The motivations of Chinese hikers: data from Ningbo

ABSTRACT

Hiking has emerged as an activity growing in popularity. One reason lies in the significant investment being made in hiking trails by the Chinese government, while equally many Chinese find hiking attractive because trail construction permits safe hiking and high levels of social interaction. This study of 579 Chinese hikers on trails in Ningbo, Zhejiang, uses multinomial logistic regression analysis to ascertain their motives based on responses to questionnaires. The questionnaire were premised on concepts derived from the Leisure Motivation and Satisfaction Scales devised by Beard and Ragheb as amended by direct observation of Chinese hiking behaviours. It was found that while Chinese interpret some items differently to their Western counterparts it was possible to use many of the items. The primary motivations appear to value social interaction and perceived health benefits. Recommendations are made for potential management action.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• hiking
• motives
• culture
• planning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by Research Project of Zhejiang Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences Circles ‘Study on the countermeasures for the development of forest wellness tourism industry in Zhejiang Province from the perspective of ‘Healthy China’ (2019N23) granted to Li Ping; and 2018 Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages research project (D2018001) to Li Ping; as well as thank the support provided by the Research Project of Strategic Joint Research Center of Ningbo City and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (NZKT201302) to Zhou Bin.