Marjo Neuvonen

Recreational Home Users – Potential Clients for Countryside Tourism?

Today, almost half of the Finnish population has regular access to a recreational home in a rural area. As recurrent visitors, recreational home users create the potential for rural development. This study uses population survey data to approach recreational home use from the perspective of a way‐of‐life and lifestyle framework. The results demonstrate that Finnish recreational home users are more likely to be city‐dwellers and highly educated and to be employed in clerical and administrative positions. Older people who use a recreational home tend to spend more time there than users in other age categories. Recreation activity choices that reflect a more general lifestyle were analyzed in order to obtain a picture of the recreational home users as potential consumers of recreation services. Active recreational home users appear to differ distinctively from occasional users in terms of their patterns of participation in outdoor activities. Motivated by a desire for self‐sufficiency, active users participate more often in traditional rural recreational activities, such as fishing and berry and mushroom picking, than less active users. Occasional users are more likely to participate in sports‐oriented activities and spend more money on recreational home trips than active users. This family‐oriented group thus shows the greatest potential to use commercial recreation services.

Recreational Wild Berry Picking in Finland—Reflection of a Rural Lifestyle

ABSTRACT Picking wild berries, which has long been the most popular consumptive outdoor recreation activity in the Nordic countries, has shown indications of declining. In Finland, over half of the population still participates in berry picking, and picking wild berries is generally considered to have cultural and economic importance. Recreational berry picking is based on the Nordic everymans right, which is the right of open access to all forests for purposes such as picking wild berries and mushrooms, regardless of land ownership. Using logistic regression and negative binomial regression models, this study analyzes those characteristics of a representative Finnish sample that affect not only berry picking in general but also frequency of berry picking. The results of this analysis indicate that the activity of picking wild berries is linked to a rural lifestyle, particularly to the lifestyle of older generations and the use of summer cottage.

Visits to national parks and the provision of natural and man-made recreation and tourism resources

Understanding the relationship between national park characteristics and the number of visits is crucial for the planning and management of parks. Visitation, the number of visits to the park, has a key role to play in assessing the social and economic impacts of new and existing parks. This study examines how the natural characteristics of a national park, the recreation services inside it and tourism services in the surrounding communities are related to the number of visits. Parks are classified according to these three dimensions and the numbers of visitors are compared within the three types. 35 national parks in Finland form the data of the study. The results indicate that the number of visits is associated with the main nature type, implying a continuum from the highest numbers visiting mountainous (i.e. fell) parks to the lowest visiting mire parks. A high number of visits is associated with a good provision of both recreational facilities inside and tourism services outside it. In water-based parks, in particular, the effect of services on park visits is considerable.

Scenic Impacts of Retention Trees in Clear-cutting Areas

The aim of this study was to examine the ways in which the volume, physical appearance and location of retention trees affect the scenic quality of clear-cutting areas. A total of 373 respondents rated 40 digitally edited images. If only a few retention trees remained in the cutting area, they did not seem to affect the ratings, but when 3 m3 ha−1 was retained the scenic quality of the clear-cutting area improved. The better the condition of the retention trees, the more they were appreciated. Retention trees in a poor condition did not enhance the scenic quality of clear-cutting areas. Mature retention trees were found to be more attractive than undergrowth. Even undergrowth was preferred to clear-cutting areas without any trees. Respondents also preferred retention trees standing alone to trees in groups. Forest owners provided higher overall preference scores than visitors. The scenic quality of clear-cutting areas can be substantially improved if there remains an adequate volume of mature retention trees that are in good condition.

Participation in Cross-country Skiing in Finland under Climate Change: Application of Multiple Hierarchy Stratification Perspective

Abstract In Finland, cross-country skiing is part of the cultural heritage and an important leisure activity. However, its future is uncertain as, according to climate scenarios, southern Finland will be on the boundary of the winter snow cover. Behavioral responses to change raise the question of who will give up skiing and who will be able to continue the activity in a changed climate. In analyzing skiing participation and frequency, this study extends the multiple hierarchy stratification perspective (MHSP) by showing that the socio-demographic variables gender, age, socioeconomic status and living environment have an interaction effect. The results also indicate that female gender, a lower socioeconomic status and an urban living environment are associated with a higher sensitivity to climate change.

Intention to Revisit a National Park and Its Vicinity: Effect of Place Attachment and Quality Perceptions

The purpose of this study was to examine how the perceived quality of recreation services, with the intervening factors of place attachment, explain the future intention to revisit a national park region. Furthermore, we analyzed how social bonds with an area relate to place attachment and revisit intention. A case study on Seitseminen, Linnansaari, and Repovesi National Parks in Southern Finland provided empirical data on the interaction of park visitors with the park and surrounding rural area. Using onsite visitor sampling, a mail questionnaire was completed by 736 park visitors. The results showed that social networks, such as relatives or a recreational home in the region, were positively associated with place attachment and visit intention. A structural equation model revealed a positive interaction between the perceived quality of services, the recreation environment, hospitality, and place attachment. Those who were more satisfied with the services, recreation environment, and hospitality were more attached to the region. Among park visitors, perceptions of a high quality of both services and recreational environment correlated positively with attachment to the park and the region. A positive place attachment also increased the intention of respondents to revisit the region in the future.

Visits to national parks and hiking areas: a panel data analysis of their socio-demographic, economic and site quality determinants

This study examines the impacts of socio-demographic, economic and park quality determinants on visits to nature areas. The authors apply panel data estimation techniques to Finnish data on 46 national parks and hiking areas between 2000 and 2008. The main results show that ‘visits to nature areas’, as a variable, reacts positively to the population size and quality features but negatively to gasoline prices and income level. Of the age classes, the population share of ‘young retirees’ – people aged between 65 and 74 – increased the number of visits to nature areas significantly, whereas the share of ‘baby boomers’ – people aged between 55 and 64 – was insignificant in explaining the number of visits. As the baby boomers are reaching retirement age, and assuming that their generation behaves like the young retirees in this study, the demand for national parks and hiking areas may increase substantially in the coming years. This will increase the pressure to expand current parks and establish new ones.

Indicators of climate change vulnerability for winter recreation activities: a case of cross-country skiing in Finland

ABSTRACT Climate change will have adverse effects on snow-based winter tourism and recreation in Finland. Social impacts are expected, including reduced well-being and an erosion of the cross-country skiing tradition, as well as economic impacts in tourism regions brought about by a decrease in skiing participation. Little research has been carried out to develop and refine the quantitative measures of vulnerability in this sector. We developed an index to measure the vulnerability of cross-country skiing based on climatic observations together with extensive survey data on skiers living in climatically different regions. The composite indicators exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity described each dimension of vulnerability separately, and as an overall vulnerability index. The developed index illustrated that the vulnerability of cross-country skiers exhibits regional variations, as expected, with skiers in Southern Finland appearing to be the most vulnerable to climate change.