Understanding Visitors at an Urban Park by Profiling of Destination Attributes

Jonghyun Baek, Yeeun Kim, Hyun Kim and Hwasung Song
Additional contact information
Jonghyun Baek: HEA Co., Ltd., Seoul 06725, Korea
Yeeun Kim: School of Environmental Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Korea
Hyun Kim: School of Environmental Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Korea
Hwasung Song: Department of Urban Management, Suwon Research Institute, Suwon 16829, Korea

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: A park has a variety of attributes, providing beautiful natural scenery and a place to rest as well as a cultural space in which performances and events are held. This study aimed to examine the various destination attributes that a place has, specifically, the resources of an urban park, by profiling visitors according to these destination attributes. The study setting, Gwanggyo Lake Park (GLP), is located in Suwon City and is in the limelight as an eco-friendly leisure and tourism destination in South Korea. As a result of profiling 595 visitors through an application of Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), three types of profiles were obtained: “Relaxation Leisure Seekers (RLS),” “Nature Environment Seekers (NES),” and “Ecological Experience Seekers (EES).” There were differences by type in visiting patterns, environmental propensity, distance from residence, and income. The results allow a better understanding of the various attributes of the park as an ecological tourism destination by visitor profile and profile-specific characteristics. Due to COVID-19, more people are visiting parks, which are natural outdoor spaces. This study provides implications for both theoretical and practical aspects of natural resource management in that it profiles visitors by highlighting parks as both leisure and tourism destinations.

Keywords: urban park; destination attributes; ecological tourism destination; latent profile analysis; natural resource management (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 (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/4036/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/4036/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:4036-:d:530492

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().