Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2008 Development of outdoor recreation resource amenity indices for West Virginia Jing Wang West Virginia University Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Wang, Jing, "Development of outdoor recreation resource amenity indices for West Virginia" (2008). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 2680. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/2680 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. 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Development of Outdoor Recreation Resource Amenity Indices for West Virginia Jing Wang Thesis submitted to the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Consumer Sciences At West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources Jinyang Deng, Ph.D., Chair Chad Pierskalla, Ph.D. Steve Selin, Ph.D. Peggy Pings, Adjunct instructor Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources Program Division of Forestry and Natural Resources Morgantown, West Virginia 2008 Keywords: Amenity Index, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Geographic Information System (GIS), Outdoor Recreation Resources Abstract Development of Outdoor Recreation Resource Amenity Indices for West Virginia Jing Wang Tourism has been playing an increasingly important role in the economic development and promotion for the state of West Virginia. However, how tourism resources are spatially distributed across all the states’ 55 counties and have not received much attention. This study could be among the first of its kind in West Virginia to create an inventory database for 21types of major outdoor recreation/nature-based tourism resources, and spatially examine their distribution across counties. The quantity of tourism resources is determined by measuring their actual size, length, or number, and the quality of the resources is determined by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with consultation provided by West Virginia CVB directors. A four-level amenity index is created using the standard deviation method. In addition, the relationship between travel/tourism related economic benefits and amenity index values is also examined, though in a very simple manner. The results indicate that nature-based tourism resources are largely concentrated in the eastern state centering on the Pocahontas County. While it is found that nature-based tourism resources are positively related to economic benefits generated from travel and tourism, such a relationship is not significant when those gambling counties are considered. Research limitations and future research needs are discussed. ii Acknowledgements It is a pleasure to thank the many people who made this thesis possible. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor and committee chair, Dr. Jinyang Deng, for his professional guidance, mentoring in my research, also for his patience and encouragements through the past two years. I would also like to express my sincere appreciations to my graduate committee, Dr. Steven Selin, Dr. Chad Pierskalla and Peggy Pings for their excellent guidance and constructive suggestions on my project with their knowledgeable experience. I will also thank Dr. Robert Burns for his help in my proposal. This project could not have been accomplished without the supports of all those CVB directors. I thank them all. Special thanks go to Mr. Bill Robinson, State Trails Coordinator of WV Division of Highways, for sharing with me a full list of local trails in the state. I also want to thank Ishwar Dhami and other graduate students in Room 339 for their help and encouragement; I really had a great time working with all of them. I would like to give my special thanks to my husband, Youbin Tu, whose patient love enabled me to complete my research work. Lastly, and most importantly, I wish to thank my parents, Tianyou Wang and Jianmin Zhang, for their boundless love and encouragement. To them I dedicate this thesis. iii Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1. Introduction................................................................................................................ 1 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .................................................................................................................................... 4 TERMINOLOGY .......................................................................................................................................................... 5 LIMITATIONS ............................................................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2. Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 8 AMENITY INDEX DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................................................ 8 MULTIPLE CRITERIA ANALYSIS AND AHP ............................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 3. Methodology ............................................................................................................. 17 STUDY AREA ............................................................................................................................................................ 17 DEVELOPMENT OF A GIS DATASET OF OUTDOOR RECREATION RESOURCES ............................................................. 21 EVALUATION OF TOURISM RESOURCES .................................................................................................................... 21 Identification of tourism resources evaluators in the state ................................................................................ 21 Determination of criteria to evaluate tourism resources ................................................................................... 23 AHP hierarchy construction .............................................................................................................................. 23 Procedures of the AHP....................................................................................................................................... 25 DEVELOPMENT OF AMENITY INDICES ....................................................................................................................... 27 INDEX MAPPING ....................................................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 4. Results ....................................................................................................................... 30 INVENTORY OF TOURISM/OUTDOOR RECREATION RESOURCES ................................................................................. 30 Parks .................................................................................................................................................................. 30 Byways/trails ...................................................................................................................................................... 44 Resorts................................................................................................................................................................ 53 Water resources ................................................................................................................................................. 61 Other attractions ................................................................................................................................................ 73 AHP ........................................................................................................................................................................ 77 Parks .................................................................................................................................................................. 77 Byways/trails .....................................................................................................................................................