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Recreational activities are uniquely suited for the implementation of a positive youth development (PYD) approach, as they create space for youths’ physical, psychological, and social development. This may be especially true for vulnerable youth who face additional risk factors such as single parent homes and living in low-income communities. Momentum Bicycle Clubs (MBC), based in Greenville, South Carolina, use noncompetitive recreational bicycling as a mechanism to facilitate group mentoring opportunities for high-risk youth. MBC engage youth with their community while providing opportunities for leadership, building positive relationships, exercise, and learning new skills. This exploratory project’s purpose is to better understand the bicycle as a PYD mechanism through group mentoring by studying MBC program design, processes, and outcomes. Researchers identified three primary themes that indicated the bicycle provided youth opportunities to gain responsibility, confidence, and improved health. Sub themes provided additional context. For example, youth gained responsibility for their bikes and related equipment, as well as their individual and the group’s safety. MBC is an example of using individual specialized recreation equipment as an effective PYD mechanism that allows the program to meet more PYD desired outcomes than traditional programs. The bicycle rides differentiate the program dynamic from other PYD programs as the mentors are also group participants. This allows the mentors to share in the experience and role model behavior, which may foster stronger group identity and cohesiveness. Year-round asset intensive programs of this nature have management challenges, including sufficient resources (e.g., bicycle storage and maintenance), mentors willing to ride bicycles, as well as ensuring youth safety while riding. The resource challenges are met through extensive partnerships with government, nonprofit, and commercial agencies, which has also benefitted the program through a wider variety of mentors, adult role models, internship opportunities for the youth, and community knowledge about MBC. Safe bicycling is accomplished through extensive training, locating the clubs in areas with access to low traffic streets, and a 20-mile paved multiuse path. Lastly, since it is difficult to have meaningful conversations while riding, mentors must build in time before and after rides and at planned stops to facilitate the most meaningful mentor-mentee relationships.

In this study, we adopted the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) to examine the key determinants of leisure use of a bicycle-share program (BSP), using data from a...

A community that depends on passenger vehicles powered by fossil fuels may have a variety of environmental and societal problems. Previous research has suggested that active transportation helps to...

The transportation sector, the largest contributor to global warming, is responsible for around 75% of the tourism industry’s total CO2 emissions. Accordingly, encouragement of eco-friendly travel behavior has come to the fore as a key tourism-industry responsibility. One promising alternative transportation option, bicycle-share programs (BSPs), have developed rapidly over the past two decades, but studies of non-commuter BSP use have been limited. Moreover, the small body of BSP research that does exist has mostly applied social-cognitive models to explore individuals’ rational decision-making processes, while largely ignoring the influences of emotional and intuitive factors. This study utilized Single Target Implicit Association Tests to bridge this gap by examining the influences of individuals’ dual attitudes toward leisure use of BSPs. The results suggest that the research participants generally have favorable implicit attitudes toward both leisure-time cycling and leisure cyclists. Overall, this study points to a potentially fruitful new direction for future work.

The dramatic loss of open space in the USA over the last 50 years has led to increased conservation efforts by public, private, and non-profit entities. Amongst private landowners, conservation easements, or conditions written into a property’s title that permanently limit how it may be used, are a popular form of land protection. Private land protection is vital for both the conservation of America’s characteristic open spaces, and to ensure the future of many threatened and endangered plant and animal species. Yet little is known about the people who are placing conservation easements on their properties, the landscape features and land use practices currently being protected under conservation easements, or the ways in which these conservation patterns will continue into the future. Regardless, private land conservation efforts are shaping the American landscape; therefore, a thorough understanding of their characteristics is needed. Given that nostalgia, or an idealized and simplified notion of the past, underlies many of the motivations private landowners have for protecting their properties, this study suggests that there is a link between the type of nostalgia motivating private land protection and the types of land and land use practices being conserved. Further, the authors contend that this phenomenon is worthy of further investigation given its potential for environmental, social, and economic impact.

