Causal Factors Of Recreation

Demand explains relationship between the level of consumption and the causal factors influencing consumption (such as instance income, tastes, price and price of substitutes). Recreation (in the case of the article ‘Countryside recreation provision in England: exploring a demand-led approach’ (Curry, N. Ravenscroft, N. 2000)) is normally free at the time of consumption so as a result of no price being present to relate to consumption, no clear demand relationship can be directly established. Because of this nature of recreation, alternative means to produce stand-ins for price have been established. These alternatives include; substitutions of travel costs; questioning people about their willingness to pay entry; use of contingent valuation
Prices for conventional (typical) goods are considered to be the strongest factors of consumption. For countryside recreation, it is however suggested that the influence of price is not as strong as other factors. The price of relatively similar recreation goods influences the choice of site when travel costs are common. The price and importance of other goods, increased accessibility to leisure goods and their respective prices influence the consumption of a given type of recreation. In terms of countryside recreation, an increase in the range of general leisure presents a limit for its recreational use, because of the availability of other facilities. Since the 1970s the patterns of leisure activity has become more varied, in England, the growing volume of home ownership, was a main factor in leisure diversity and variation. This led to the nature of leisure becoming more home-based (DIY and gardening). The late 1980s and 1990s was characterized by an increase in leisure goods that were also home-based which initiated a tendency for people to use an increasing amount of leisure time and money in the more technological environment (e.g. colour televisions, video and CD players and the home computer). During this period health and fitness also became regarded as
(2) Activities are spatially diverse, ranging from those contained at particular sites (e.g. gated theme parks, or historic buildings) to the spatially extensive (e.g. rambling or leisurely rural car drives). (3) High levels of non-exclusive land uses outside a relatively small number of sites. (4) Strong presence of public goods means that individual land owners or site managers cannot impose exclusive use rights over aspects of these land uses such as views of historic townscapes, or beaches.(5) Land uses are driven by the blurred nature of much tourism and recreational activities, the changing mix of domestic and international activities, and the balance between inbound and outbound tourism. (Williams & Shaw: 2009: