Assessing recreational values of a peri-urban nature park by synthesizing perceptions and preferences of trail users

Abstract Outdoor recreation in natural areas generally contributes to physiological and psychological restoration, but the increasing popularity of urban green spaces raises concerns for the benefits they provide. To assess trail users' preferences for recreational conditions in a peri-urban nature park, a stated preference approach in the form of the discrete choice experiment was applied, and accompanied with a best-worst scaling experiment that assessed the perception of crowding, i.e. the relative impact of recreational setting attributes on the sense of crowding. The two experiments were linked to investigate the influence of crowding perceptions on the sensitivity to crowding. Trail users' perception of ‘trail use level’, ‘hut occupancy’ and ‘noise from road traffic’ significantly influenced their sensitivity to ‘crowding on the trail’ and ‘intensity of road traffic’. Trail use and traffic noise were identified as sensitive recreational conditions, and should be given a priority when managing recreational use pressure in the park and maintaining or improving its recreational value.