|
|
|
| A STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN RECREATION SPECIALIZATION AND PLACE ATTACHMENT FOR GREAT WALL CLIMBERS |
| ZHAO Hong-jie1, WU Bi-hu1,2 |
1. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
2. The Center for Recreation and Tourism Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China |
|
|
|
|
Abstract Climbing Great Wall is one of the desirous recreation activities for Chinese and international tourists. Great Wall climbers will be able to experience the joy of climbing activities besides appreciating the profound historical and cultural background carried by Great Wall. The study aims of this paper were through empirical analysis to determine Badaling Great Wall climbers,recreation specialization types, estimate the levels of recreation specialization among Badaling Great Wall climbers and their place attachment to Badaling Great Wall and then analyse the significant association relationship between recreation specialization and place attachment. The study samples were climbers who climb Badaling Great Wall, not including non-oversea Chinese foreigners. The sample survey locations were three parking lots of Badaling Great Wall scenic spot, and the total valid questionnaires was 528. The result of questionnaire survey were analysed by using reliability analysis to test the consistency among all scales, using validity analysis to test the discriminatory power of each questionnaire items. The study results indicated that Badaling Great Wall climbers could be divided into five types of recreation specialization:profession-involvement, cognition-skill, affection-attachment, hobby-threshold and temporary-random. In addition, the study result presented that, for Badaling Great Wall climbers, the higher level of recreation behavior specialization, the lower level of place attachment; on the contrary, the higher level of recreation affection attachment, the higher level of place attachment. According to the study conclusions, the author suggest that the mangers or related authorities of Badaling Great Wall scenic spot could segment their target tourist market, plan a variety of Great Wall tourism products and make some feasible measures of tourism market management and effective utilization of resources on the basis of the different types of recreation specialization and the level of place attachment found among Badaling Great Wall climbers in order to creat a better environment that meet the different demands on leisure and recreation experience of targeted tourists.
|
|
Received: 08 September 2011
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2012, Vol. 27 