Coastal tourism projects are promoted in the Dominican Republic as national-level economic development initiatives that will create jobs for local residents, subsequently benefiting the households in these communities. However, the economic benefits of tourism can be severely weakened as a result of the neoliberal economic policies that guide such projects. Like other economically developing countries—particularly small island nations—the Dominican Republic embraced neoliberal policies that have ultimately reshaped the country’s economic, political, cultural, and physical landscape. As a result, transnational companies, foreign investors, and large-scale enclave tourism projects are the dominant form of tourism development in the Dominican Republic. Though companies’ revenue and profit data are not available for analysis of economic leakage, households can be investigated to understand the level of economic benefits obtained by residents of the local communities. Toward this end, 360 household surveys were collected to examine household income and material assets across 12 coastal communities in three regions of the Dominican Republic. Because of the noted differences in previous development literature, gender of the head of households and whether the household was dependent on income from tourism employment were compared across these measures after adjusting for regional differences. Results indicate that the gender of the head of the household and tourism dependency positively predicted household income, while only gender of the head of the household predicted material assets.

The purpose of this study is to explore the ways in which the employment of women in the tourism industry has challenged or reinforced the traditional machismo–marianismo gender ideology in the Dominican Republic. Semi-structured individual, coupled, and group interviews were conducted in 12 coastal communities to investigate residents’ perceptions about gender ideology as it intersects with the employment of women in tourism. The findings reveal tourism employment as a source of opportunity, with women gaining economic and social independence, but also conflict as women and men negotiate new gender roles and identities. Emphasizing issues such as the double workload, negotiating domestic tasks with partners, and tension resulting from employment, this study illuminates the pressing practical needs of Dominican women.

Multiuse trail development has experienced rapid growth in the United States and many other countries. These trails are said to benefit local residents and stimulate economies, and in some cases are they are tourist attractions. Previous research explained many aspects of user dynamics and how trails benefit a community in general, but literature on the residents and property owners adjacent to trails is limited. However, this group is potentially affected more than other residents by trail development due to their proximity to the trail. Therefore, this exploratory case study focused on the benefits and concerns of those living and owning property adjacent to a trail. Many benefits commonly reported by general trail users were experienced by this study’s sample; however, the additional benefits of convenience and access, scenic views, and an enhanced social life were also revealed. While numerous benefits were uncovered, few concerns were voiced and often very individualistic. Differences in benefits and concerns were noted between respondents when characteristics such as trail use, land use, and time of ownership were evaluated. Findings provide constructive information for trail planners, managers, land developers, residential real estate professionals, and urban/rural-focused researchers.

The purpose of the study was to understand what motivated people with mobility impairments to travel frequently. Two focus groups were conducted and results were analyzed in light of Crompton’s (1979) push/pull conceptual framework exploring pleasure travel motivation. Results showed that although travelers with acquired mobility impairments shared many similar motives with travelers not identified as having mobility impairments, they also had unique motivations including “Independence”, “The Desire of Being in a Natural Environment”, “Adventure/Risk”, “Do It Today”, and “Accessibility.” Findings and limitations of the study are discussed and implications of the results are suggested.

Tourism impacts studies have identified three major types of positive-negative tourism impacts that dynamically change residents’ life experiences and their evaluation of tourism development. This study examines three specific impacts, perceived social costs, environmental sustainability, and perceived economic benefit, to determine their effects on resident perceived quality of life. The results indicate that the social cost dimension has no significant effect on resident quality of life, however both environmental sustainability and perceived economic benefit dimensions significantly affect resident quality of life.

This project examined the Sustainable Tourism Attitude Scale (SUS-TAS), which measures residents’ attitudes toward sustainable tourism. This study has two major purposes: (1) to reassess reliability and construct validity of the 44-item SUS-TAS using confirmatory factor analysis and (2) to identify a shorter version of the SUS-TAS that would not compromise the scale’s psychometric properties. To accomplish these purposes, an empirical study was conducted in rural Orange County, Indiana. Findings support a seven-dimension SUS-TAS model using 27 items that maintained construct validity and internal consistency.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of a downtown festival’s attributes (programs, amenities and entertainment quality) on visitors’ overall experience, their levels of satisfaction and intentions to return. A theoretical model depicting the relationships among festival attributes, experience quality, overall satisfaction and revisit intention was examined using path analysis. The fi nal model suggests entertainment quality of the festival had the strongest impact on visitors’ overall experience at the festival, their satisfaction and intentions to return. All three festival attribute categories studied had direct impacts on visitors’ overall experience, but only entertainment quality directly contributed to visitor satisfaction and re-visit intention. Implications and limitations of the study were also discussed.