Weekend Visitors' Views and Perceptions at an Urban National
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Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism 17 (2017) 112–121 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jort Weekend visitors' views and perceptions at an urban national forest park of MARK Cyprus during summertime ⁎ Paraskevi Karanikolaa, Thomas Panagopoulosb, , Stilianos Tampakisa a Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, 193 Pantazidou street, Orestiada, Greece b Research Centre for Spatial and Organizational Dynamics, University of Algarve, Gambelas Campus, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Urban national forest parks provide nature preservation and recreational opportunities for socio-economically Urban forest disadvantaged communities as well as tourists. We empirically examine the preferences and satisfaction of Green infrastructure visitors in the Athalassa National Forest Park, which is located in a peri-urban area in the capital city of Cyprus. National Park This study examines visitors’ evaluation of the Athalassa in 600 face-to-face interviews during summertime Park management weekends. A two-step cluster analysis identified two distinct clusters of visitors based on the three dimensions of Segmentation analysis satisfaction that resulted from the factor analysis and the characteristics of the visit. The dual role of the urban forest National Park was highlighted. Both local and tourist visitors were satisfied and appreciative of the setting and support services, although only the local and higher income visitors were willing to pay an entrance fee, whereas tourists avoided expressing their opinion. Management implications: This study highlighted a number of deficiencies and produced information that could be used to integrate the management decision-making process and assist in defining major lines of action for more inclusive use of urban national forest parks. The results revealed that the visitors were overall satisfied with the park, but the benefits promoted from this important green infrastructure were not evenly distributed across different sections of society with older age groups and those of lower socio-economic status were not accessing the park to the same extent as other groups, thus there is some room for improvement. However, in a time of economic crisis, the management of the park must be based on a combination of satisfying the two clusters and on improving efforts in different infrastructures. 1. Introduction visitors’ satisfaction to quantify the capacity of a specific park to fulfil the recreational and leisure time needs of visitors (Andkjaer & Historically, national parks were designed to serve as public parks Arvidsen, 2015; Arabatzis & Grigoroudis, 2010). Visitors' satisfaction, providing opportunities for biodiversity conservation and for the defined as the congruence between visitors’ expectations and outcomes sustainable use of natural resources, research, education and recreation (Vaske, 2008), is often a major management objective and is one of the (Ehrenfeld, 1978). National parks are attractive to visitors because of most commonly used indicators of recreation quality (Manning, 2011; their protected status, which ensures their naturalness (Ferreira & Roemer & Vaske, 2014). Harmse, 2014). Recreation in natural parks is increasing worldwide Tourism has a significant impact on the management of urban (Adams et al., 2008; Duzgunes & Demirel, 2013; Mayer, 2014; national parks, with high biodiversity and recreational value. In recent Pickering & Hill, 2007; Worboys, Delacy, & Lockwood, 2005). On years, tourists have constituted a substantial proportion of visitors to the other hand, accessible urban green spaces decreases, thus, resi- national parks and other protected areas; consequently, their percep- dents have begun turning to peri-urban national parks as alternative tions and preferences have begun to play a major role in the decisions areas for their recreational needs (Rossi, Byrne, Pickering, & Reser, of national park managers (Sterl, Brandenburg, & Arnberger, 2008; 2015; Rupprecht & Byrne, 2014). Vistad, 2003). Many studies have assessed visitors’ perceptions of Peri-urban national parks are located at the urban rural fridge of national parks in America (Roemer & Vaske, 2014; Santucci, Floyd, cities or the urban-wild land interface (Ewert, Chavez, & Magill, 1993; Bocarro, & Henderson, 2014), Africa (Gandiwa et al., 2014); Asia Lawton & Weaver, 2008). Various studies have attempted to measure (Deng, Qiang, Walker, & Zhang, 2003), and Europe (Gorner & Cihar, ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Panagopoulos). