Visitation & Place Attachment at Kentucky State Parks

Visitation to state parks is important for social and economic growth for communities. State parks often play a role or are the driving force for local economies (Smith, Anderson, Davenport & Leahy, 2013; White & Gooding, 2013). Therefore, increased total visitation and revisit likeliness are important for local communities close to state parks. Research has shown that clean and maintained natural areas (Fletcher & Flecther, 2003) and removal of experience participation barriers increase visitation and likeliness to revisit (Scott & Munson, 1994; Walker & Crompton, 2013). Further, visitors that feel connected to the natural area are also likely to revisit the resource and local community (Lee, Kyle, & Scott, 2012). Thus, it is critical to identify place attachment, and barriers to access perspectives from visitors to state parks. Such information can aid managers as they sustain the natural resource in a way that promote initial and additional visitation. Place attachment, barriers to access, and demographic information was collected at three state resort parks in Kentucky in 2014. The researcher found that visitors did not perceive any barriers to access, yet also did not show elevated levels of place attachment. Thus, further inquiry is necessary to identify variables to increase place attachment and overall visitation to the state parks included in this study. In that barriers to access were not found, increasing place attachment is a likely way to increase overall visitation and thus improve the local economies, but further research should include other variables related to increasing state park visitation