Tourist theme parks: Research practices and possibilities

Abstract

Theme parks represent a major development in contemporary leisure and recreation. Psychologists have not contributed very much to the research activities in such institutions but there is considerable scope for their involvement. In this article the results of a survey of theme park research is presented. The survey examined the research practices of 38 commercial and historic theme parks in both the United States and Australia. It is argued that current research practices lack conceptual focus, methodological rigour, and analytical sophistication, and that input from attribution theory, person-situation analysis and multivariate statistical procedures would improve the quality of theme park research. The possibilities of using the theme park context for academic studies in social, environmental, organizational, developmental and even physiological psychology are noted.