Encounters, norms, crowding, management, and behavioral responses of visitors at coastal state parks in Oregon

Graduation date: 2013With the baby boomer cohort retiring and arguably having more time for outdoor recreation, coupled with population increases and government agencies encouraging people to recreate outdoors, areas such as state and national parks will likely continue seeing high visitation. It is imperative, therefore, for outdoor recreation managers and researchers to understand issues related to use levels such as reported encounters, perceived crowding, normative tolerances, and behavioral responses to these conditions. This thesis uses data from visitors at coastal state parks in Oregon to examine: (a) their encounters, norms, and crowding; (b) the proportion of visitors who encounter more people than their normative tolerance, and whether these individuals feel most crowded and are most supportive of direct actions for managing use levels at these parks; and (c) behavioral responses that visitors are likely to impose if their norms are violated, and whether these responses are related to the salience (i.e., importance) of encounters. Data were obtained from questionnaires completed by 9,063 visitors at nine day and 10\ud overnight state parks on the Oregon coast. Results showed that overnight visitors encountered more people and felt more crowded than day visitors, with 68% of all overnight and 46% of all day visitors feeling crowded. Compared to visitors who encountered fewer people than their normative tolerance, visitors who encountered more people than their norm felt significantly more crowded and were more supportive of strategies for restricting use levels. Day visitors would respond differently than overnight visitors if they encountered more people than they would tolerate seeing (i.e., their norm). Day visitors, for example, would be most likely to avoid peak use times or redefine their experience, whereas overnight visitors would be most likely to express their opinions to those close to them (e.g., friends, family, members of their group). Visitors who indicated that encounters were salient (i.e., important) would be more likely to engage in these behavioral responses than those who did not consider encounters to be salient. These findings also differed among some of the state parks sampled. This thesis contains two standalone articles discussing these findings and their implications for management, theory, and future research