Sustainability Of Urban Outdoor Recreation : How multiculturalism is changing park and forest recreation in America's cities

The ethnic population in the U.S. continues to increase in cities and urban areas. For meeting public needs and building healthy urban parks and recreation services, the perceptions, values and needs of our nation's growing multicultural, diverse ethnic minority populations with respect to urban parks and forests and their management need in-depth assessment. Existing research on how ethnic and sociocultural background affects recreational experiences is inadequate. This knowledge gap hinders a recreation manager's ability to provide a high quality recreation experience for visitors. This study examined differences in outdoor recreation preferences and participation patterns both across and within selected population subgroups, i.e., Hispanic/Latino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, African American, and Anglo or White groups. More specifically, this study explored: a) inter-ethnic variations in outdoor recreation characteristics (patterns, activity participation, and preferences) across various population subgroups and b) the influence of acculturation on intra-ethnic variability in outdoor recreation characteristics (patterns, activity participation, and preferences).