Leisure Studies Commons^™

Manager And Visitor Perceptions Of Public Recreation Land Management, Rick Gage

National Environment and Recreation Research Symposium

This paper presents the results of semi-structured interviews with key informants representing both users and managers of a public recreation area in West Virginia investigating perceptions of visitor and manager goals and objectives, and their relationship to user-manager recreation conflict. Preliminary analysis indicates that management goals are not as diverse as expected and there seems to be a much stronger emphasis on development and visitor satisfaction than protection of natural resources. Further, it appears to be the case that both visitors and managers experience and can identify user-manager conflict at this recreation area. Results of these interviews will be used …