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Recent advances in geospatial technology resulted in GPS and GIS-based approaches becoming more common in visitor use management studies. Many of these studies focus on describing the spatial and temporal patterns and trends of use. While these descriptive data are useful, recent reviews of the recreation literature using GPS and GIS techniques suggest that spatial technologies should be linked to aspatial approaches – such as visitor surveys – to better understand the experiences and behaviors of visitors. However, these calls in the literature have not provided directions for how such an integration could be achieved in a way that is useful to both scientists and managers. This paper presents a multi-faceted methodological approach employed in a study of visitor use and experience at String and Leigh Lakes in Grand Teton National Park, WY. We used an intentional, integrated approach, where aspatial data was linked to three different types of spatial data to better understand the social and ecological environments of SLL and their influence on visitor experiences. Visitors completed questionnaires before and after their experience at SLL that were combined with GPS-based tracking data. We related both the survey results and GPS tracking data to a GIS analysis of mapped, biophysical user-created resource impacts. We also paired spatial-aspatial data in an experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of visitor messaging. The deliberate combination of aspatial and spatial data allowed us to investigate site-specific management concerns and theory-based questions. We found that paired spatial-aspatial data provided a more nuanced understanding of the relationships between the social, experiential, and biophysical factors measured in our study. Overall, this paper provides a method for thoughtfully integrating GPS and GIS-based techniques with questionnaires in a way that contributes to both the science and management of visitor use in parks and protected areas.

This article applies the repositioning framework developed for recreation and leisure service providers (Crompton, 2000, 2009) to recreation and leisure studies as an academic field. To ensure the viability of recreation and leisure studies, internal stakeholders must raise the standing of the field among several key external stakeholder groups: prospective undergraduate students and their parents, university administration, professionals, and the general public. The repositioning framework functions by identifying socially and politically relevant issues, working to address those issues through the medium of recreation and leisure studies, and effectively communicating these potential contributions to a variety of audiences. This article outlines real, associative, and psychological repositioning strategies that academic departments may implement individually, and as a collective whole, to raise the standing of recreation and leisure studies as a field of study.

Non-motorized, water-based recreation (e.g., paddlesports) represents one of the most sought after outdoor activities in U.S. Parks and Protected Areas (PPA). Among paddling options, stand-up paddleboarding represents the activity with the highest levels of growth. However, stand-up paddleboarding has yet to be spatially examined in a PPA setting. This research paired GPS-tracking data of paddlesport users with corresponding social and environmental information to build a robust understanding of paddlesport behavior and experience in PPA. Statistical classification procedures revealed distinctions in movement across paddling activity types, highlighting implications for resource protection and visitor flow management. Integrating spatial and non-spatial data identified numerous drivers and impacts of paddlesport use: the motivation to escape corresponded to traveling further distances, while higher group sizes and prolonged shoreline exposure aligned with concentrated use levels near parking lots and facilities. Results broaden our knowledge of recreationist movement and experience, and add to a growing body of PPA research that incorporates mixed method spatial approaches to research designs. Furthermore, these findings contribute novel information on paddlesport spatial behavior in PPAs, especially given the emergent introduction of stand-up paddleboarding.

Visitor use to parks and protected areas is very dynamic. Previous studies have used geospatial models to better understand visitor flow. Geospatial data give a more accurate and precise insight to visitor movements, and investigating both space and time together in one analysis provides a more holistic understanding of visitor use. This study uses a toolbox created for ArcGIS that combines space and time into one analysis to identify space-time hot and cold spots. By entering data of stopping behaviors of visitors driving along a narrow, rustic park road, spatial temporal hot and cold spots were classified and then described by associated demographic data that was collected. The results show statistically significant spatial-temporal trends among stopping behaviors of visitors in vehicles. Such information is valuable to park managers to better understand and manage visitor flows through an area.

Impact to protected area resources due to uninformed or depreciative visitor behavior continues to be a principal concern for managers. Leave No Trace (LNT) is a prevalent educational strategy for mitigating such impacts. Through on-site surveys, this study examined frontcountry visitor attitudes toward Leave No Trace (LNT) practices, and self-reported knowledge concerning LNT in three Wyoming state parks to determine factors that influenced their behavioral intent to practice LNT. Results suggest that attitudes toward perceived effectiveness of LNT practices and appropriateness of LNT practices are significant predictors of behavioral intent. If education-based communication efforts focus on why LNT practices are appropriate and effective, there is an increased likelihood of meaningfully influencing behavioral intent.

A growing body of evidence suggests that traffic noise negatively affects wildlife. Protected natural areas are not free from noise exposure, both external to and within park boundaries. Natural soundscapes are important in many aspects of animal life histories, for increasing positive visitor experiences, and for providing psychological ecosystem services. To examine the use of signs as an effective traffic noise mitigation strategy, we experimentally altered speed limits from 45 mph to 25 mph, with additional educational signage, along the Oxbow Bend traffic corridor in Grand Teton National Park, USA. We continuously recorded sound levels between alternating week-long blocks while conducting avian point counts at each station. We detected 2,217 individuals of 48 species across all stations throughout the study. To assess visitor experiences with the soundscapes and visitor attitudes towards sign use and management strategies, we conducted stated-choice intercept surveys along a park turnout within the experimental corridor. We administered 471 surveys at an 82% response rate. Future data will evaluate impacts of traffic noise on avian abundance and distributions, visitor attitudes towards mitigation strategies, and the potential coupling between human and natural systems via the soundscape. Featured photo from Figure 2 in report.