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jort.2016.10.002 Received 28 December 2015; Received in revised form 25 June 2016; Accepted 13 October 2016 2213-0780/ © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. P. Karanikola et al. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism 17 (2017) 112–121 2011; Papageorgiou & Brotherton, 1999). Comparative studies be- replaced from other species like Ceratonia siliqua and Olea europea. tween the perceptions of national park visitors in Cyprus and other countries would be of a great value, but to date, this information has 2.2. Methodology only been recorded about one park in Cyprus: the National Park of Troodos (Tampakis, Karanikola, Tsantopoulos, & Andrea, 2014). This research was conducted through the use of personal interviews Public participation questionnaires play a key role in sustainable lasted between 10 and 15 min. The questionnaire developed for the park development and in landscape planning, because they provide purpose of this study consists of two major parts and 18 questions. relevant information regarding not only landscape features but also Questionnaires covered a wide range of topics, such as frequency of public preferences about landscape characteristics (Loures, Loures, visitation, the activities involved, the level of satisfaction, the duration Nunes, & Panagopoulos, 2015). The perceptions and preferences of and distance covered to visit, willingness to pay an entrance fee, and visitors play a major role in the management decisions made by potential support of management strategies. The questionnaires in- national park managers all over the world (Dasdemir, 2005; cluded a combination of close-ended questions and five-point Likert- Panagopoulos, 2009; Papageorgiou & Kassioumis, 2005). scaled questions, on a scale from 1 very bad to 5 very good concerning Most of the national parks in southern Europe face management their satisfaction for the visit in the park (Bigne, Andreu, & Gnoth, issues, which have intensified in the current economic crisis (Vokou 2005). Additionally, park users were asked to identify their perceived et al., 2014). Particularly in Cyprus had as consequence the reduction sense of crowding (Manning, 2007) and to rate the acceptable density of the annual income and the expansion of the unemployment rate, of people in the park, with results coded in a 3-point scale from amused which lead to higher concentration in big cities and substantial decline to disturbed (Brace, 2009). of citizens' quality of life (Arechavala, Zarzosa, & Trapero, 2015). The population under study was the total number of visitors. Meanwhile, sustainable cities must be simultaneously economically Cluster sampling approach has been chosen, because this particular viable, socially just, politically well managed and ecologically sustain- method allows us to select a sample without being necessary to create able to maximize human well-being (Panagopoulos, Duque, & Dan, and number the sampling framework (Kalamatianou, 2000). In cluster 2016). Urban national parks were designed to bring nature and sampling only the existence of one list of groups-clusters is required, recreational opportunities to socio-economically disadvantaged com- and also of the elements pertaining to the selected clusters (Filias et al., munities in urban areas (Byrne, Wolch, & Zhang, 2009). 2000). In our application of this method the examined clusters were The goal of the present study was to investigate visitor perceptions the weekends of the year when the research was conducted. and views about the adequacy of national forest park infrastructure and The weekends were chosen as clusters because during weekends the recreational facilities and to assess the dual roles of an urban national park is visited by all the groups of the population (the people who work forest park. The results of this work could be used as a tool for urban the weekdays and the visitors from distant areas that prefer weekends national forest park management. for their visits as excursion. The weekdays park usually visit local pensioners and housewives with children. 2. Research methodology We estimated the proportion of the population and the standard error of the proportion of the population sp using the following cluster 2.1. Study area sampling formulas. n n ∑ ai Nn− ∑ (−ai pmi )2 Between 1983 and 2004, ten national forest parks were established p = i=1 S = i=1 n p 2 in Cyprus, covering a total area of 15627.22 ha. The urban National ∑i=1 mi NnM n −1 Forest Park of Athalassa, one of the biggest in Cyprus, with an area of Ν=the number of clusters in the population (52 weekends), 840.2 ha, is situated 5 km south of Nicosia and is surrounded by the n=the number of clusters in the sample, suburbs of Aglantzia, Strovolos, Latsia and Geri. Nicosia, the capital of α =the number of the elements in the cluster sampling i that have