Examining future park recreation activities and barriers relative to societal trends

ABSTRACT

This study empirically examines how future park recreation is related to enduring societal trends. An online panel of 927 participants was surveyed regarding anticipated park recreation participation in ten years’ time in terms of intended park activities and expected barriers, adapted from the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the Recreation Experience Preference scales and Leisure Constraints theory. Anticipated changes were then linked by participants to the particular societal trends impacting them. The results suggest increased activities are expected from the ‘health awareness’ and ‘independence and convenience’ societal trends, while increased barriers are expected from ‘climate change’, ‘perceived safety’ and ‘population and urban growth’. Overall, the percentage of participants reporting future increased activities at parks is equal to those reporting future barriers; which suggests potentially that there will be no net participation change over time. The management implications, limitations and potential future research agenda stemming from the study are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Future outdoor recreation
• park recreation
• activities
• barriers or constraints
• societal trends

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Dino Zanon http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0458-697X

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dino Zanon

Dino Zanon managed visitor research at Parks Victoria in Australia for 14 years. That research included developing Corporate Performance Indicators related to social objectives such as visitation monitoring, and visit and community satisfaction. Other research addressed specific management issues, both social and environmental, across the managed estate. University researchers were often partners in the applied research which also often included doctoral candidates. He also successfully undertook a Ph.D. awarded in 2015 by Deakin University.