key importance to the Commission during its recent review of recreation policies and the main directions of the emerging policies are highlighted.     

Family Leisure and Leisure Service Provision: Making the Case for Including Perspectives from Practice

ABSTRACT

Research over the last 20 years has contributed to the conceptualization and theorizing about family leisure. Missing from this body of knowledge has been research that focuses on the provision of family leisure programs and services that includes the perspectives of practitioners. Also missing from this research are the perspectives of those who engage in programs and services that have been designed for or offered to families. The first purpose of this article is to, through a discussion of the literature, demonstrate the potential value of engaging recreation and leisure agencies in research that advances knowledge about how family leisure is practiced in program and service contexts. The second purpose is to identify potential areas of inquiry that not only will contribute to advancing theory about family leisure but also support practice in delivering recreation and leisure programs and services for families.     

Nature of place attachment: A study among recreation homeowners in Southern Norway

Place attachment is frequently referred to as a complex and integrative phenomenon encompassing a wide range of concepts. Place attachment is linked to the meanings created around recreation settings, yet knowledge is limited about the nature of place attachment and to what people are attached. This study examines the nature of place attachment among a sample of recreation homeowners in Southern Norway and to which attributes of the places they are attached. The results show that place attachment can be conceptualized on a general level while still containing subdimensions related to the place, the recreational home, and long‐term connections to the area. A range of attributes including the natural and cultural environment, family and social activities, history, and traditions are all important in the development of affective bonds with the places in the study area. Identifying the subdimensions of place attachment enables a better prediction of the importance of different place attributes than the more holistic concept of place attachment.     

Benevolence,nationalism and hegemony: fifty years of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949

This paper reviews the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 fifty years since its enactment. The Act is assessed in the light of fifty years of access policy and within the present context of political debates and manoeuvres over the ‘right to roam’. It is concluded that benevolence is still the prevailing attitude towards access provision, maintaining as it does the scope for alternative freedoms and opportunities to exploit land for consumptive practices such as leisure and recreation. As such, it is argued that the notion of the gift (Mauss, 1990) continues to dominate the provision of countryside access in England and Wales.     

转型期居民对城市公园免费开放的感知分析——以广州市为例

转型期城市公园的免费开放是城市政府及公园管理部门面临的迫切任务,然而,国内外学术界鲜有关于居民对公园管理政策感知的研究.在2009年广州市施行公园免费开放政策背景下,文章以市区5个典型城市公园为对象,对公园访问者进行了随机抽样调查,运用因子分析、方差分析等定量方法对问卷数据进行统计分析,研究发现:1.近半数被访者对公园免费开放政策持肯定态度,近1/3的被访者反对该政策,其余持中立态度；2.分析居民对公园免费开放政策的感知因子,得出3个正面感知公因子和4个负面感知公因子；3.运用方差分析研究了不同人口学特征群体对公园免费开放政策的感知差异,发现不同年龄、职业群体对“丰富市民休闲生活”、“促进休闲旅游业发展”等正面公因子和“导致商品娱乐设施价格上涨”、“影响公园休闲环境”等负面因子的差异明显.最后,根据公园免费开放存在的问题,提出了改善公园管理政策的相关建议.     

加拿大国家公园游憩空间治理研究

从利用的角度开展游憩空间管控是国家公园实现可持续发展的重要措施。本文基于加拿大国家公园实地考察和期刊文献资料梳理,分析了加拿大实施游憩空间管控的体系架构和重点内容,探讨国家公园游憩空间治理主线和适应策略。研究发现：（1）加拿大国家公园游憩空间管控体系可以划分为区域、公园、场地3个尺度,反映了国家公园在促进国土空间保护领域的系统性思维;（2）国家公园游憩治理机制在不同层面进行了多重响应,包括宏观平衡机制、分类优选机制、用途管制机制和游憩利用机制,并在不同尺度空间上匹配相适应的政策管控措施;（3）从政策层面需要维持自然保护和游憩空间利用的平衡关系,在独特性方面体现出有别于绝对保护和完全开发的中性思维。中国国家公园游憩空间治理可汲取利用加拿大的上述发展经验,在多个层面设置前期评估和弹性措施进行改良优化,注重动态调控,避免游憩发展体制僵化。     

Heritage protection and tourism development priorities in Hangzhou, China: A political economy and governance perspective

Government interventions can be important for determining priorities between heritage protection and tourism-related development at heritage sites. This paper uses a political economy approach to examine the government’s role in determining these priorities in China, for two heritage schemes at West Lake in the city of Hangzhou. The study considers policy making for heritage protection and tourism development in the context of broad economic and political circumstances, the power and influence of different actors in the schemes’ governance, strategic selectivity in the policy choices, and whether views about the policies exhibited a uniform hegemony among powerful and less influential groups. Consideration is given to how the relative priority for heritage protection and tourism development in policies reflected the state’s regulation of the economy and maintenance of its political legitimacy. A powerful policy community was found that was beginning to consider other actors’ views, but tourism development remained a prominent driver.     

Attitudes toward the use of designated versus non‐designated urban recreation space

Interviews were conducted in Kitchener‐Waterloo, Ontario, at eight different recreation areas. These were classified as either designated or nondesignated recreation areas. The interview was designed to obtain information regarding demographic characteristics of the user, attitudes toward the use of urban recreation areas (both playgrounds and areas that are not designated as recreational in character), reasons for choosing a particular recreation site and what users considered to be part of an ideal recreation area. Information gathered by the interview method was supplemented by a series of observations. Results indicated a significant difference between age and reasons for nonattendance at designated play areas. Differences in use by sex were, however, not significant.     

The Creation and Maintenance of Sense of Place in a Tourism-Dependent Community

This paper examines the theoretical intersection of place attachment and community through a study of the place attachment of residents who live, work, and play in a tourism-dependent community. Using a qualitative photo-elicitation technique best described as “resident employed photography,” we asked 25 residents of Seward, Alaska, to share images and stories of important places in and around their local community. The findings suggest that place and community are intertwined, as evidenced by the use of community as a frame of reference for describing nearly every example of attachment to place. This suggests that place attachment can serve as a factor in the development “of” community, defined as a heightened engagement in collective actions that help people meet their day-to-day needs. It could also influence one's development “in” community, directing the behaviors that affect how people both participate in communities and seek to change their position within them.     

The revitalization of a heritage travel route: Canada’s Cabot Trail

ABSTRACT

Scenic travel routes have been developed to provide opportunities for tourism and recreation and to promote economic development especially in rural areas. However, maintaining an iconic attraction requires a collaborative destination management effort to keep it viable. The Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia, Canada is used in this paper as a case study for a scenic heritage route revitalization process. The Tourism Area Life Cycle model stages are used to illustrate the tourism development and decline on the Cabot Trail. This paper is a detailed documentation and analysis of the impact of a not-for-profit volunteer organization’s efforts to revitalize the Cabot Trail, through collaboration with local businesses, community groups and various levels of government and funding agencies. It draws upon the drive tourism, heritage trails and tourism revitalization literature. It fills a gap in the knowledge on heritage trails by illustrating a revitalization process that could be repeated in other areas experiencing similar issues.