National Park Service (NPS) units have seen a significant increase in visitation in recent years. From 2014 to 2016, Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) experienced a 17% increase in recreational visits. Managing for increased use, driven partially by new and novel types of recreation activities, is a growing issue of concern for the NPS. This study uses a qualitative approach to examine how emerging activity types paired with increased visitor use in GTNP’s popular String and Leigh Lakes (SLL) area may lead to outcome interference among park visitors. An influx of novel uses, such as paddleboarding, to an area that is already popular for a myriad of recreation activities, including canoeing, picnicking, and day hiking, adds a layer of complexity to the management of the lakes. This increase in visitation and activity diversity, combined with limited vehicle access and parking, is creating an environment in which crowding and displacement of visitors is occurring. Using the recreational opportunity demand hierarchy (RODH) and an outcomes-focused management (OFM) framework, this study explores visitor activities, settings, and motivations, as well as possible outcome-interfering variables that may interfere with benefit-achievement. To inform this effort, 62 semi-structured interviews were compiled using a random-sampling technique in the SLL area during the summer of 2017. Data were analyzed using a blind coding technique and results suggest that conflict, crowding, and displacement are possible outcome-interfering variables that can be targeted in future research and monitoring efforts in the SLL area and beyond. The results also indicate that visitors react rationally to previous recreational outcomes. Additionally, we examine how our results can address common critiques of OFM. Finally, we propose a new iteration of the RODH, the rational recreation demand hierarchy (RRDH), in which outcomes direct future recreational decisions. The findings of this study and the updated outcomes-focused framework provide a variety of implications to managers. These include the management of outcomes and outcome-interfering variables as indicators of quality, a means of conceptualizing how outcome-achievement influences future decision-making concerning recreational activities and settings, and the treatment of protected area visitors as rational decision makers. Additionally, this study provides a vignette of how increased visitation, a phenomenon widely reported across US national parks, influences visitor experience. Subscribe to JPRA

Managing visitor use in parks and protected areas requires balancing resource protection and quality visitor experiences; a difficult task with ever increasing visitation. Understanding what constitutes a quality experience is also complex. Past studies show that transportation systems are a vital part of visitor's experiences to parks and protected areas. This study investigates preferences for different attributes by examining trade-offs national park visitors make among different transportation-related attributes; such as wait time at the entrance, parking availability, speed of traffic, and volume of traffic. Results indicated that parking was the most important attribute to visitors, followed by traffic volume, wait time at the entrance, and speed. Statistically significant differences in regards to preference among mode of transportation (hiker or in a vehicle) and age were also identified. Management implications This study investigates the tradeoffs visitors make among different transportation-related experiential attributes along a rustic park road. The findings suggest there are interactions and tradeoffs among different aspects of the transportation experience, such as: • Preference to wait at the entrance station prior to entering the park, rather than in a parking lot waiting for a designated parking space. • Preferences can differ depending on age and mode of transportation.

Assessing the visitor experience for management in park and protected areas has long been the research focus of social scientists working in concert with park managers. One approach to protected area management—outcomes focused management—examines either the motivations that guide the behavior of recreationists or the outcomes that are attained through outdoor recreation experiences as a means of better meeting visitor expectations. Though longstanding calls have been made to integrate motivations and outcomes, they remain separated—as researchers select one or the other as measures of either the drivers of or the actual visitor experience. This study is an attempt to connect motivations to outcomes with the goal of understanding their relationship and developing an outcome-based means of measuring the quality of experiences in a heavily visited area of Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Using a pre- and post-experience survey approach, researchers first asked visitors what outcomes they were seeking from the area and then examined to what degree they attained the outcomes that drove their visitation. Results of a structural equation model suggest that visitors were able to attain the outcomes they were seeking from their experience, with the exception of escaping society. The use of outcome attainment as a possible measure of quality is subsequently discussed.

Protected areas are critical locations worldwide for biodiversity preservation and offer important opportunities for increasingly urbanized humans to experience nature. However, biodiversity preservation and visitor access are often at odds and creative solutions are needed to safeguard protected area natural resources in the face of high visitor use. Managing human impacts to natural soundscapes could serve as a powerful tool for resolving these conflicting objectives. Here, we review emerging research that demonstrates that the acoustic environment is critical to wildlife and that sounds shape the quality of nature-based experiences for humans. Human-made noise is known to affect animal behavior, distributions and reproductive success, and the organization of ecological communities. Additionally, new research suggests that interactions with nature, including natural sounds, confer benefits to human welfare termed psychological ecosystem services. In areas influenced by noise, elevated human-made noise not only limits the variety and abundance of organisms accessible to outdoor recreationists, but also impairs their capacity to perceive the wildlife that remains. Thus soundscape changes can degrade, and potentially limit the benefits derived from experiences with nature via indirect and direct mechanisms. We discuss the effects of noise on wildlife and visitors through the concept of listening area and demonstrate how the perceptual worlds of both birds and humans are reduced by noise. Finally, we discuss how management of soundscapes in protected areas may be an innovative solution to safeguarding both and recommend several key questions and research directions to stimulate new research.

At large sporting events, venues often include multiple ways stadium spectators can recycle. However, outside the stadium, tailgaters often make up a large percentage of the event’s attendees and yet may have unaccounted barriers to recycling. This paper uses both observational and survey data to examine the recycling behavior of tailgaters at an American Division I University’s football events. Surveys revealed high reported intent to recycle, but observed behaviors revealed lower rates of recycling (48.7 %). Many of the tailgaters observed (40.7 %) used their own waste disposal bags, which was associated with decreased use of the venue’s recycling infrastructure. Large groups not only used more of the venue’s infrastructure, but were also more likely to use the venue’s bags over bags they brought from home. Greater knowledge about the venue’s infrastructure, higher motivation to recycle, and higher behavioral capacity to recycle were associated with increased reported recycling behavior. Certain groups, like alumni, those who tailgate frequently, and tailgaters who recycle at home reported the highest levels of predictors of recycling. Implications for future interventions and facility managers are discussed.