Factors affecting visitor evaluations of aircraft overflights of wilderness areas

Abstract

The effect of visitor characteristics (recreation motives, past experience, attitudes, and tolerance toward encountering aircraft overflights) and dose (number, proximity, type, and estimated noise levels of overflights) on visitor evaluations of aircraft overflights in wilderness areas was examined. Using an off‐site mail‐back survey, we sampled 439 visitors to four wilderness areas in Wyoming. Results show that (1) more than one‐third of visitors were “not at all” annoyed by overflights; (2) overflights had a greater effect on visitor solitude and tranquility than on annoyance; (3) visitor evaluations of overflights appear to be multidimensional, consisting of dimensions related to annoyance, solitude, and tranquility; and (4) both visitor characteristics (especially, attitudes and recreation motives) and dose measures (in particular, estimates of audibility) were strongly related to evaluations. Findings suggest future wilderness overflight studies should employ a multidimensional evaluative measure of satisfaction as the dependent variable and include wilderness visitor characteristics as an independent variable. Implications for wilderness policy are discussed.

Keywords:

• Keywords aircraft overflights
• dose measures
• dose‐response model
• wilderness management
• wilderness visitor characteristics