Increased pressure to allow more recreational activities in peri-urban national parks may impact local communities. We surveyed residents living in local communities near six peri-urban national parks (IUCN Category II) in Queensland, Australia. We assessed their sense of place, their perceptions of different types of visitors’ activities, and interactions between attitudes and perceptions. Most respondents, including national park users and non-users, perceived non-motorised recreational activities as appropriate but perceived motorised activities negatively. Overall, negative perceptions were related to a respondent's sense of place. Respondents with a stronger sense of place had more positive perceptions of non-motorised activities but more negative perceptions of motorised activities than respondents reporting a weaker sense of place. Results suggest that people identifying with their local national park may have a small ‘latitude of acceptance’ for motorised activities. We found limited displacement due to recreational conflicts; most respondents still visited these parks. The methods used here, if applied to other peri-urban national parks, could help determine a local community's recreational activity thresholds, offering park managers a way to potentially diminish conflict and enhance visitors’ experiences.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	park non-users, community perceptions, sense of place, conflict, local visitors, social judgement theory
Research Division:	Environmental Sciences
Research Group:	Climate change impacts and adaptation
Research Field:	Climate change impacts and adaptation not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Commercial Services and Tourism
Objective Group:	Tourism services
Objective Field:	Tourism services not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Byrne, JA (Professor Jason Byrne)
ID Code:	123944
Year Published:	2016
Web of Science® Times Cited:	13
Deposited By:	Geography and Spatial Science
Deposited On:	2018-02-02
Last Modified:	2018-03-20
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