Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed outdoor recreation. As a result of the pandemic, parks and protected areas around the world have witnessed dramatic increases in recreation visitation. While various studies have examined this premise, this is one of the first to examine the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic upon recreation visitation across an entire parks and protected areas system in New England, utilizing both spatial and temporal scales. Study findings provide empirical evidence to inform future research and theory related to the social-ecological systems and recreation opportunity spectrum frameworks. A unique combination of primary, secondary, and geospatial data was used to explore recreation visitors’ decision-making, behaviors, and visitation trends during the pandemic. Inferential and regression analyses suggest overall recreation visitation increased by ∼61% (2+ million additional site visits) during the summer of 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Moreover, significant changes in visitation, site, and geo-spatial characteristics were observed for both in-state and out-of-state visitors during the pandemic. This research validates the influence of the pandemic upon parks and protected areas in the United States.
Acknowledgements
The participation from WMNF and GMNF visitors was invaluable for the completion of this research. Additionally, the authors would like to acknowledge the original peoples who inhabited the WMNF and GMNF including the Abenaki, Mohican, Malecite, Passamaquoddy, and Penacook peoples.
Disclosure statement
All authors agree that there are no financial or personal interests, and no beliefs that could affect their objectivity.
Author contributions
Each author made an individual contribution to this manuscript. All authors have approved the final manuscript. All authors warrant that the article is the authors' original work and hasn't received prior publication.