An Exploration of Recreational Crowding on Texas Inland Waterways

Abstract

Perceived crowding is an important issue influencing recreationists' satisfaction with their nature-based leisure experiences. Past work, however, has consistently revealed that crowding accounts for a conspicuously low level of variation in satisfaction. Central to the concerns are intervening factors between perceived crowding and satisfaction, the mechanisms by which recreationists employ to cope with perceived crowding, and other drivers of the crowding- satisfaction relationship.

Given this, I explored two questions related to recreationists’ perceptions of crowding within the context of boating in central Texas. First, what are some additional crowding-related factors that contribute to recreationists’ satisfaction with their experiences? My findings revealed that expectations of encounters with other boaters contributed a large portion to the variance in satisfaction. Second, how does recreationists’ attachment to the resource influence their choice of coping strategy in response to perceived crowding? In an effort to answer this question, I investigated the moderating role of place attachment in recreationists’ selection of coping mechanisms in response to perceived crowding. I found that for respondents who had a higher level of place attachment, the likelihood of adopting temporal substitution, direct action, or activity substitution was higher than for respondents who have lower place attachment.