The role of distance in peri-urban national park use: Who visits them and how far do they travel?

SEBASTIAN ROSSI; JASON BYRNE; CATHERINE PICKERING

Applied Geography

Elsevier

Lugar: New York; Año: 2015 vol. 63 p. 77 - 88

0143-6228

There is a sizable literature about the factors shaping park visitation and use e especially for urban parks,including (i) geographic (e.g. proximity), (ii) socio-cultural (e.g. population characteristics) and to a lesserextent, (iii) individual psychometric factors (e.g. attitudes and values). Yet comparatively little is knownabout how factors related to distance may affect peri-urban national park use, particularly outside theUnited States. This paper reports on research investigating distance-related factors affecting use of a periurbannational park in Brisbane, Australia. This study found that older visitors live closer to the parkwhile younger visitors travel further to use it. Surprisingly, travel distance did not vary with the type ofrecreational activities that users were conducting in the park. These results have implications for parkplanning and management including user demand for different recreational activities in peri-urbannational parks. Results are useful for scholars using distance decay models to explain travel behaviour,evidencing the empirical veracity of the model in different places and across different service types. Thefindings are especially important for geographers because they demonstrate that assumptions aboutuniform park catchments may be unsupported and need to be empirically validated.