Family Recreation: A Study of Visitors Who Travel with Children

Family recreation has been recognized as an effective vehicle in the provision of family customs and promotion of healthy youth development. In particular, outdoor-based recreation with its inherent challenges often offers opportunities for a family to grow together and maintain cohesive-ness. Building on antecedent research, this study attempts to explore factors associated with the motivation for the outdoor-based family recreation participation. Further, the preference of activity involvement between visitors who travel with at least one child versus visitors without youth was also examined. A total 1282 surveys were administrated and analyzed. The results indicate that visitors who travel with a child are significantly different from those who travel without youth in their motivations and activity preferences. Research limitations and implications are also discussed.