Setting Preferences of High and Low Use River Recreationists: How Different are They?
Whitewater boaters often choose a river based on their preferences for attributes important for their trip experience. This study explored whether preferences and tradeoffs of whitewater boaters for social, resource, and managerial attributes of riverscapes differ among a high and a low use river in the United States by employing a stated choice approach. River trip scenarios were displayed using verbal descriptions and computer-generated photographs. Results indicate that use levels were more important for boaters on the low use river, whereas river difficulty and river access fee was of higher importance for the high use river boaters, who are more involved in this whitewater activity. Preferences for waiting times and trip length did not differ between the samples. Findings suggest that whitewater boaters of high and low use rivers have a different tradeoff behavior among river setting attributes, which has implications for river recreation management.
Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning, Department of Spatial, Landscape and Infrastructure Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria. silvia.kainzinger@boku.ac.at.|Recreation, Parks and Tourism Program, Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University, West Virginia, USA. silvia.kainzinger@boku.ac.at.
Silvia
0000-0002-7132-1296
S
Kainzinger
Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning, Department of Spatial, Landscape and Infrastructure Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria.
Arne
A
Arnberger
Recreation, Parks and Tourism Program, Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University, West Virginia, USA.
Robert C
RC
Burns
D002755:Choice Behavior; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D006801:Humans; D009922:Oregon; D010414:Pennsylvania; D011998:Recreation / Q000523:psychology; D045483:Rivers; D012767:Ships; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Boaters’ preferences; Discrete choice experiment; Low and high use setting; Tradeoffs; Whitewater use