The campers’ conundrum: Examining setting’s influence on campsite choice using big data

Demand for national park campgrounds has risen at an increasing rate over the last decade (Rice et al., 2019). Additionally, camping is becoming an increasingly sought-after form of tourism accommodation (Craig, 2020). As available campsites become scarcer and booking windows increase, institutional knowledge becomes more important in locating and booking campsites further in advance (Gursoy & Chen, 2012)—thus impacting distributive justice (Shelby et al., 1989). It is thus important to understand how campers reach decisions on the selection of campsites and how attributes of 1) the campsite and 2) the surrounding recreational setting drive this demand. Using campsite reservation data from Zion National Park, we address the following research questions: R1: What aspects of the setting are most influential on campsite demand? R2: How can allocation of campsites be improved to support the distributive justice of camping resources