Energy Saving and Tourism Sustainability: Solar Control Window Film in Hotel Rooms

This paper investigates solar control film as an energy saver in the fast growing hotel sector in southern China. It investigates claims made for this low-cost retrofitted material in hotel rooms, calibrating reductions in solar gain in summer. It provides reliable and independent data about the performance and economic viability of solar control film in real hotel environments. The study found that, by limiting solar gain, the film helps limit tourism's impact on global warming and climate change. The paper also foreshadows new technical glazing developments.     

Serious Leisure and Recreation Specialization: An Uneasy Marriage

A case is made to wed research on serious leisure and recreation specialization. Before such a marriage can occur, the strengths and differences of the two perspectives must be examined. In this article, four important contributions of the recreation specialization are put forward that will further our understanding of serious leisure and intense forms of leisure. These are (1) there is diversity among participants involved in the same leisure activity, (2) we can quantify recreation specialization and serious leisure, (3) there are gradations of seriousness and specialization, and (4) there are practical applications of understanding that participants vary along a specialization continuum.     

Recreation and the Environment as Cultural Dimensions in Contemporary American Society

This paper broadly explores changing outdoor recreation demands, environmental opinions and demographics in the United States. With this country's population predicted to more than double by the end of this century, it is imperative that we understand these trends and their implications for better managing our natural environment and providing opportunities for outdoor recreation in that environment. Using national survey data, we have described differences in recreation behavior (participation) and environmental attitudes nationwide across six socio-demographic factors-race, country of birth, rural-urban residence, region of the country, age and income. Results indicate that demographic differences, recreation activity choices and people's environmental positions are linked.     

Recreation and Leisure Research from an Active Living Perspective: Taking a Second Look at Urban Trail Use Data

This paper examines recreation and leisure research within the context of active living, and highlights an apparent gap between the current involvement of recreation and leisure researchers and the potential they could offer to this important and expanding area of inquiry. To illustrate this potential, I looked at two previous studies that focused on the recreational use of urban trails and reanalyzed the data from an active living perspective. In Study 1, individual, social and environmental factors helped distinguish between low, moderate, and high activity level trail uses. In Study 2, use patterns helped distinguish between health-motivated trail users and individuals using trails for recreation and other purposes, but perceptual and demographic data were similar among groups. Findings from similar studies can help inform active living research, and recreation and leisure studies can provide leadership and contributions to a transdisciplinary understanding of active living.     

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.     

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.     

Ethnic factors and the use of public outdoor recreation areas: The case of Mexican Americans

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of subculture, marginality, and perceived discrimination on use of selected public outdoor recreation areas. The assimilation perspective from the sociology literature provided theoretical guidance for the study. These concepts were treated as different types of social distance (cultural distance, socioeconomic distance, and intergroup distance). Each was hypothesized to affect the use of outdoor recreation areas. Data for this analysis came from telephone interviews conducted with 1057 households in Maricopa and Gila counties in Arizona. The analysis was conducted using a subsample of respondents of Mexican ancestry. The results support the socioeconomic, or marginality, hypothesis. There was less support for the subcultural, or ethnicity, hypothesis. There was no support for the perceived discrimination hypothesis. Research implications and recommendations are discussed.     

Ecotour Guide Training in Less Developed Countries: Some Preliminary Research Findings

This paper presents a critical discussion of the internationally prevailing understanding of the concept 'sustainable tourism'. It is argued that the current focus on stationary activities and local, intensive environmental issues is too limited both in relation to the concept of tourism and the concept of sustainable development. There is no tourism without travel. And, as shown in a Norwegian research study, tourist travel is a major source of serious environmental problems. The paper emphasises that sustainable tourism should be linked to a concept of sustainable mobility. However, this mobility would imply not only a change in the means of transport but also a reduced level of mobility in the rich part of the world. As this would entail new forms of tourism, other than those solely based on auto- and aeromobility, it represents a major challenge for the future development of tourism.     

Conference Tourism: A Problem for the Environment,as well as for Research?

The increase in professional trips to conferences and seminars made by employees in the 'knowledge industries' presents an environmentally worrying trend in mobility in contemporary post-industrial society. A number of factors are involved. Globalisation and regional competition encourage host cities and institutions to put themselves on the conference map. For the individual traveller, conferences and seminars offer escape from daily routines and the chance to experience new, perhaps exotic, places. But trips to distant conferences can have serious environmental impacts, especially if made by airplane. Because of the aggressive impact of greenhouse gas emissions in the upper atmosphere, their threat to the global climate is more serious than similar trips made at surface level. In addition, the time spent on such trips competes with other tasks: conference participation takes scarce time resources available to university academics for research. In the age of electronic communication, it is questionable whether conferences are effective arenas for communicating and gathering knowledge.     

The Value in Targeting Institutional Investors: Evidence from the Five-or-Fewer Rule Change

This article examines a recent relaxation in the ownership qualifications for real estate investment trusts that is popularly referred to as the five-or-fewer rule change. The motivation for this rule change leads to an analogy between the ownership change process and an industry-wide investor targeting strategy. The findings reveal a significant wealth effect based on the targeting strategy; however, there is no evidence to suggest this heterogeneous effect was intended. In addition, the targeted investors' ex post trading behavior is linked directly to the targeting strategy. These findings support the value-based strategy of targeting institutional investors where, in this case, value creation is associated with the increased concentration of a dispersed base of sophisticated investors.