Weather Studies in Outdoor Recreation and Nature-Based Tourism: A Research Synthesis and Gap Analysis

ABSTRACT

The impact of weather on outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism has received increasing attention from the research community during the past ten years. This article synthesizes the results of those inquiries, categorizing their predominant themes and identifying knowledge gaps. One hundred eighty-four weather-related articles drawn from a cross-section of international journals served as the foundation for this work. The research synthesis identified three recurring themes: weather-related variables that influence outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism, the importance of geographic research context, and prevailing activity types. A gap analysis indicated an abundance of underinvestigated topics in weather-related studies in outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism. The article concludes with recommendations for future weather-related studies in outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism developed from the predominant themes uncovered in the research synthesis and research needs discovered in the gap analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• climate
• nature-based tourism
• outdoor recreation
• research synthesis
• weather

Notes

1 The full reference to each study is available upon request from the first author.

2 Climate variability refers to variations in the mean state and other statistics, such as standard deviations and statistics of extremes, of the climate on all temporal and spatial scales beyond that of individual weather events.