A More Sustainable Management of Domestic Tourists in Protected Natural Parks: A New Trend in Sport Tourism after the Covid-19 Pandemic?

Anne-Marie Lebrun, Che-Jen Su and Patrick Bouchet
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Anne-Marie Lebrun: Sport Faculty, University of Burgundy-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (UBFC), CEDEX 01, BP 27877, 21078 Dijon, France
Che-Jen Su: Department of Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City 242062, Taiwan
Patrick Bouchet: Sport Faculty, University of Burgundy-Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (UBFC), CEDEX 01, BP 27877, 21078 Dijon, France

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-21

Abstract: One of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis has been the development of proximity tourism in outdoor spaces being less conducive to the spread of the virus. From a study preceding this pandemic, this article seeks to better understand the experiences lived by domestic tourists from when they visited two typical protected natural parks as specific experiential contexts (extraordinary versus ordinary) providing different experiences. Each experiential context enables the distinction of actual visitors’ experiences inside each park—education, esthetics, entertainment, escapism, physical activity—differentiated, on one hand by the visitors’ participation axis and, on the other hand, by the absorption-immersion axis influencing the visitors’ arousal and memory. A structural equation model tested the data collected (n = 1000) in both experiential contexts and shows their moderator effect. The results underline the link between the experiential context and the actual experiences and highlight the interest of a new global framework including the visitors’ participation and a bodily axis relative to the specific context. This research could help managers of protected natural parks adjust their domestic tourists’ experience offer during pandemic crises by implementing specific sustainable and sanitary strategies.

Keywords: protected natural park; experiential context; domestic tourists’ experience; physical activity; sustainable tourism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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