A Study on the Motivations and Attractions of Visiting Bowling Green’s City Park

Community Parks have been recognized as a great asset to serve local residents for their health promotion, recreation participation, family and friend socialization and quality of life improvement. The municipal park at Bowling Green, Ohio has such capacity to provide a variety of opportunities for the local community to engage in family oriented recreational activities. Activities/venues include golf, horseshoe, swimming pool, outdoor park equipment, skate-park, gazebos, basketball, baseball/softball and plenty of yard space for desired lawn games. This study intends to investigate what the factors are that serve as the key motivations and attractions that draw individuals who are over the age of eighteen to Bowling Green’s City Park. Nearly 100 interview questionnaires were distributed in March of 2017. Interviewees were asked to identify their motivation to visit the park and primary activities they participated in while at the City Park. Through data analysis, the study found that many individuals visit the park for the purpose of spending time with their family (family cohesiveness), clearing their mind (relaxation) and body of stressors (enhanced health), and to provide their children with activities and space to run around freely (fun-seeking) and to be exposed to outdoor recreation away from the television and video games. At the end, research implications and limitations were discussed as well