Preferences of Tourists for the Service Quality of Taichung Calligraphy Greenway in Taiwan

Confirmative biophilic framework for heritage management

Heritage managers often reuse heritage sites to attract tourists and conserve the sites. Not all adaptive heritage reuses achieve sustainable development. Biophilia is an innate, biological tendency to be close to natural and cultural elements, which may be a critical motivation for achieving sustainable heritage management. Past studies used qualitative and quantitative methods to extract participants’ pull and push motivations toward heritage tourism and captured the six motivations of the biophilia framework that should be confirmed: heritage architecture; art activity; wide nature; regional attraction; recreational benefits; and long-term values. The purpose of this study was to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis to test the biophilia framework for understanding biophilic heritage tourism. A questionnaire with 18 items of heritage tourism motivation was used to explore the purpose of this study. A total of 193 valid questionnaires were obtained. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the six motivations of the biophilia framework. The results indicated that heritage tourism motivation consisted of a second-order six-factor structure with high validity and reliability. These six dimensions reflected the biophilic requirements and provided a biophilic planning principle to achieve sustainable heritage management to satisfy the needs of the participants.

Addressing Gender Inequities in Forest Science and Research

Forest research and professional workforces continue to be dominated by men, particularly at senior and management levels. In this review, we identify some of the historical and ongoing barriers to improved gender inclusion and suggest some solutions. We showcase a selection of women in forestry from different disciplines and parts of the globe to highlight a range of research being conducted by women in forests. Boosting gender equity in forest disciplines requires a variety of approaches across local, regional and global scales. It is also important to include intersectional analyses when identifying barriers for women in forestry, but enhanced equity, diversity and inclusion will improve outcomes for forest ecosystems and social values of forests, with potential additional economic benefits.

Drivers and Frequency of Forest Visits: Results of a National Survey in the Czech Republic

The general objective of the study was to assess the main drivers for visiting the forest and the frequency of the visits in the Czech Republic. A nationwide collection of data of the sociological research as part of The Market & Media & Lifestyle Research Project was carried out every year in the Czech Republic under the licensed cooperation with Kantar Media. The project is unique by the large scope of the questions in the questionnaires and by the high number of respondents. A total of 8794 Czech inhabitants aged 12 years and above from all the regions were involved in the survey in 2018. Information about the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of all the respondents were obtained. In the closed questions, the respondents reported the frequency of the forest visits and its drivers. The main driver for visiting the forest was just to go for a walk or just to enjoy the outdoors, especially during their holidays or weekends, amounting to 79% of the inhabitants. Meditation and relaxation as well as sport in the forest, were also considered as important motives for forest recreation. On the contrary, 95% of the visitors did not practice game hunting, although game has a long tradition in the Czech Republic. Improvement on managing the forest for recreation should focus on participatory forest management to find a consensus between the public and forest stakeholders. Common decisions may help set up forest recreational goals with positive impacts on forest ecosystem services.

Is Biodiversity a Relevant Attribute for Assessing Natural Parks? Evidence from Cornalvo Natural Park in Spain

The economic valuation of goods that do not have a market, like services offered by natural parks, provide a lot of information for the purpose of policy making on the conservation and protection of the natural environment, as well as for establishing park use strategies for potential park visitors. In this respect, this paper aims to analyse visitor preferences for Cornalvo Natural Park, which has been classed, since 1992, as a Site of Community Importance. To do this, we conducted an analysis adopting the choice experiment methodology to determine visitor preferences for a set of attributes. Additionally, we included a visitor preference heterogeneity analysis based on a mixed logit model in order to calculate individual willingness to pay with respect to a set of previously specified attributes. Finally, we also implemented the latent class methodology to define groups of individuals with similar characteristics. The information was gathered from visitor surveys conducted during 2019. The main results show that tourists had a high preference and willingness to pay for higher biodiversity levels and lower numbers of visitors, whereas the other attributes were less relevant. Additionally, we detected some degree of heterogeneity in willingness to pay by sex, age and income. Finally, Latent class analysis identified two visitor classes, determined primarily by age and income.

A Virtual-Reality and Soundscape-Based Approach for Assessment and Management of Cultural Ecosystem Services in Urban Forest

The work develops an analysis based on integrated perception of landscape and soundscape in urban forests (UF) to classify recreational suitability at spatial level. Scientific literature stresses a lack of decision support systems allowing for management of cultural ecosystem services in UF. An innovative approach grounded on landscape and soundscape’s individual perceptions are implemented to cope with this need. Geographic Information System, virtual reality and psychoacoustic parameters are merged to allow for an improved elicitation of willingness to visit UF. Geostatistical methods and the use of the Street View application enable for spatialization of output. The test area is located in an urban park of the city of Florence (Italy). Results stress the importance of logistics and tree variables (e.g., density) to assess the cultural service in the case of visual perception. Natural and people-related sounds as well as aural loudness seem to be significant for integrated perception, in addition to visual parameters. The open-source approach applied in the research can simplify replication to other case studies and the updating of the output. Future improvement and integration of the work for UF recreational planning are suggested.